I study international risk sharing with limited stock market participation and preference heterogeneity in each country. An incomplete market model jointly generates high cross-country equity return correlation and low aggregate consumption growth correlation, while matching salient features of asset prices. The model further generates several implications that I show in the data: 1) The stockholders' cross-country consumption growth correlation is considerably higher than that of the aggregate; 2) International bond flows help agents share the labor income risk only, while the country-specific financial income fluctuations are negatively correlated with equity inflows only; 3) The stockholders' consumption risk is priced in both the home and foreign equity markets. I show that the financial integration significantly improves the stockholders' welfare without benefiting the non-stockholders.
{"title":"Limited Risk Sharing and International Equity Returns","authors":"Shaojun Zhang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2373265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2373265","url":null,"abstract":"I study international risk sharing with limited stock market participation and preference heterogeneity in each country. An incomplete market model jointly generates high cross-country equity return correlation and low aggregate consumption growth correlation, while matching salient features of asset prices. The model further generates several implications that I show in the data: 1) The stockholders' cross-country consumption growth correlation is considerably higher than that of the aggregate; 2) International bond flows help agents share the labor income risk only, while the country-specific financial income fluctuations are negatively correlated with equity inflows only; 3) The stockholders' consumption risk is priced in both the home and foreign equity markets. I show that the financial integration significantly improves the stockholders' welfare without benefiting the non-stockholders.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"89 8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131192662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The last 20 years or so have seen a sharp decline in public equity. I present a framework that explains the forces that cause the listing propensity of firms to change over time. This framework highlights the benefits and costs of a public listing compared to the benefits and costs of financing with private equity. With this framework, the decline in public equity is explained by the increased supply of funds for private equity and changes in the nature of firms. The increase in the importance of intangible assets makes it costlier for young firms to be public when the alternative is funding through private equity from investors who have specialized knowledge that enables them to better understand the business model of young firms and contribute to the development of that business model in contrast to passive public equity investors.
{"title":"Public versus Private Equity","authors":"René M. Stulz","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3486578","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3486578","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The last 20 years or so have seen a sharp decline in public equity. I present a framework that explains the forces that cause the listing propensity of firms to change over time. This framework highlights the benefits and costs of a public listing compared to the benefits and costs of financing with private equity. With this framework, the decline in public equity is explained by the increased supply of funds for private equity and changes in the nature of firms. The increase in the importance of intangible assets makes it costlier for young firms to be public when the alternative is funding through private equity from investors who have specialized knowledge that enables them to better understand the business model of young firms and contribute to the development of that business model in contrast to passive public equity investors.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129580280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In contrast to bonds, levered loans do not require SEC registration. We show that this distinction plays an important role in firms’ choice between funding through loans and bonds and helps understand why the market share of cov-lite loans has increased so much. Compared to cov-heavy loans, cov-lite loans are close substitutes for bonds in that they have similar covenants, have tighter bid-ask spreads, have more trading, and are more likely to be used to refinance bonds than cov-heavy loans. SEC-reporting firms that borrow using cov-lite loans are more likely to deregister subsequently. Non-reporting firms are more likely to borrow through highly levered loans than through bonds, even though maturities, amounts, covenants, and ratings are similar between the two sources of funding. As expected from theory, we find that the liquidity advantage of cov-lite loans over cov-heavy loans is highest for non-registered issuers where information asymmetries are greater.
{"title":"Securities laws, bank monitoring, and the choice between cov-lite loans and bonds for highly levered firms","authors":"Robert Prilmeier, René M. Stulz","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3314270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3314270","url":null,"abstract":"In contrast to bonds, levered loans do not require SEC registration. We show that this distinction plays an important role in firms’ choice between funding through loans and bonds and helps understand why the market share of cov-lite loans has increased so much. Compared to cov-heavy loans, cov-lite loans are close substitutes for bonds in that they have similar covenants, have tighter bid-ask spreads, have more trading, and are more likely to be used to refinance bonds than cov-heavy loans. SEC-reporting firms that borrow using cov-lite loans are more likely to deregister subsequently. Non-reporting firms are more likely to borrow through highly levered loans than through bonds, even though maturities, amounts, covenants, and ratings are similar between the two sources of funding. As expected from theory, we find that the liquidity advantage of cov-lite loans over cov-heavy loans is highest for non-registered issuers where information asymmetries are greater.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122313804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We study the effect of legal risk on firms’ investment. Using legal risk measures based on the number of litigious words in SEC 10-K filings, we find legal risk reduces investment. Underlying mechanisms include both i) a financing channel, whereby legal risk reduces credit ratings, increases bank loan costs, and decreases borrowing, and ii) an attention channel, whereby legal risk consumes top-management’s attention. Accordingly, we find legal risk has negative effects on firms’ investment efficiency and stock performance. We address endogeneity concerns through a DiD analysis utilizing staggered adoptions of universal demand laws across states.
