Essays in Corporate Finance and Investment

Essays in Corporate Finance and Investment
Author: Lin William Cong
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

This thesis consists of two essays that examine several problems in corporate finance and mechanism design. The central theme is endogenous agency conflicts and their impact on dynamic investment decisions. The first essay features auctions of assets and projects with embedded real options, and subsequent exercises of these investment options. The essay shows timing and security choice of auctions endogenously misalign incentives among agents and derives the optimal auction design and exercise strategy. The second essay studies implications of endogenous learning on irreversible investment decisions, in particular, how learning gives rise to asymmetric information between managers and shareholders in decentralized firms. Depending on the quality of the project, the optimal contract between principal and agent distorts investments in ways that has not been examined in the literature. Specifically, in Chapter 1 of the dissertation, I study how governments and corporations auction real investment options using both cash and contingent bids. Examples include sales of natural resource leases, real estate, patents and licenses, and start-up firms with growth options. I incorporate both endogenous auction initiation and post-auction option exercise into the traditional auctions framework, and show that common security bids create moral hazard because the winning bidder's real option differs from the seller's. Consequently, investment could be either accelerated or delayed depending on the security design. Strategic auction timing affects auction initiation, security ranking, equilibrium bidding, and investment; it should be considered jointly with security design and the seller's commitment level. Optimal auction design aligns investment incentives using a combination of down payment and royalty payment, but inefficiently delays sale and investment. I also characterize informal negotiations as timing and signaling games in which bidders can initiate an auction and determine the forms of bids. I show that post-auction investments are efficient and bidding equilibria are equivalent to those of cash auctions. However, in this setting, bidders always initiate the informal auctions inefficiently early. In addition, I provide suggestive evidence for model predictions using data from the leasing and exploration of oil and gas tracts, which leads to several ongoing empirical studies. Altogether, these results reconcile theory with several empirical puzzles and imply novel predictions with policy relevance. In Chapter 2, I examine learning as an important source of managerial flexibility and how it naturally induces information asymmetry in decentralized firms. Timing of learning is crucial for investment decisions, and optimal strategies involve sequential thresholds for learning and investing. Incentive contracts are needed for learning and truthful reporting. The inherent agency conflicts alter investment behavior significantly, and are costly to investors and welfare. But contracting on learning restores efficiency with low future uncertainty or sufficient liquidity. Unlike prior studies, the moral hazard of learning accelerates good projects and delays bad projects. Even the best type's investment is distorted, and only when learning is contractible can adverse selection dominate learning.

Essays in Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions

Essays in Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions
Author: Hoang Van Vu
Publisher:
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

The evolution of corporate debt markets in recent decades, especially short-term debt facilities and bank debt, has made funding more accessible for corporate borrowers. On the other hand, the changing environment of debt markets also creates new challenges for corporate borrowers. First, as the debt maturity structure has become shorter, companies face higher liquidity pressure. Second, since banks also increasingly rely on short-term wholesale funding, the maturity mismatch of bank assets and liabilities has widened, further increasing economy-wide liquidity risk. These problems were illustrated by the most recent liquidity crisis that lasted from 2007 to 2009. Understanding the implications of borrowing using short-term debt therefore is crucial for the modern corporate finance. Moreover, the issues regarding the maturity mismatch of the banking sector imply that fluctuations in bank credit might increase, as banks become more sensitive to liquidity constraints. This thesis explores a number of issues regarding the use of short-term debt by non-financial companies, as well as the implications of fluctuations in bank credit for corporate financial and investment policies. The thesis contains three empirical research essays, presented individually in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. The first essay investigates the implications of debt maturity structure on corporate investment activities in the presence of firm specific default risk. The second and the third essays examine the implications of bank credit cycles on corporate activities. Essay 2 studies the effect of bank credit cycles on firms' choice of external financing issues, whereas Essay 3 examines the effect of bank credit on corporate liquidity management policies and the spending on different types of investment.

