A negative relationship between contemporaneous stock market movements and Kerry's probability of getting elected has been documented. This raises a critical question. Does this relationship mean stock markets react negatively to Kerry's prospects, or that Kerry's prospects improve whenever the...

By modeling tender offers as auctions in which bidders arrive sequentially, I show that the first bidder includes a high premium in its opening bid in an attempt to freeze out potential competitors. When expected competition goes up, the premium offered increases as does target shareholder...

In this paper, we provide evidence concerning the extent to which managers are to blame when their firms become bankrupt. We study a sample of firms that end up in severe financial distress to determine the actions taken by firms' managers as their financial positions worsen. We compare the...

In this paper I identify optimal incentive contracts for managers of firms competing in the product market. Such firms often confront similar decisions and uncertainties. Managers can improve decision quality by generating private signals through costly effort. However, since signals are likely...

We posit that screening IPOs requires specialized labor which is in fixed supply. A sudden increase in demand for IPO financing increases the compensation of IPO screening labor. This results in reduced screening, encouraging sub-marginal firms to enter the IPO market, further fueling the demand...

Firms invert either through a pure inversion strategy or by merging with a foreign entity. We document that the impact of corporate inversions on the cost of equity is significantly different between the two strategies. We find that pure inversions increase the cost of equity by 10%, whereas...

This paper examines the impact of competition on the investment behavior and outcomes of venture capital (VC) firms with differing reputations. Following the introduction of investor tax credit programs that increase competition, reputable VCs decrease the number and size of their investments....

We study competition for startups among VCs with heterogeneous skill. VCs with established skill face two impediments. First, less established VCs compete aggressively for new startups in order to establish a reputation. Second, startups also value reliability in their VCs, which imposes a...

This paper studies how the stock market perceives and prices cyber risk. To estimate the ex-ante likelihood that a firm will experience a cyber attack, we apply cross-validated logistic LASSO regressions to a set of firm and industry characteristics along with an estimate of a firm's...

In this paper, we attribute a resource allocation role to stock prices. When informed investors possess private information important to a firm's investment decision, they need to transmit it to the firm manager. A natural way to achieve this is by trading in a way that allows the manager to...