This paper examines the effects of competing measures of earnings surprises on the value of insurance firms for a sample of 105 Life-Health insurers and 109 Property-Casualty insurers during the 1998-2007 period. Using the surprise portfolio approach, we find that investors in insurance stocks...

We examine new firms created in 2004 and track their business status in the following four years using the Kauffman Firm Survey data. For firms that exited the sample during the 2004-2008 period, we distinguish between voluntary firm closure in the form of merger or acquisition and compulsory...

In this paper, we examine the differences in information asymmetry and financing patterns and a generalized version of the trade-off theory across countries with different institutional environments. We find that firms in Civil law countries have higher information asymmetry, rely more on...

Most of the previous studies on the firms' debt-equity choice utilize the standard single equation Probit (or logit) model as if firms face a single dichotomous decision to issue debt or equity, but not both. In this study, we examine the factors affecting the choice between internal and...

We examine the role of venture capital backing on informational externalities generated by IPO firms. Theoretical models predict that going public firms generate positive externalities creating a spillover effect for other firms to go public. In this paper, we posit that venture backed IPOs...

The main purpose of this study is to examine the validity of putting the pecking order and trade-off theories of capital structure in a horse race. Our empirical models, which allow the financing coefficient and the rate of adjustment to vary with the firms' characteristics, provide evidence...

This paper investigates the question of market efficiency in a sample of thirty-four emerging markets with different legal systems. We use both dollar and local currency returns to examine whether exchange rate effects can improve our understanding of the information flows in these capital...

We analyze the impact of firm's asset uniqueness and its growth opportunities on the leasing decisions of U.S. startups. To test our hypotheses, we use a unique dataset provided by the Kauffman Foundation. Our results show that startups in the high-technology sector have a lower propensity to...

In this article, we examine how startup firms finance their operations over time. We empirically test the financial growth cycle theory developed by Berger and Udell (1998) using the Kauffman Firm Survey data, the largest longitudinal data set comprised of all U.S. startups launched in 2004....

We analyze a private firm's likelihood of exiting through a merger or acquisition. To test our hypotheses we use the confidential version of the Kauffman Firm Survey data, the largest longitudinal dataset of newly formed businesses in the United States. Our results show that firms with R&D...