This dissertation examines whether simultaneously conditioning on themultidimensional characteristics of information signals can help predict returnsthat are of economic significance. We use large price changes, publicannouncements, and large volume increases to proxy for the...

Previous research has shown that expected market returns vary over time and that this variationcan be predicted by variables such as dividend yields and book-to-market ratios (Fama andFrench (1989); Campbell and Thompson (2008)). Further, macroeconomic variables affect assetreturns (Flannery and...

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...

The Industrial Organization literature investigates the product market decisions of a firm while the corporate finance literature explores the financing decisions of the firm. But the truth is both the financing decisions and the product market decisions are interdependent and should be modeled...

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...

The dissertation consists of two essays. In the first essay, we measure herding by institutional investors in the new economy (internet) stocks during 1998-2001 by examining the changes in the quarterly institutional holdings of internet stocks relative to an average stock. More than 95% of the...

This dissertation consists of two essays. In the first essay, I examine the source of momentum in stock returns. The reversal of momentum returns has been interpreted as evidence that momentum results from delayed overreaction to information. I examine momentum and reversals conditional on...

This dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay develops a new methodology for estimating the probability of informed trading from the observed quotes and depths, by extending the Copeland and Galai (1983) model. This measure (PROBINF) can be computed for each quote and it represents...

This dissertation consists of two essays. The first provides evidence that the recent revival of shelf equity offers is related to changes in how firms use shelf registration. During 1990-2003 firms that make shelf filings have no immediate intent and low probability of issuance, lower...

Theoretical models suggest that ownership structure may be an important determinant of securities' market characteristics. For example, the presence of informed traders leads to greater bid-ask spreads (Copeland and Galai (1983), and Glosten and Milgrom (1985)), and strategic trading of informed...