Prior studies on the impact of the termination of overfunded defined benefit pension plans on shareholders' wealth have produced conflicting findings. The first study on the stock market reaction to pension plan termination was conducted by Alderson and Chen (1986); this study claimed that shareholders realize significant positive abnormal returns around the termination announcement date. A more recent study, by Moore and Pruitt (1990), disclaimed the findings of Alderson and Chen. Reexamination of these two studies with additional evidence and the use of the appropriate announcement date suggests that termination of pension plans is associated with significant wealth gain to shareholders. This study also analyzes samples from periods prior to and after the imposition in 1986 of a 10 percent excise tax on recaptured excess pension assets. The empirical results suggest that shareholders experience significant positive wealth effects for the pre-tax (1980-85) period and no wealth effects for the post-tax (1986-88) period. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the impact of stock market reaction upon shareholders' wealth under the partial anticipation hypothesis. The pre-tax sample is analyzed by isolating the expected terminators using the multiple discriminant analysis model. This study finds significant positive abnormal returns only for …

Using 1,473 going private transactions completed between 1985 and 2007, I assess whether the increase in going private transactions that occurred after the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was driven by SOX, or whether this phenomenon continues an ongoing historical trend. To examine this issue, I initially used structural break tests and intervention analysis. From the initial techniques, I find support that the passage of SOX increased going private transactions for these categories. Secondarily, I use Granger causality tests and impulse response functions to examine the link between going private transactions and the public stock market. When I categorize going private transactions according to the type of acquirer, transaction size, and target industry, I find bi-directional Granger causality relationships between smaller-sized going private transactions and the S&P 500 Index (or Tobin's Q). I also find several unidirectional Granger causality relationships for some categories of going private transactions, based on the type of acquirer or the target industry, to the S&P 500 Index (or to Tobin's Q). The impulse response of going private transactions (or the public stock market) to a shock in the public stock market (or going private transactions) is not immediate, but is delayed two …

Most initial public offerings (IPOs) feature share lockup agreements, which prohibit insiders from selling their shares for a specified period of time following the IPO. However, some IPO firms agree to have a much longer lockup period than other IPO firms, and some are willing to lockup a much larger proportion of shares. Thus, the primary research question for this study is: "What are the reasons for the divergence of the lockup agreements?" The two main hypotheses that this dissertation investigates are the signaling hypothesis based on information asymmetry, and the commitment hypothesis based on agency theory. This study uses methods that have not been applied by previous studies in the literature relating to IPO lockups. First, I directly use IPO firms operating performance as a proxy for firm quality. The results show neither a negative nor a strong positive relationship between lockup length and firm operating performance. Thus, based on operating performance, the evidence does not support the agency hypothesis while showing weak support for the signaling hypothesis. I then examine the long-run returns for IPO firms with different lockup lengths. I find that firms with short lockup lengths have much better long-run returns than firms with long lockup …

The effect of a change in capital structure on the risk and return of common stockholders is investigated. Also, the information content of dividends when a firm goes for new outside financing is examined. Data used in the study are collected from the Moody's Bond Survey, the Prentice Hall's Capital Adjustments, the Wall Street Journal Index, and the Center for Research in Security Prices Tape. The study uses an event study methodology. The risk (beta) of common stock before an issuance of debt securities is compared with the risk after the issue. The stock market reaction to the issuance of new debt securities is measured using after-the-event risk. The information content of dividend announcement before a new debt issue is compared to that of after the issue. The findings show that debt issue reduces stock holders' risk if the issuer is a dividend paying company. Also, debt securities issued through an exchange offer increase stockholders' wealth. Finally, issuance of new debt does not affect the information content of dividends.

Catastrophe theory (CT) is a relatively new mathematical theory that comprehensively describes a system exhibiting discontinuous behavior when subjected to continuous stimuli. This study tests the theory using capital-market data. The data is a time series of stock returns on firms that filed for Chapter 11 reorganization during 1980-1985. The CT model used is based on a corporate failure model suggested by Francis, Hastings and Fabozzi (1983). The model predicts 1) as the filing date approaches, there will be a structural shift in the underlying stock-return generating process of the filing firm, and 2) firms with lower operating risk will have a smaller jump than firms with higher operating risk, corresponding to their relative positions within the bifurcation set of the catastrophe cusp.

