This study examines the performance of industry consolidating IPOs by using a sample of 58 firms that conducted a roll-up IPO over the 1994-1999 period and 55 build-up IPOs that went public between 1983 and 1999. Results indicate that the long-run stock price performance of roll-up IPOs...

In the first essay, I test the predictions of the market timing theory of capital structure on a comprehensive sample of firms that issued debt and equity during the period January 1974-December 2001. I first categorize firms as likely and unlikely market timers based on their ability to time...

In Part I we develop a model of entry in which an entrant with private information about its production cost and cost of entry has an opportunity to trade in the stock of a single incumbent before entry. We assume an efficient stock market populated by risk-neutral liquidity sellers who randomly...

In this paper, we provide evidence that trading driven by investors' behavioral biases contributes to stock return momentum. In particular, we focus on two types of irrational trading, momentum trading and confidence-influenced trading, which could be driven by psychological biases introduced by...

We hypothesize that firms structure their asset holdings so as to shelter assets from extraction by politicians and bureaucrats. Specifically, in countries where the threat of political extraction is higher, we hypothesize that firms will hold a lower fraction of their assets in liquid form....

This study investigates empirically the factors that determine whether firms borrow from banks and other finance companies versus issuing bonds for sale to the public. I analyze 1,560 new borrowings from banks, non-bank private lenders, and the public debt market by 1,480 U.S. public firms over...

This dissertation is comprised of two essays in which I investigate the idea that cross-subsidization of poorly-performing units within conglomerates is a cause for the value loss from diversification. In the first essay, I document a significant curvilinear relation between the value of...

I conduct an examination of the cross-sectional and time-series evidence on the decision to reduce dividends over the 40-year period of 1965-2004. As my core analysis, I empirically investigate whether the decision to cut dividends is caused by the exhaustion of corporate cash reserves and the...

An investment into an ARM-backed security requires the estimation of its theoretical, "fair", value, which can be determined using a stochastic valuation model and a well-specified prepayment function. In this study, we develop a general framework for the valuation of ARM-backed securities,...

This paper develops an empirical framework that allows the degree of out-of-sample predictability in any specific dataset to serve as conditioning information in portfolio choice and market timing decisions. The forecasting model is developed from a real-time investment perspective by allowing...