Graham and Harveys (2001) survey evidence and Baker, Greenwood, and Wurgler (2003) indicate that firm managers try to time debt markets based on term spreads or excess bond returns when choosing the maturity of new debt issues. Whether debt market timing increases firm value via a reduced cost...

In this work, I develop a new volatility measure; the volatility implied by price changes in option contracts and their underlyings. I refer to this as implied price change volatility. First, I examine the time series behavior of implied price change volatility and investigate possible moneyness...

This dissertation studies whether stock price reactions to quarterly earnings announcements depend on stock liquidity. Baker and Stein (2004) and Scheinkman and Xiong (2003) develop models showing that liquidity can be affected by investor sentiment or speculative trading. With short-sale...

This dissertation examines the interactions of corporate governance on analyst behavior. Analyst bias is well documented in the previous literature. However, the relationship between managerial entrenchment and analyst bias has not been explored. In my first essay, I hypothesize that while...

This dissertation focuses on the mortgage default behavior and the valuation of distressed properties. Three essays are included.The first essay uses New Orleans foreclosure data, where each property has three appraisals, to investigate the factors affecting appraisal bias and accuracy, and to...

This dissertation relates the information contained in past trading volume to investor sentiment, and investigates its ability in predicting stock returns. Investor sentiment here refers to the enthusiasm of irrational investors on an asset, relative to that of rational investors. Motivated by...

This dissertation analyzes a series of issues that surround both the theoretical modeling and theempirical estimation of the forward-futures differential, commonly known as the convexityadjustment. Opposite to theoretical implication, I find that the magnitude of the forward-futuresrate...

A Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) is a blank check company with no business operation but management quality. It raises money through unit IPO and put proceeds in a trust account for future business combination. In the post IPO market, the market price would reflect the value of trust...

This dissertation analyzes the effects on the stock markets when institutional investors hold their client firms stocks. The first essay examines the trading impact around earnings announcements and the second essay studies the effect on stock liquidity. In the first essay, we find that...

This dissertation consists of essays relating to the three important real estate research topics: spatial statistics, mortgages, and real estate investment trusts (REITs). In the first essay, Spatial Distribution of Retail Sales, we apply retail gravity models to examine the spatial distribution...