ESSAYS ON CORPORATE FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE

ESSAYS ON CORPORATE FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE
Author: Serkan Akguc
Publisher:
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

The analysis of key corporate decisions is mostly restricted to publicly listed firms even though privately held firms constitute a substantial part of any economy. In this dissertation, my goal is to enhance our understanding of some of the important decisions of private firms, namely: cash holdings, investment and performance using unique and large cross-country samples. In the first chapter, I examine cash holdings of private, unlisted firms versus publicly traded firms in 33 European countries during 2002-2011. I find that the average cash-to-assets ratios are lower in the Eurozone than in non-Eurozone countries by 5.4% due to lower transaction demand under a single currency regime. Public firms have higher cash ratios than private firms. However, the difference in cash ratios between public and private firms is higher in the Eurozone than in non-Eurozone countries, reflecting that: (a) precautionary demand is higher in the Eurozone due to risks and pitfalls of policy coordination, and (b) economic adjustments and transfers in the Eurozone more directly affect publicly traded firms than private ones. Moreover, I show that, during the financial crisis, corporate cash ratios increased in the Eurozone, indicating that the increase in precautionary cash demand was greater than a decrease in transaction demand due to the adoption of the Euro. In the second chapter, I compare the operating performance and efficiency of publicly and privately held firms in the UK over the period 2003-2012. I find that privately held firms typically perform better than publicly traded firms. This finding is robust in various model settings, using industry and size as well as propensity scored matched samples, considering alternative definitions of operating performance, ownership structure and taking into account the endogeneity of firm's exchange listing choice. I also show that average operating profitability of public firms is even lower than that of private firms when both types of firms are financially constrained. Finally, I show that informational value of R&D is higher for private firms than it is for public firms. In the third chapter, I examine the relationship between time horizons and corporate investment, both on the firm and country levels, for private, unlisted firms and publicly traded firms using a unique dataset from 73 countries around the world during the time period of 2003-2012. I show that a longer time horizon (i.e. higher propensity to save and invest) on a cultural and country level also manifests itself as higher investment at the firm level. This is robust to using alternative proxies for the country-level time horizon. Investment behavior of private firms, not public firms, follows a country-level horizon pattern, which is reflective of close monitoring by fewer owners and the absence of stock market pressures in making investment decisions. When I consider time-horizon at the firm-level, we find that firms with a longer time horizon invest more, and this effect is more pronounced for public firms than for private firms, given the former's greater, easier, and cheaper access to capital in the public capital market. I also show that public firms invest more and are more responsive to investment opportunities than private firms.

Essays on Corporate Finance

Essays on Corporate Finance
Author: David Alan Crane
Publisher:
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation addresses issues in corporate finance. Part I examines the litigation environment of a firm and its impact on financial policy. Chapter 1 discusses prior research, including theory and empirical results, related to firm performance, financial policy, and litigation. It provides the background to support the empirical analyses of Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 2 examines the wealth effects of litigation events on the firms involved, as well as on their industry peers. I find that litigation events have a strong negative effect on both the firms sued, as well as their competitors. Chapter 3 examines whether managers use financial policy strategically when facing an increased risk of litigation claims. I find that greater litigation exposure leads firms to choose higher leverage. I show that this leverage increase is brought on by an active decision to repurchase shares. These repurchases appear to be financed with a combination of excess cash and short term debt as they coincide with a significant decrease in cash holdings and an increase in short term liabilities. These firms also increase their use of operating leases, which, due to their priority in bankruptcy, have similar characteristics as secured debt. Finally, the effects seem to be stronger for firms with a higher probability of bankruptcy. Part II asks whether there is a disposition effect in corporate investment decisions. Chapter 4 provides a summary of the existing literature related to the disposition effect and discusses both theoretical and empirical findings. In Chapter 5, I utilize the unique nature of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) to test for the presence of the disposition effect in corporate investments. The results show strong statistical evidence that REIT managers tend to sell winners and hold losers, where winners and losers are defined using changes in properties' prices since they were acquired. In addition, I find evidence that this behavior is consistent with the disposition effect. REIT managers are significantly less likely to sell properties that have a loss relative to a reference point based on inflation or historical average returns, controlling for the properties' recent returns.