The forces that shaped banking practices in the late 1970s and which fostered attempts by the banks to rapidly expand their markets are examined. Why, and to what extent, the Texas energy banks committed themselves to the oil industry in those years, as well as the effects of the oil industry's four-and-one-half year decline on the banks' financial strength is detailed. How banks structured loans to various energy borrowers and why these borrowers lost their ability to service their debts is analyzed. The changes that the Texas banks' painfully learned lessons will bring about in energy and other specialized lending is considered.

In this study, the possibility that money demand of one country might be affected by macroeconomic activities of other countries is investigated. We use the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) technique, which takes into account all covariances between residuals of country-specific money demand equations. Efficiency of estimates using the SUR technique is enhanced because it uses information contained in the contemporaneous correlation of the error terms. The hypothesis of economic interdependence is tested. A proxy for foreign influence, deviation from interest rate parity (DIRP), is tested for significance in the money demand function.

This dissertation is structured as three essays on various aspects of equity option introduction. Topics addressed include the relative predictability of introduction, the relationship between predictability of introduction and the price effect associated with introduction, and a comparison of the price response of optioned versus nonoptioned stocks to changes in dividends. Essay 1 involves use of firm-specific variables in a LOGIT model to allow assignment of a probability of equity option introduction. Two samples were developed: one of firms that were optioned, the other of firms which met the objective standards but were not optioned. A LOGIT model is used to assign a probability of optioning to each firm. A holdout sample is used to test the out-of-sample predictive power of the model. Firms were correctly classified as optioned or nonoptioned in about 85 percent of cases. Various researchers have detected abnormal positive returns associated with stock option introduction. In an efficient market context, this would indicate that option introduction is "good" news to financial markets. If optioning is predictable, stocks with a higher probability of optioning would be expected to show less price response when options are introduced. In Essay 2, the relationship between the probability of optioning and …

The purpose of this study is to examine the wealth effect of the Risk-Based Capital (RBC) regulation on the U.S. commercial banking industry. The RBC plan was first proposed in January 1986, and its final form was announced on July 11, 1988. This plan resulted from dissatisfaction with the old capital regulation, which did not account for asset risk and off-balance sheet activities. The present study hypothesizes that the new regulation restricted bank optimal behavior and, therefore, adversely affected stock prices. The second and third hypotheses suggest that investors used company specific information, Net Tier 1 and Total risk-based capital ratios respectively, in valuing stocks of the affected bank holding companies. Hypotheses four and five suggest that abnormal returns are proportionally related to the levels of Net Tier 1 or Total RBC ratio. Both the traditional event study and the portfolio time-series regression, with RBC ratios (Net Tier 1 or Total) as the weight factors, are used in this study.

This dissertation is structured as three essays on real estate investment trusts and financial markets. It addresses the financial performance and systematic risk of different REIT types, the information content of REIT bankruptcies, and the effect of recent tax law changes on the REIT industry.

Baker and Wurgler (2002) define a new theory of capital structure. In this theory capital structure evolves as the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. Baker and Wurgler extend market timing theory to long-term capital structure, but their results do not clearly distinguish between the two versions of market timing: perceived mispricing and adverse selection. The main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically identify the relative importance of these two explanations. First, I retest Baker and Wurgler's theory by using insider trading as an alternative to market-to-book ratio to measure equity market timing. I also formally test the adverse selection model of the equity market timing: first by using post-issuance performance, and then by using three measures of adverse selection. The first two measures use estimates of adverse information costs based on the bid and ask prices, and the third measure is based on the close-to-offer returns. Based on received theory, a dynamic adverse selection model implies that higher adverse information costs lead to higher leverage. On the other hand, a naïve adverse selection model implies that negative inside information leads to lower leverage. The results are consistent with the equity market timing theory of …

