We examine how organizational structure affects corporate payout policies. Conglomerates (multi-segment firms) pay out more than pure plays (single-segment firms) in both cash dividends and total payouts (defined as cash dividends plus share repurchases). Further, corporate payouts increase as...

We develop a theory of new project financing and equity carve-outs under heterogeneous beliefs among investors in the equity market. We consider a setting where an employee of a firm generates an idea for a new project that can be financed either by issuing equity against the future cash flows...

This paper unveils the rationality behind the widely criticized practice of consensus-beating, where companies try to report quarterly earnings equal to or slightly exceeding analysts expectations. In a simple theoretical model we show that a high-growth company can use active earnings guidance...

We empirically analyze the rationale for adopting anti-takeover provisions (ATPs) by examining how ATPs affect corporate spin-offs. We find that firms protected by more ATPs before spin-offs have higher abnormal announcement returns and greater improvement in post-spin-off operating performance...

We find that the well-documented positive relation between institutional ownership and future equity returns comes almost entirely from independent institutional trading (i.e., change in equity ownership by independent institutions). Not only does independent institutional trading predict future...

We document that acquiring firms are more likely than non-acquiring firms to split their stocks before making acquisition announcements, especially when acquisitions are financed by stock and when the deals are large. Our findings support the hypothesis that some acquiring firms use stock splits...