Using a large sample of non-financial US listed firms over the period from 1985 to 2009, we analyze the interactive effect of financial flexibility and credit re-ratings on corporate investment and financing decisions. Essentially, we document that financial flexibility (inflexibility) “flicks...

We examine the role of shareholder takeup in rights offerings on the subscription period price reaction and liquidity. Our results indicate that takeup information is reflected in price adjustments over the subscription period and that quality-related information disclosed on the rights...

This article investigates whether financial derivative usage by Australian corporations constitutes information asymmetry when proxied by profitable trading in the firms' securities by insiders. The findings show that insiders who trade in companies that employ derivatives make larger purchase...

We extend Vassalou (2003) by conditioning the Fama–French model with the same macroeconomic variables used to construct a GDP factor. The motivation for doing so is to ascertain whether the ability of the GDP-augmented model to explain equity returns is actually due to news about future GDP...

In this paper we evaluate the performance of three alternate default-risk models, seeking to find that measure which performs best, using a comprehensive sample drawn from the Australian equities market. The first two models are option-based models and are derived from Merton's (1974) insight...

US studies have consistently reported that the relationship between beta and return is less steeply sloped than that implied by the simple CAPM. The introduction of a dividend imputation tax system in Australia and other tax law differences suggest the relationship between beta and return may be...

In this paper we investigate the contention that the Fama-French (1993) model's ability to explain cross-sectional variation in equity returns occurs because the Fama-French factors, SMB and HML, are proxying for default risk. To assess the default risk hypothesis, we augment the CAPM and the...

This paper evaluates the tactical asset allocation (TAA) capabilities, strategies and behaviour of Australian investment managers who invest assets across multiple asset classes. Specifically, we analyse the behaviour of balanced, growth and capital-stable fund managers with regard to their...

In a recent issue of this journal Nguyen and Faff (2002) reported on an empirical exploration of the motives behind the aggregate use of financial derivatives by Australian companies. Employing the same sample of firms, the current paper extends their analysis to investigate similar issues, this...