Knowledge that Transforms

Abstract Generalizing Cooper-Kaplanis (1994), we estimate implied costs that reconcile international portfolios with InCAPM predictions. Costs depend on home- and host-country characteristics and on interactions; we estimate risk tolerance rather than pre-specifying it; and we control for currency risk, inflation hedging, fixed-interest investments, round-tripping and omitted countries. Estimates for developed markets are lower than reported before, but those for new markets are quite high: 2001-2004 inward shadow costs range from 0.01 %p.a. (US) to 37 (Indonesia). We find that equity home bias is related to a mixture of risks and frictions, such as information asymmetries, institutional factors and explicit costs.

Abstract The views on financial liberalization are quite conflictive. Many argue that it triggers financial bubbles and crises. Others claim that financial liberalization allows markets to function properly and capital to move to its most profitable destination. The empirical evidence on these effects is not robust. This paper constructs a new comprehensive chronology of financial liberalization and shows that a key reason for the inconclusive evidence is that the effects of liberalization are time-varying. Financial liberalization is followed by large booms and busts only in the short run. In the long run institutions improve and financial markets tend to stabilize.

Abstract I study the determinants of changes in credit spreads for U.S. dollar denominated domestic and foreign sovereign bonds using fundamentals specified by structural models to separate spreads into their credit and non-credit components. I find that the non-default portions of spreads have a component that is common for each type of debt. Further, using a vector autoregressive model, I find that domestic spreads are related to the lagged component of sovereign spreads. I also find that some proxies for liquidity are related to the common components, suggesting a liquidity-based explanation for the common component not identified by previous research.

Abstract This paper considers share repurchases as the way long-term shareholders preserve their ability to use corporate information for speculative purposes when insider trading regulation is enforced. This use of corporate information increases the adverse selection losses of short-term shareholders. Thus, buy-back programs reduce their incentive to invest in stocks that back the most productive technology, leading to a socially inefficient equilibrium. It follows that insider trading should not be banned when share repurchases are allowed. More generally, the paper argues that the regulation of insider trading and repurchases can not be considered in isolation, and analyzes their interplay.

Abstract This study documents patterns of investor behavior around Finnish rights issues. We find that shareholders of issuing companies lost at least €9.9 million in aggregate from 1995 to 2002 by exercising rights too early, selling rights in the open market below their intrinsic value, or leaving rights unexercised. At the investor level, the losses are modest. For example, the median household investor suffered a loss of €135 from not exercising or selling the rights. Investors with small portfolios, inactive trading history, those who know neither of the official languages in Finland, or who are living abroad leave money on the table the most.

Abstract The theoretical literature on security-voting structure can be organized around three questions: What impact do nonvoting shares have on takeover outcomes? How does disproportional voting power affect the incentives of blockholders? What are the repercussions of mandating one share - one vote for firms' financing and ownership choices? Overall, the costs and benefits of separating cash flow and votes reflect the fundamental governance trade off between disempowering blockholders and empowering managers. It is therefore an open question whether mandating one share - one vote would improve the quality of corporate governance, notably in systems that so far relied on active owners.

Abstract Entrepreneurial finance literature has highlighted that institutional investors are the main contributors to private equity funds. This paper complements these findings by documenting that institutional investors also invest directly in private equity. A major concern for such investments is the higher agency costs associated with private equity. We show that institutions invest in private firms with governance mechanisms that tend to reduce the expected agency costs and risk of minority expropriation. Good governance mechanisms further allow institutional investors to enjoy the benefits of syndication and thereby reduce idiosyncratic risk. In addition, we show that institutional investments tend to be followed by further improvements in corporate governance and tend to occur in high-growth firms within research and development intensive industries.

Abstract Firms can grow through internal investment or through acquisition. While internal growth takes time, an acquisition provides cash flows immediately. The opportunity to grow internally affects the price of an acquisition as it is a fall-back option for the acquirer should negotiations break down. Assuming investors do not have full information about the time a firm requires to grow internally, acquirers earn positive returns before the announcement of an acquisition, and there are negative stock price reactions to acquisition announcements. This research provides predictions about how pre-announcement price run-up and negative announcement returns relate to integration costs and synergies from acquisition.

Abstract We survey the empirical literature on disproportional ownership, i.e. the use of mechanisms that separate voting rights from cash flow rights in corporations. Our focus is mostly on explicit mechanisms that allow some shareholders to acquire control with less than proportional economic interest in the firm (dual-class equity structures, stock pyramids, cross-ownership, etc.), but we also briefly discuss other mechanisms, such as takeover defenses and fiduciary voting. We provide a broad overview of different areas in this literature and highlight problems of interpretation that may arise because of empirical difficulties. We outline potentially promising areas for future research.

Abstract This paper uses an optimal auction approach to investigate the conditions under which uniform pricing in IPOs is optimal. We show that the optimality of a uniform price in IPOs depends crucially on whether the (optimal) allocation rule is restricted. These restrictions may stem from the retail investors' budget constraint and/or from the institutional investors' preferences. We show that the main determinant of the optimality of a uniform pricing rule is the existence and the shape of the retail investors' budget constraint. In contrast, institutional investors' preferences are shown to mainly affect the optimal allocation rule.