Equity risk premiums are a central component of every risk and return model in finance and are a key input into estimating costs of equity and capital in both corporate finance and valuation. Given their importance, it is surprising how haphazard the estimation of equity risk premiums remains in...

Valuing banks, insurance companies, and investment banks has always been a daunting exercise, but the rolling market crises of the last few years have made a difficult job even more so. There are two key measurement problems that you face in valuing financial services firms. The first is that...

The growth of financial markets in Asia and Latin America and the allure of globalization have made the analysis and assessment of country risk a critical component of valuation in recent years. In this paper, we consider two issues. The first is the whether country risk should be considered...

The “going public” process is under strain, as the characteristics of companies going public, and the investor base investing in those companies’ IPOs, has changed. In addition to companies going public with more unformed business models, many of these companies market themselves to...

This paper presents a detailed anatomy of the nearly sevenfold run-up in the price of Tesla stock between March 22, 2013 and February 26, 2014 with the goal of attempting to determine the role played by investor sentiment. Tesla offers a unique opportunity in this context because the run-up was...

For much of the last century, value investors considered themselves to be the winners in the investment world, a result they attributed to their patience, maturity and good sense. That view, at least on the surface, was backed up by evidence that “value” stocks, defined as stocks that trade...

In the last decade, companies have come under pressure to be socially conscious and environmentally responsible, with the pressure coming sometimes from politicians, regulators and interest groups, and sometimes from investors. The argument that corporate managers should replace their singular...

This paper deals with the evolving scenario in the Korean peninsula in the wake of the Summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, 2018. The paper surveys the core foreign policy concerns of USA and North Korea on Korean Peninsula affairs, profiles the principal players...

This paper deals with the complexities of crude oil geopolitics in the wake of recent escalating tensions between OPEC led by Saudi Arabia and OPEC plus members led by Russia. The paper traces the story of the Syrianic Dreams of global super powers in the Middle East and in the surrounds of the...