We examine the effect of credit default swaps (CDSs) on debt specialization. We argue that reference firms in CDS contracts, seeking to minimize creditor conflicts and bankruptcy costs, exhibit higher debt concentration than firms on which no CDSs are traded. Our results show that firms engage in greater debt specialization and are more likely to specialize following the inception of CDS trading. Additionally, we find that, while lender concentration in firms increases, the number of bank lenders drops, lead arranger share rises, and the probability that lead arrangers and lenders are repeated increases following the onset of CDS trading. Our results are robust to instrumental variable estimation, propensity-score matching, different model specifications, and different subsamples.

Prior research has demonstrated that CEOs learn privileged information from their social connections. Going beyond the importance of the number of social ties in a CEO's social network, this paper studies the value generated from a diverse social environment. We construct an index of social-network heterogeneity (SNH) that captures the extent to which CEOs are connected to people of different demographic attributes and skill sets. We find that higher CEO SNH leads to greater firm value through the channels of better corporate innovation and diversified M&As. Overall, the evidence suggests that CEOs' exposure to human diversity enhances social learning and creates greater growth opportunities for firms.

[We reevaluate the IPO underpricing phenomenon using the stochastic frontier methodology. The advantage of the stochastic frontier is that it can be used to measure the level of deliberate underpricing in the premarket without using aftermarket information. This is accomplished through the estimation of a systematic one-sided error term that measures "inefficiency" or the difference between the maximum predicted offer price and the actual offer price. Data for the analysis are comprised of 1,035 IPOs of common stock issued by firm commitment between 1975 and 1984. IPOs appear to be deliberately underpriced in the premarket in both hot-market and nonhot-market periods. Moreover, the determinants of the maximum IPO price have different effects in the two time periods.]

We reevaluate the IPO underpricing phenomenon using the stochastic frontier methodology. The advantage of the stochastic frontier is that it can be used to measure the level of deliberate underpricing in the premarket without using after-market information. This is accomplished through the estimation of a systematic one-sided error term that measures “inefficiency” or the difference between the maximum predicted offer price and the actual offer price. Data for the analysis are comprised of 1,035 IPOs of common stock issued by firm commitment between 1975 and 1984. IPOs appear to be deliberately underpriced in the premarket in both hot-market and nonhot-market periods. Moreover, the determinants of the maximum IPO price have different effects in the two time periods.

We examine the impact of stock-price formation process on firms’ dividend smoothing using Regulation SHO. We find that pilot firms are more likely to increase dividends and less likely to omit them during the pilot program; however, they are more likely to decrease dividends after the program ends. These firms also smooth less and have higher adjustment speeds. Our findings are more pronounced for firms with higher information asymmetry, stronger financials, and weaker governance. In general, this study shows that financial markets tend to have a significant and long-lasting impact on dividend smoothing policy.

We examine the performance impact of the relative quality of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO)’s compensation peers (peers to determine a CEO's overall compensation) and bonus peers (peers to determine a CEO's relative-performance-based bonus). We use the fraction of peers with greater managerial ability scores (Demerjian, Lev, and McVay, 2012) than the reporting firm to measure this CEO's relative peer quality (RPQ). We find that firms with higher RPQ earn higher stock returns and experience higher profitability growth than firms with lower RPQ. Learning among peers and the increased incentive to work harder induced by the peer-based tournament contribute to RPQ's performance effect.

We investigate whether trades made by chief financial officers (CFOs) reveal more information about future stock returns than those by chief executive officers (CEOs). We find that CFOs earn statistically and economically higher abnormal returns following their purchases of company shares than CEOs. During 1992–2002, CFOs earned an average 12-month excess return that is 5% higher than that by CEOs. The superior performance by CFOs occurs notwithstanding controls for risk factors and persists even after their trades are publicly disclosed. Further analysis shows that CFO purchases are associated with more positive future earnings surprises than CEO purchases, suggesting that CFOs incorporate better information about future earnings.

We show that firms’ organization capital has a positive and economically important impact on innovation. Specifically, we find that firms with more organization capital have greater number of patents and receive more citations on their patents. The results are robust to alternative measures of organization capital and innovation, and endogeneity concerns. We also find that the ability to handle inherent difficulties associated with the innovation process and the reduction in managerial career concern threats are possible mechanisms through which organization capital affects firm innovation positively. These results provide strong evidence of the importance of a firm’s organization capital in their innovation process.

This paper tests the effects of banking deregulation on the cash policies of nonbanking firms in the United States. We document a significant and negative relation between intrastate banking deregulation and corporate cash holdings. We show that the negative relation is driven by financially constrained firms, especially by constrained firms with low hedging needs. Further, we construct indexes measuring the intensity of bank consolidation in local markets. We find that the intensity of in-market bank mergers is negatively related to corporate cash holdings. However, in-market bank mergers in highly concentrated markets tend to be positively related to corporate cash holdings.