Recent media releases have placed enormous strains on the credibility of the underwriting industry. It has been alleged that underwriters in the US and UK collude and fix underwriting fees. In contrast to recent evidence on the underwriting spread in the US (Chen and Ritter, 2000), we find that...

Dividend initiations are an economically significant event that has important implications for a firm's future financial capacity. Given the market's expectation of a consistent payout, managers of IPO firms must approach the initial dividend decision cautiously. We compare the long run...

This paper examines the initial and long-run performance of 130 Australian mining IPOs issued from 1979 to 1990. The results show an average underpricing of 107.18%, significantly higher than that previously documented for industrial firms. The time lapse between prospectus registration and...

We examine the link between the accuracy of consensus analysts' dividend forecasts, earnings predictability and dividend policies of firms in 39 countries from 1995 to 2004. For firms that display stronger dividend smoothing, as modeled by Lintner (1956), there is a lower correlation between...

We examine whether hedge fund activists correct inefficient R&D investment and create long-term value at their targets. Using an endogenous growth model to estimate the efficient level of R&D investment, we find firms targeted by activists are overinvesting in R&D on average, with both the...

We examine errors in enterprise and equity valuation based on multiples of firm fundamentals. Our study, which is based on a more representative sample (including firms with losses, smaller start up firms, etc.), complements extant studies, which are based on larger, profitable firms followed by...

We examine analysts' implied expected rates of return for recent IPO firms relative to more seasoned firms. We document that analysts have relatively more optimistic expectations about recent IPO firms relative to seasoned firms, and these optimistic expectations persist, on average, for four...

Do investors price tax rebates on dividends? Since President George W. Bush's proposal to eliminate taxation of dividends at both the corporate and personal tax levels, there is a revival of interest on how dividend, corporate and personal taxes affect the pricing of equities. This study...