This study investigates the importance of reduced capital misallocation in explaining the gains in corporate spinoffs. The capital misallocation hypothesis asserts that the internal capital market of a diversified firm fails to meet the needs of the relatively low growth divisions for less investment and the needs of the relatively high growth divisions for more investment. Higher differences in growth opportunities imply that more capital is misallocated. This study finds that the higher the difference in growth opportunities of a diversified firm's businesses, the more likely the firm is to conduct a spinoff. This finding supports the argument that diversified firms conduct spinoffs to reduce capital misallocation. This study finds differences in managerial ownership of spinoff firms and of nonspinoff firms. This suggests that the misallocation of internal capital is an agency problem. A low management ownership stake, coupled with the existing differential in growth opportunities between parent and spunoff firms, leads to misallocation of internal capital, thus creating incentives for a spinoff. Spinoffs should result in a shift to the “right" investment policy and to better operating performance for both the parent and spunoff firms. This improvement in operating performance for the post-spinoff firms is expected to be higher …

This study is an empirical examination of a new theory that links dividends to institutional ownership in a framework of both information signaling and agency costs. Under this theory put forth by Allen, Bernardo and Welch in 2000, dividends are paid out to attract tax-favored institutional investors, thereby signaling good firm quality and/or more efficient monitoring. This is based on the premise that institutions are considered sophisticated investors with superior ability and stronger incentive to be informed about the firm quality compared to retail investors. On the agency level, institutional investors display monitoring capabilities, and can detect and correct managerial pitfalls, thus their presence serves as an assurance that the firm will remain well run. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of the theory by testing various aspects of the relationship between dividends and institutional holdings. Unlike the prevalent literature on this topic, I give specific attention to the different types of institutional investors and their incentives to invest in dividend paying stocks. Moreover, I analyze the signaling and the agency effects on the market reaction to dividend initiations within the framework proposed by the theory. Finally, I test the smoothing effect institutions have on dividends by …

This study provide empirical evidence whether bias in the standard errors of Jensen’s alpha explains conflicting results in the extant literature in real estate funds. Significant alphas in real estate mutual funds and REITs are compared with heteroskedasticity consistent covariance matrix estimators (HC1, HC2 and HC3), Newey-West standard errors, a robust regression tempering the effect of high leverage points, a GARCH model, and a HC3 adjusted wild bootstrap. In the analysis of real estate mutual funds and a separate sample set of REITs, the HCCME had a minimal impact attenuating the number of firms with excess returns. Contrary to expectations the differences from HC1 to HC2 to HC3 were also negligible. The Newey-West standard error provided highly variable results when compared with the OLS results particularly in the REIT sample. Of the techniques to adjust for bias in the standard error, the wild bootstrap with HC3 adjustment to the standard error provided the most conservative result to the number of real estate mutual funds and REITs with significant alphas. The co-movement of real estate funds suggests common exogenous influences. Including state variables such as the changes in unexpected inflation, term spread, default spread, market skewness and industrial production growth in …

This dissertation identifies key determinants of outbound cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by emerging Asian acquirers during 2001-2012. Using a zero-inflated model that takes into account different mechanisms governing country pairs that never engage in cross-border M&As and country pairs that actively participate in cross-border M&As, I uncover unique patterns for emerging Asian acquirers. Emerging Asian acquirers originate from countries with lower corporate tax rates than those countries where their targets are located. Furthermore, the negative impact of an international double tax burden is significantly larger than that found in previous studies. While country governance differences and geographical and cultural differences are important determinants of international M&As, relative valuation effects are muted. Coefficients of these determinants vary substantially, depending on whether targets are located in developing or advanced nations. Also, determinants differ considerably between active and non-active players in cross-border M&As. Moreover, comparisons of empirical models illustrate that estimating a non-linear model and taking into account both the bounded nature and non-normal distributions of fractional response variables lead to different inferences from those drawn from a linear model estimated by the ordinary least squares method. Overall, emerging Asian acquirers approach the deals differently from patterns documented in developed markets. So, …