Contrary to the common perception that operating cash flows are better than accounting earnings at explaining equity valuations, recent studies suggest that valuations derived from industry multiples based on reported earnings are closer to traded prices than those based on reported operating...

We test whether firms announce share repurchases and the announcement conveys good news, when firms have accounting assets reflecting less of firm value and high general information asymmetry, and bad news when firms have no attractive investment opportunities and idle cash. Proxies for...

The retained earnings hypothesis predicts that stock distributions accounted for by reducing retained earnings are a more credible signal of managerial optimism than stock distributions that do not reduce retained earnings. This study examines the costs of false signaling that are a necessary...

Presentation Slides for "Overconfidence, Arbitrage, and Equilibrium Asset Pricing" This paper offers a model in which asset prices reflect both covariance risk and misperceptions of firmsapos prospects, and in which arbitrageurs trade against mispricing. In equilibrium, expected returns are...

The basic paradigm of asset pricing is in vibrant flux. The purely rational approach is being subsumed by a broader approach based upon the psychology of investors. In this approach, security expected returns are determined by both risk and misvaluation. This survey sketches a framework for...

This article provides an insightful overview of the challenges encountered by the insurance industry when applying the requirements of IFRS 17 to reinsurance contracts. Through the metaphor "Fitting a Square Peg in a Round Hole," the author effectively captures the complexities and difficulties...

We provide evidence suggesting that both the post-repurchase long-term abnormal returns and the reported improvement in operating performance documented in prior studies are driven, at least partly, by pre-repurchase downward earnings management, rather than genuine growth in profitability. The...

Announcements of stock repurchase tender offers are examined as a source of information to the market on the firm's future earnings prospects and market risk level. We find positive average earnings surprises and equity systematic risk reductions following tender offers but not, in most...

One of the central puzzles of signaling theory is how to assess signal quality, in particular the potential for signal mimicking. Our study provides evidence of signal mimicking in the context of stock repurchases. Employing an ex-ante proxy for the likelihood of mimicking stock repurchases and...

This paper aims to clarify a characteristic of the dividend policies of Japanese firms by verifying the dividend life-cycle theory. The analysis revealed that in Japan, growing firms choose further dividend increases compared to mature firms, and that such dividend increases by the growing firms...