{"title":"Corporate Investment Under the Cloud of Litigation","authors":"Benjamin Bennett, Todd Milbourn, Zexi Wang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3247688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3247688","url":null,"abstract":"We study the effect of legal risk on firms’ investment. Using legal risk measures based on the number of litigious words in SEC 10-K filings, we find legal risk reduces investment. Underlying mechanisms include both i) a financing channel, whereby legal risk reduces credit ratings, increases bank loan costs, and decreases borrowing, and ii) an attention channel, whereby legal risk consumes top-management’s attention. Accordingly, we find legal risk has negative effects on firms’ investment efficiency and stock performance. We address endogeneity concerns through a DiD analysis utilizing staggered adoptions of universal demand laws across states.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"91 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114801424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We propose a new entropy-based correlation measure (coentropy) to evaluate the performance of international asset pricing models. Coentropy captures the codependence of two random variables beyond normality. We document that the coentropy of international stochastic discount factors (SDFs) can be decomposed into a series of entropy-based correlations of permanent and transitory components of the SDFs. We employ the cross section of G-10 countries to obtain model-free estimates of all the components of coentropy at various horizons and we show that the generalization of the long-run risk model featuring two predictable components of consumption growth rates, global disasters, and recursive preferences can account for the composition of codependence at all horizons. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.
{"title":"The Term Structures of Coentropy in International Financial Markets","authors":"Fousseni Chabi-Yo, R. Colacito","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2341772","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2341772","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a new entropy-based correlation measure (coentropy) to evaluate the performance of international asset pricing models. Coentropy captures the codependence of two random variables beyond normality. We document that the coentropy of international stochastic discount factors (SDFs) can be decomposed into a series of entropy-based correlations of permanent and transitory components of the SDFs. We employ the cross section of G-10 countries to obtain model-free estimates of all the components of coentropy at various horizons and we show that the generalization of the long-run risk model featuring two predictable components of consumption growth rates, global disasters, and recursive preferences can account for the composition of codependence at all horizons. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115307547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Previous studies that have tested the pecking order theory have been inconclusive. In this paper, we use unique survey results for private Brazilian firms in order to investigate firms’ choice of capital structure. We document that ultimate owners of privately owned firms follow the pecking order theory, even in presence of subsidized loans. We also show that whether a firm is debt constrained or unconstrained does not affect this finding.
{"title":"Do Ultimate Owners Follow the Pecking Order Theory?","authors":"Rodrigo Zeidan, Koresh Galil, O. Shapir","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2747749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2747749","url":null,"abstract":"Previous studies that have tested the pecking order theory have been inconclusive. In this paper, we use unique survey results for private Brazilian firms in order to investigate firms’ choice of capital structure. We document that ultimate owners of privately owned firms follow the pecking order theory, even in presence of subsidized loans. We also show that whether a firm is debt constrained or unconstrained does not affect this finding.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130890405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Corporate cash holdings impact firms' product pricing strategies. Exploiting the Aviation Investment and Reform Act of the 21st Century as a quasi-natural experiment to identify exogenous shocks to competition in the airline industry, I find that firms with more cash than their rivals respond to intensified competition by pricing more aggressively, especially when there is less concern of rival retaliation. Financially flexible firms based on alternative measures respond similarly. Moreover, cash-rich firms experience greater market share gains and long-term profitability growth. The results highlight the importance of strategic interdependencies across firms in the effective use of flexibility provided by cash.
