We examine whether regulatory uncertainty encourages firms to delay capital investment decisions. The case of electricity market deregulation in the U.S is unique because the period of regulatory uncertainty is long-lived and there are data available on planned future investments. These...

This study examines the cross-sectional impact of the 2008 short sale ban on the returns of U.S. financial stocks. Motivated by the large cross-sectional variation in the extent to which banned stocks suffer an illiquidity shock, we hypothesize that stocks with larger liquidity declines are...

Numerous studies have documented the existence of nonlinearity within various financial time series. But how important of a finding is this? This dissertation examines this issue from a number of perspectives. First, is the nonlinearity that has been found a statistical anomaly that is isolated...

Some firms allow their CEO to hold the position of Chair of the Board of Directors while other firms choose to split those two positions between two different individuals. This dissertation first examines whether agency control mechanisms, agency problems, and other firm characteristics are...

The Nonlinear Behavior of Stock Prices:The Impact of Firm Size, Seasonality, and Trading FrequencyDebra Ann Skaradzinski(ABSTRACT)Statistically significant prediction of stock price changes requires security returns correlation with, or dependence upon, some variable(s) across time. Since a...

This dissertation examines two different topics relatedto the issuance of a convertible debt security. The firstessay addresses the question of how managers set theequity value in a convertible debt issue. A convertibledebt security has value derived from an equitycomponent and a debt component....