Publicly-traded debt securities differ on a number of dimensions, including quality, maturity, seniority, security, and convertibility. Finance research has provided a number of theories as to why firms should issue debt with different features; yet, there is very little empirical work testing...

This paper examines the impact of expected skewness on IPO underpricing based on a comprehensive set of 17,051 IPOs from 23 countries between 1990 and 2013. We find that IPOs with high expected skewness have significantly higher first-day return around the world, confirming the previous results...

We estimate term structures of default probabilities for private firms using data consisting of 1,759 default events from 29,894 firms between 1999 and 2014. Each firm's default likelihood is characterized by a forward intensity model employing macro risk factors and firm-specific attributes. As...

This paper develops and implements a new test to investigate whether sell-side analysts herd around the consensus when they make stock recommendations. Our empirical results support the herding hypothesis. Stock price reactions following recommendation revisions are stronger when the new...

This paper considers the question of whether raising capital is an important reason why firms go public. Using a sample of 16,958 initial public offerings from 38 countries between 1990 and 2003, we consider differences between firms that sell new, primary shares to the public, and existing...

We examine how bribes may affect corporate performance using a quasi-natural experiment. Specifically, we exploit the 2016 enactment of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act in Korea which limits provision of gifts and entertainment to public sector employees as an exogenous shock to bribery...

We examine stock return comovement within business groups in Korea. Based on all publicly traded stocks from 1980 to 2009, we document that stocks of companies belonging to the same business group co-move with each other more than do stocks in the same industry. The within-group correlation in...

We study whether corporate cash holdings are optimal or excessive by exploiting a Korean tax reform that imposes a new tax on earnings not paid out to shareholders or reinvested. Firms treated by the reform reduce cash savings, and market participants react favorably. Increases in value are...

This paper documents that median holding period in structured products based on market index is less than a day from initial purchase to liquidation even for retail investors. Less than 6% of all series ever traded by retail investors are held until maturity. More importantly, buy-and-hold...

This paper documents how the net profit margin of private firms improves when the CEOs of the companies relocate their primary residence to be closer to the corporate headquarters. By reviewing 127 Korean non-public companies belonging to 66 private business groups, we find that the top managers...