This dissertation determines how well the Rubinstein-Leland (1981) synthetic option strategy replicates listed call options and theoretical Black-Scholes (BS) call premiums. Three rebalancing methods are implemented to trigger changes in the stock/debt mix: time--the portfolio is changed at...

Essay 1 extends the existing theoretical framework to incorporate a bank's charter value and analyze directly its effect on the pricing of deposit insurance. It derives values of deposit insurance with both deterministic and stochastic charter values. It is shown that significant charter value...

This dissertation provides extensive empirical evidence--a large sample study over a long period--about the link between strategy and shareholder value. In contrast to the typical measure of shareholder value--stock price times the number of shares outstanding--this dissertation uses beta excess...

Based on data on publicly traded insurance firms, the first essay examines questions about the effect of large catastrophic events on insurance firms. Rather than looking at a single event, thirty catastrophic events were aggregated into quintiles and the cumulative abnormal returns around these...

The first essay examines the determinants of returns for bidding firms' stocks in mergers and tender offers using cross-sectional micro-firm data. First, we find that potential overpayments to target shareholders are important for explaining cross-sectional differences in bidders' returns upon...

This study contributes to the issue of bank product deregulation by examining whether cost synergies, measured by economies of scope, exist in the production of banking services. Using the multiproduct cost economies approach, the existence of overall and product-specific economies of scope and...

The Introductory chapter briefly describes the unintended emergence of the seconday market for developing country loans after protracted and unsuccessful negotiations between lending bankers and the indebted countries. The innovative Brady plan presented the banks involved in this market with...