The empirical implications of the trade-off theory, the market timing theory, and Welch's (2003) theory of capital structure are examined using aggregate US data for 1952 to 2000. There is a long-run leverage ratio to which the system reverts. Deviations from that ratio help to predict debt...

It takes time to process purchases and as a result a queue of customers may form. The pricing and service rate decisions of a monopolist who must take this into account are characterized. We find that an increase in the average number of customers arriving in the market either has no effect on...

This paper is a study of the financing actions by firms to adjust leverage: debt reductions, stock sales, debt issues, and stock purchases. Each type of action is positively autocorrelated. The standard empirical models of corporate leverage produce leverage targets that do not correctly predict...

Do bond issuers successfully time the market? To answer this question, we compare market conditions on an issue day with conditions on days in a window around the issue day. We find that compared with windows of 21 days around issue days, bond issuers time the risk-free rate better than pure...

Using a comprehensive set of news stories, we find a stark difference in market responses to positive and negative price shocks accompanied by new information. When there is a news story about a firm, positive price shocks are followed by reversal, while negative ones result in drift. This is...

Extensive empirical research concerning the impact of taxes on corporate decisions has had trouble identifying seemingly obvious effects. Perhaps the problem is that the seemingly obvious tax predictions are not quite right. We provide an equilibrium model with both corporate and personal taxes....

Tests using American data from 1970 to 2015 support the behavioral hypothesis that firms Cater to investor whims. We show that the standard tests cannot distinguish between the behavioral interpretation, and a rational model in which the firm optimally chooses investment, equity issuance, and...

In the static trade-off theory, when profits increase, the firm should issue more debt and reduce equity to shield the profits from taxation or agency abuse. When a corporate leverage ratio is explained by firm profits, it is well-known that a negative regression coefficient is usually found....

Literally millions of messages have been posted on internet stock message boards. Financial press reports claim that these postings can move markets. We study message posting on Yahoo! Finance and Raging Bull for the firms that were in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Dow Jones Internet...