Credit rating agencies do not only disclose simple ratings but announce watchlists (rating reviews) and outlooks as well. This paper analyzes the economic function underlying the review procedure. Using Moody's rating data between 1982 and 2004, we find that for borrowers of high...

Financial innovation has increased opportunities for diversification and lowered investment costs, but has not reduced the relative cost of active (informed) investment strategies compared with passive (less informed) strategies. What are the consequences? I have studied an economy with linear...

Based on an extensive sample of U.S. closed-end funds undergoing open-ending, we examine the behavior of discounts prior to the announcement till open-ending. Discounts are significantly reduced upon announcement of open-ending with price increase. Announcement period return is directly related...

This paper demonstrates the impact of the observed financial market persistence or long term memory on European option valuation by simple simulation. Many empirical researchers have observed the non-Fickian degrees of persistence or long memory in the financial markets different from the...

This paper analyzes optimal incentive compatible debt contracts when lenders are risk averse. The decisive factor in this regard is that risk aversion requiresto consider further sources of risk the lenders are exposed to. The main resultsderived in a setting of asymmetric information – the...

The growing interest in management of credit risk and estimation ofdefault probabilities has given rise to a range of more or lesselaborate credit risk models. Hall and Miles (1990) suggests an approachof estimating failure probabilities based solely on stock market prices.The approach has the...

The book proposes an original contribution to the economics and finance literature by developing the foundations of corporate finance. It also covers in detail various corporate governance issues faced by organizations. The common treatment of corporate finance and corporate governance started...

A firm's termination generates bankruptcy costs. This may create incentives for a firm's owner to bail out a firm in bankruptcy and to curb the firm's risk taking outside bankruptcy. We analyze the role of such implicit guarantees in the context of financial institutions that sponsor money...

This paper examines the role played by rating agencies in increasing market discipline for banks and other financial intermediaries. Using a standard event study methodology applied on a sample of European banks we first analyse the impact of rating changes on bank stock prices. Tests for the...

This paper asks whether the stocks of bankrupt firms are correctly priced, and explores who trades the stocks of these firms, and why. Our sample consists of firms that enter into Chapter 11 and remain listed on the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ post-filing. We show that these stocks are heavily traded...