We analyze asset allocations and performance of target-date funds in the United States from 2006 to May 2009. The good news is that the performance of target-date funds is consistent with greater risk and better performance for longer dated funds. The bad news is that on average, target-date...

This paper examines the relation between dividend smoothing and asymmetric information between managers and investors. We find that the extent of dividend smoothing are negatively related to the measures of information asymmetry. Firms with higher levels of asymmetric information have a higher...

Ceteris Paribus, highly productive industries should translate into high economic growth and high expected returns. To test this, we create a productivity factor using industry-level total factor productivity estimates. This factor captures the difference in returns between industries with high...

We find that emerging market firms exhibit similar dividend behavior to U.S. firms in the sense that dividends are explained by profitability, debt, and the market to book ratio. However, empirical dividend policy equations are structurally different, indicating different sensitivities to these...