This thesis examines how industry differences affect both corporate financial policies and valuation. Chapter 1 studies the impact of a firm‟s product market power, through the channel of business risk, on its dividend policy. Using three measures of market power – the Herfindahl-Hirschman...

This thesis studies information in financial markets from three perspectives: the role of information asymmetry in alleviating dividend payers’ seasoned equity offering (SEO) announcement returns, the leading behavior of equity analysts who collect and process information, and the pricing of...

We examine the role of trademarks in firm longevity and IPO underpricing. We borrow arguments from asymmetric information theory and juxtapose alternative explanations to uncover which approach best describes the underpricing phenomenon with the aid of trademarks relationship to firm longevity....

How banks managed the COVID-19 pandemic shock? The eruption of the financial crisis in 2007 evolved to a crisis of banks as liquidity providers (Acharya and Mora, 2015). The COVID-19 pandemic shock was associated with a surge in households’ deposits and a subsequent liquidity injection by the...

We frame IPO pricing as an efficiency problem for prospective issuers and explore the effect of connections formed via lobbying and PAC (Political Action Committee) contributions. We develop an approach of general application in finance, where relationships of influence are suspected. Rather...

US public pension funds deficits remain stubbornly high even though market conditions have improved in the post-crisis period. This article examines the role of lower short- and long-term interest rates imposed by the use of unconventional monetary policy on pension funds risk taking and asset...

This study quantifies the effects of persistently low interest rates near to the zero lower bound and the unconventional monetary policy on pension fund risk incentives in the United States. Using two structural vector autoregressive (VAR) models and a counterfactual scenario analysis, the...