{"title":"Cash, Financial Flexibility, and Product Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in the Airline Industry","authors":"Sehoon Kim","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2886615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2886615","url":null,"abstract":"Corporate cash holdings impact firms' product pricing strategies. Exploiting the Aviation Investment and Reform Act of the 21st Century as a quasi-natural experiment to identify exogenous shocks to competition in the airline industry, I find that firms with more cash than their rivals respond to intensified competition by pricing more aggressively, especially when there is less concern of rival retaliation. Financially flexible firms based on alternative measures respond similarly. Moreover, cash-rich firms experience greater market share gains and long-term profitability growth. The results highlight the importance of strategic interdependencies across firms in the effective use of flexibility provided by cash.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122331755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We propose a simple methodology to evaluate a large number of potential explanations for the negative relation between idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent stock returns (the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle). Surprisingly, we find that many existing explanations explain less than 10% of the puzzle. On the other hand, explanations based on investors’ lottery preferences and market frictions show some promise in explaining the puzzle. Together, all existing explanations account for 29–54% of the puzzle in individual stocks and 78–84% of the puzzle in idiosyncratic volatility-sorted portfolios. Our methodology can be applied to evaluate competing explanations for other asset pricing anomalies.
{"title":"Have We Solved the Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle?","authors":"Kewei Hou, R. Loh","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2190976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2190976","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a simple methodology to evaluate a large number of potential explanations for the negative relation between idiosyncratic volatility and subsequent stock returns (the idiosyncratic volatility puzzle). Surprisingly, we find that many existing explanations explain less than 10% of the puzzle. On the other hand, explanations based on investors’ lottery preferences and market frictions show some promise in explaining the puzzle. Together, all existing explanations account for 29–54% of the puzzle in individual stocks and 78–84% of the puzzle in idiosyncratic volatility-sorted portfolios. Our methodology can be applied to evaluate competing explanations for other asset pricing anomalies.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114694035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper provides a quantitative perspective on Gene Fama’s influence on the scholarly community. He has more than 140,000 Google cites while the median number of citations for the Fellows of the American Finance Association is 32,792. Gene Fama has published highly-cited papers in six decades. His most impactful theoretical work took place earlier than his most impactful empirical work. While Gene Fama’s most impactful empirical asset pricing work was published in the Journal of Financial Economics, his most impactful theoretical/conceptual work was published in the Journal of Finance and in the Journal of Law and Economics. An important dimension of the impact of Gene Fama on the finance profession is through his Ph.D. students. These students include one Nobel prize winner, six AFA presidents, and four editors of top finance journals.
{"title":"Gene Fama's Impact: A Quantitative Analysis","authors":"G. Schwert, René M. Stulz","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.2496471","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.2496471","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides a quantitative perspective on Gene Fama’s influence on the scholarly community. He has more than 140,000 Google cites while the median number of citations for the Fellows of the American Finance Association is 32,792. Gene Fama has published highly-cited papers in six decades. His most impactful theoretical work took place earlier than his most impactful empirical work. While Gene Fama’s most impactful empirical asset pricing work was published in the Journal of Financial Economics, his most impactful theoretical/conceptual work was published in the Journal of Finance and in the Journal of Law and Economics. An important dimension of the impact of Gene Fama on the finance profession is through his Ph.D. students. These students include one Nobel prize winner, six AFA presidents, and four editors of top finance journals.","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130254411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Frictions in the labor market are important for understanding the equity premium in the financial market. We embed the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides search framework into a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with recursive preferences. The model produces realistic equity premium and stock market volatility, as well as a low and stable interest rate. The equity premium is countercyclical, and forecastable with labor market tightness, a pattern we confirm in the data. Intriguingly, three key ingredients (small profits, large job flows, and matching frictions) in the model combine to give rise endogenously to rare disasters a la Rietz (1988) and Barro (2006).
{"title":"Endogenous Disasters","authors":"Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, Lu Zhang, L. Kuehn","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1979625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1979625","url":null,"abstract":"Frictions in the labor market are important for understanding the equity premium in the financial market. We embed the Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides search framework into a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with recursive preferences. The model produces realistic equity premium and stock market volatility, as well as a low and stable interest rate. The equity premium is countercyclical, and forecastable with labor market tightness, a pattern we confirm in the data. Intriguingly, three key ingredients (small profits, large job flows, and matching frictions) in the model combine to give rise endogenously to rare disasters a la Rietz (1988) and Barro (2006).","PeriodicalId":142706,"journal":{"name":"Fisher: Dice Center for Financial Economics/Finance (Topic)","volume":"2016 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121325980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}