46 research outputs found
How Does Law Affect Finance? An Empirical Examination of Tunneling in an Emerging Market
No full textThis paper documents that law affects finance in emerging markets through the methods used by controlling shareholders to “tunnel” wealth out of the firm. We find that Bulgarian securities law enabled financial tunneling via dilution and freeze-out tender offers. During the period 1999- 2001, about two-thirds of the 1,040 firms on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange were delisted. Freeze-out tender offers for minority shares averaged about 25% of the shares’ intrinsic value. Bulgarian securities law changes in 2002 made financial tunneling more costly for controlling shareholders. Subsequent increases in stock market valuations and liquidity suggest that controlling shareholders have shifted from financial tunneling to less value-destroying methods, such as transfer pricing, to extract wealth from firms.Tunneling, freeze-out, controlling shareholders, appraisal rights, preemptive rights
CEO Risk Taking and Firm Policies: Evidence from CEO Employment History
No full textI propose that CEO employment history is an observable characteristic that reveals the CEO’s unobservable risk-taking preferences. I hypothesize that CEOs that change employers more frequently (mobile CEOs) have a propensity to bear risk and implement riskier firm policies. Using a sample of S&P 1500 CEOs, I find that firms are more likely to hire mobile CEOs when the firm’s prior risk is high, firm-specific human capital is less important, the prior CEO turnover is forced, the prior CEO has a shorter tenure and the board is smaller and has fewer insiders. Mobile CEOs increase financial leverage, invest more in advertising and less in capital expenditures, and increase firm-specific risk. Mobile CEOs invest more (less) in R&D in homogenous (heterogeneous) industries where firm-specific knowledge is less (more) important in making investment decisions. Shareholders react positively to appointments of CEOs who change employers more frequently. I find no difference in long-run accounting performance for CEOs with different employment histories. Firms’ annual stock returns and sales growth are higher for CEOs who change employers more frequently. The cost of debt increases after the firm appoints a mobile CEO. These findings suggest that lower CEO risk aversion and the potential risk-shifting from shareholders to bondholders are sources of shareholder value increases. In sum, my findings provide evidence that CEO employment history is an observable characteristic that reveals the risk-taking preference of the CEO
The Impact of Financial Statements For SEC Spin Off Entities On The Market's Ability To Anticipate Future Earnings
No full textABSTRACT
This study investigates the usefulness of spin-off historical and pro forma financial statements on the market’s ability to predict the firm’s future earnings. This study evaluates the spin-off historical and pro forma financial statements required for a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulation (Form 10-12(b). The study evaluates the question Are spin-off financial statements that reflect the firm’s adoption of the accounting required for the regulation (SEC form 10-12(b)) predictive of future earnings and thus useful? According to Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 8 (SFAC8), the objective of general purpose financial reporting is that financial statements are useful to investors in making decisions about providing resources to the firm. Financial information is capable of making a difference in decisions if they have predictive value, confirmatory value or both. This is a quantitative, positivist, empirical archival study of final SEC Forms 10-12(b) for spin-off firms filed for listing on a public exchange of either NYSE or NASDAQ from the period of 2000 to 2014. The study evaluates if spin-off financial statements (historical and pro forma) are predictive, confirmatory or both. This study compares the performance of these companies to their peer group to assess if the results of this population are significantly different from the performance of the peer group in predicting future earnings. There were large variances between the historical, pro forma and Year 1 key financial statement elements. Variances ranged between 4% to over 500%. The difference in means in the population were significant between historical and pro forma net income as well as the change in shareholders equity and between historical and Year 1 shareholders’ equity. There was a significant difference in the leverage metric between historical leverage ratio and Year 1’s leverage ratio of the firms. The study found that the peer financial metrics were predictive of future earnings but the historical spin statements are not as predictive as their peer group. There was a significant difference in the predictability between the peer group and the historical spin metrics. The research supports the usefulness of the pro forma information. The research does not appear to support the usefulness of the historical information. Thus, the study provides the first empirical evidence that spin-off financial statements provide less information to the market. This is a new approach to study the application of accounting standards.Executive Doctorate in Business (EDB)Busines
Relationship of Proactive Personality, Financial Planning Behavior and Life Satisfaction
No full textThe present study examines relationships among differences in personality, financial planning behaviors, and retirement life satisfaction. The hypothesized sequence of relationships is: PersonalityàFinancial Planning BehavioràRetirement Life Satisfaction. The study adds to prior research by clarifying the hypothesized role that proactive personality (as opposed to other personality variables such as the Big Five) has as a predictor, and also by showing how differences in discrete types of financial planning behavior influence retirement life satisfaction and mediate effects of proactive personality on satisfaction. This study tests these linkages while also addressing limitations and ambiguity in prior research regarding these potentially important effects among disposition, financial planning and a satisfactory retirement
House Prices and Mortgage Defaults: Econometric Models and Risk Management Applications
No full textThis dissertation first investigates the possible house price trend and the relationship with the mortgage market, from the perspective of risk management; then it chooses the angle from bond insurers and figures out possible methods to avoid capital procyclicality. In Chapter I, we apply vector auto regression models (VAR) and simultaneous equations models (SEM) to estimate the dynamic relations among house price returns, mortgage rates and mortgage default rates, using historical data during the time period of 1979 through second quarter 2008. We find that house prices would be better estimated and predicted with the consideration of the mortgage market. In Chapter II, following the methodology of co-integration, we first construct several succinct measures to display the possible intrinsic values of house prices. In the short run, house price return dynamics are investigated by dynamic adjustments following Capozza et al (2002) and error correction models. We examine the possible overshooting problem of house price returns. By analytical derivations and simulations, we demonstrate the effects of the coefficients on overshooting. In Chapter III, we adopt a structural model with time-varying correlations for bond insurers. We consider losses due to bond insurers’ downgrading and losses from both insurance contracts and investment portfolio. On that basis, we propose forward-looking smoothing rules of capital over a full business cycle, instead of only based on a short-term horizon, to avoid the procyclicality. With the smoothed capital, a bond insurer can actually establish some capital buffer in good times to support the potential losses in crisis
