Market frictions make markets incomplete. Firms' equity securities can help to complete markets by offering investors opportunities to invest in assets that are otherwise unavailable or costly to acquire. However, stocks offer a substitute for the underlying assets only if the firm maintains...

This paper examines the association between commodity price exposure and investor interest in stocks of firms in two commodity-based industries: Gold Mining, and Oil and Gas Exploration. Investors, on average, are attracted to commodity price exposure. Using market-based measures of commodity...

Using a unique dataset from a well-known survey on derivatives use, this paper examines several questions about the use of derivatives to “take a view” on interest-rate and currency movements. Tests of what motivates firms to take a view suggest that firms view speculation as a profitable...

Using responses to a well-known confidential survey, we study corporations' use of derivatives to "take a view" on interest rate and currency movements. Characteristics of speculators suggest that perceived information and cost advantages lead them to take positions actively; that is, they do...

Many worry over the loss of intercity bus and train service. But local, on-demand transit service is more critical for rural mobility.

No-build approaches and alternative technologies can reduce the cost of water upgrades in small towns.

The use of eminent domain for private development may benefit district communities, but it blights the overall economy.

Employers strapped for labor have turned to immigrants to fill jobs spurned by many natives