This study examines the sensitivity of equity values of oil producers to changes in the uncertainty of future oil prices. We document that this sensitivity is negatively correlated with a firm's debt ratio and its production costs. These results indicate that companies that are more likely to...

This study investigates the motivations for and the wealth effects of 150 fixed price and 110 Dutch auction self-tender offers from the period 1981 to 1994. Like earlier studies, I find significantly positive abnormal returns around the announcements of the self-tender offers. However, unlike...

Using a database of more than 180,000 private companies from 2000 to 2009, we find that the benefits of holding more cash vary substantially with a firm’s size and the conditions it faces. Cash holdings matter most for small firms: when there are negative shocks to industry or macroeconomic...

We examine the conflicts of interest and the flow of information between divisions of financial institutions. Using data on analyst recommendations and stockholdings of investment banks advising acquirers in mergers, we find evidence that information from investment banking flows to other...

We analyze the corporate risk management policies of 44 companies in the gold mining industry. Firms tend to decrease hedging as prices move against them—behavior contrary to that predicted by risk management theory. These results, along with new survey evidence, suggest that firms attempt to...

This paper examines the relation between the performance and valuations of publicly traded subsidiaries in the United States and the ownership stake of their parent companies. Cross-sectional and time-series tests demonstrate that subsidiaries of parents that own a substantial minority stake...