This paper evaluates a new nonparametric rank test for abnormal security-price performance in event studies. Simulations with daily security-return data show that the rank test is better specified under the null hypothesis and more powerful under the alternative hypothesis than the parametric t-test. Unlike previous nonparametric tests, this rank test does not require symmetry in cross-sectional excess returns distributions for correct specification.

We analyze the pricing of 63 block trades between 1978 and 1982 involving at least 5% of the common stock of NYSE or Amex corporations. These blocks are typically priced at substantial premiums to the post-announcement exchange price. We argue that the premiums, which average 20%, reflect private benefits that accrue exclusively to the blockholder because of his voting power. The premiums paid by both individual and corporate block purchasers increase with firm size, fractional ownership, and firm performance. Individuals pay larger premiums for firms with greater leverage, lower stock-return variance, and large cash holdings.

This paper tests Baron's (1982) model of initial public offering (IPO) underpricing. That model relies on information asymmetries between issuers and underwriters and predicts that offer prices will be lower than would prevail in the absence of asymmetric information. We examine the initial public offerings of 38 investment banks that went public in the period 1970–1987 and participated in the distribution of their own securities. We find that contrary to the implication of Baron's model such self-marketed offerings are characterized by statistically significant underpricing comparable to that of other IPOs.

Using weekly call option prices on twenty-five stocks over a ten-year period (1975–1985) and calls on the S&P 500 stock-index futures, we find that ex ante market volatility follows a mixed mean-reverting diffusion with noise process. Changes in volatility are correlated across stocks and a marketwide volatility effect is found. Strong forces pull the volatility back to its long-term value. The findings suggest the development of new option pricing models.

This study examines the variance of returns on common stocks around the time exchange-traded options are listed on these stocks. The evidence indicates that stock return variance declines after options listing, and that this phenomenon is not fully explained by contemporaneous shifts in market volatility. In addition, stock market trading volume increases, on average, after options are listed on firms' stocks. I examine the hypothesis that the variance changes are related to changes in ‘trading noise” in the stock, but find little direct support for this explanation.

This paper investigates the hypothesis that bank loans convey information to the capital market regarding the value of the borrowing firm. Unlike previous researchers, we distinguished between new bank loans and loan renewals. For new loans, the excess stock return for borrowers around the loan announcement is not significantly different from zero. For favorable loan revisions, the excess return is significantly positive: for unfavorable revisions, it is significantly negative. We interpret these results to imply that banks play an important role as transmitters of information in capital markets, but new bank loans per se do not communicate information.