This paper examines how risk in trading activity can affect the volatility of asset prices. We look for this relationship in the behavior of interest rate swap spreads and in the volume and interest rates of repurchase contracts. Specifically, we focus on convergence trading, in which...

We study the fragility of discretionary liquidity provision by major financial intermediaries during systemic events. The laboratory of our study is the recent collapse of the auction rate securities (ARS) market. Using a comprehensive dataset constructed from auction reports and intraday...

Using a contextual approach on a sample of commercial banks from the OECD countries, this study identifies some drivers of abnormal ROE (residual income scaled by beginning-of-period book value of equity). We select the key theoretical variables from the banking and the accounting literature and...

The valuation of multi-staged pharmaceutical R&D can be interpreted as a chain of real options. In valuing these compound option models, a crucial problem is how to deal with the different types of risk. Previous models, such as Cassimon et al. (2004), offer a closed-form solution for the...

I compare the timing of information acquisition among institutional investors and sell-side analysts, and I show that hedge fund trades predict the direction of subsequent analyst ratings change reports while other investors' trades do not. In addition, hedge funds reverse trades after analyst...

Business development companies (“BDCs”) offer retail investors the allure of becoming venture capitalists, funding emerging enterprises with the help of professional asset managers. BDCs are investment companies that finance businesses traditionally locked out of conventional capital...

This study examines the role of differences in firms' propensity to meet earnings expectations in explaining why firms with high analyst forecast dispersion experience relatively low future stock returns. We first demonstrate that the negative relation between dispersion and returns is...

Over the past decade, limited partners have increased capital allocations to socially driven private equity funds with the goal to generate long-term impact alongside financial returns. To understand funds' abilities to meet these goals, we gather detailed mission and financial data from 53...

The valuations of exchange listed social media companies have for long defied established corporate finance metrics and (in many instances) common sense. Besides highlighting theoretical and practical challenges related to valuing social media companies, this paper revisits the valuation metrics...

This study examines how Specified Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) have been used as a financing tool for the shipping industry in period 2004-2013. SPACs that focused on acquisitions in the shipping industry statistically have similar characteristics as the population of SPACs that entered...