We quantify the impact of merger activity on productive efficiency. We develop and calibrate a dynamic industry-equilibrium model that features mergers, entry, and exit by heterogeneous firms. Mergers affect productivity directly through realized synergies, and indirectly through firms'...

A detailed treatment of aggregation and capital heterogeneity substantially improves the performance of the investment CAPM. Firm-level predicted returns are constructed from firm-level accounting variables and aggregated to the portfolio level to match with portfolio-level stock returns....

This paper proposes an explanation of merger waves based on a dynamic preemption game. A set of acquirers compete over time for scarce targets. At each point in time, an acquirer can either postpone a takeover attempt, or raid immediately. By postponing the takeover attempt, an acquirer may gain...

Prior research has found that public firm investment rates are more sensitive than private firm investment rates to new investment opportunities. We confirm these findings and offer a new explanation for this result. Public and private firm investment sensitivities differ because the types of...

We study the influence of bank insolvency on corporate restructuring in a dynamic model of bank relationship. Using a poorly developed banking technology our model shows that bank insolvency can have a positive effect on firms' incentives to restructure. Due to the technology each firm faces...

This paper studies how the presence of cross-border as opposed to domestic venture capital investors is associated with the growth of portfolio companies. For this purpose, we use a longitudinal research design and track sales, total assets and payroll expenses in 761 European technology...

We find that a firm facing higher uncertainty has a higher value of cash. This effect is attributed to the increased value of the option to wait and see as well as the aggravated financial constraints and mitigated agency conflicts

We investigate whether short-termism distorts the investment decisions of stock market listed firms. To do so, we compare the investment behavior of observably similar public and private firms using a new data source on private U.S. firms, assuming for identification that closely held private...

Being a publicly listed firm is associated with costs and benefits related to investment, financing, and payout policies. To understand how a stock market listing influences the joint decisions on these corporate policies we analyze how European public and matched private firms adjust their cash...

We study a large sample of brands that are acquired and find that new owners display an abnormal propensity to sharply increase or decrease advertising spending, with large decreases being particularly common. Increased private ownership is associated with a significant downward shift in...