Essays in Financial Economics

Essays in Financial Economics
Author: Rita Biswas
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2019-10-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1789733898

This volume, dedicated to John W. Kensinger, explores a variety of topics in financial economics, including firm growth, investment risks, and the profitability of the banking industry. With its global perspective, Essays in Financial Economics is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any researcher in finance.

Essays in Empirical Corporate Finance

Essays in Empirical Corporate Finance
Author: Shashwat Alok
Publisher:
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2013
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN:

This dissertation evaluates the role of political incentives, conglomeration and bankruptcy on firm performance and executive compensation. The first analyzes the role of political influence on the investment behavior of firms with majority government stake. The second chapter explores the impact of various externalities that may arise in multi-divisional firm on managerial compensation. In the third chapter, we investigate the impact of relative bargaining power of firms over creditors during bankruptcy on ex-post firm performance, once the firm emerges out of bankruptcy. Political interference has long been considered a major source of inefficiency in state-owned enterprises. However, empirical evidence regarding the impact of political influence on non- financial firms has been limited. We evaluate the influence of political factors on corporate investment decisions using a unique database of new investment projects announced in India, matched with electoral data at the district level for the period of 1995-2009. We find that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) announce a greater number of projects during election years, especially in politically competitive districts. The number of investments announced by central (state) government firms in election years is on average 36% (58%) greater in districts in which the ruling party won or lost the previous election by a narrow margin (

Essays in Corporate Finance

Essays in Corporate Finance
Author: Pavel Zryumov
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

This thesis studies the investment and financing decisions of firms in dynamic markets with asymmetric information. In the first chapter I analyze the effects of time-varying market conditions and endogenous entry on the equilibrium dynamics of markets plagued by adverse selection. I show that variation in gains from trade, stemming from market conditions, creates an option value and distorts liquidity when gains from trade are low. An improvement in market conditions triggers a wave of high-quality deals due to the preceding illiquidity and lack of incentives to signal quality. When gains from trade are high, the market is fully liquid; high prices and no delay in trade attract low-grade assets, and the average quality deteriorates. My analysis also reveals that illiquidity can act as a remedy as well as a cause of inefficiency: partial illiquidity allows for screening of assets and restores efficient entry incentives. I demonstrate model implications using several applications: early stage financing, initial public offerings, and private equity buyouts. Chapter 2, which is a joint work with Ilya Strebulaev and Haoxiang Zhu, reexamines the classic yet static information asymmetry model of Myers and Majluf (1984) in a fully dynamic market. A firm has access to an investment project and can finance it by debt or equity. The market learns the quality of the firm over time by observing cash flows generated by the firm's assets in place. In the dynamic equilibrium, the firm optimally delays investment, but investment eventually takes place. In a ``two-threshold'' equilibrium, a high-quality firm invests only if the market's belief goes above an optimal upper threshold, while a low-quality firm invests if the market's belief goes above the upper threshold or below a lower threshold. However, a different ``four-threshold'' equilibrium can emerge if cash flows are sufficiently volatile. Relatively risky growth options are optimally financed with equity, whereas relatively safe projects are financed with debt, in line with stylized facts. Finally, Chapter 3, which is based on an ongoing work with Ilya Strebulaev and Haoxiang Zhu, extends the analysis of Chapter 2 by allowing cash accumulation within the firm. We consider a firm whose managers possess superior information about the firm's value relative to the rest of the market and analyze the optimal timing of equity issuance. We show that equilibrium features socially inefficient, but privately optimal, delay of investment and equity financing of positive NPV projects. Waiting allows high quality firms to accumulate internal cash and increase investors' beliefs, therefore, reducing the cost of adverse selection. In the dynamic equilibrium low quality firms delay investment as well in hope of being mistaken for the high quality ones. However, when market beliefs are sufficiently low and/or internally accumulated level of cash is sufficiently high the low quality firm prefers to reveal itself.

Essays in Corporate Finance

Essays in Corporate Finance
Author: Nomalia Manna
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021
Genre: Corporations
ISBN:

Corporate strategies have always been an important part of the Finance literature. Firms and corporations constantly update their strategies and adopt new ways to combat the ever-changing market dynamics and reap benefits from various corporate activities. My thesis includes three essays that span over different strategies adopted by corporations and corporate boards to mitigate issues resulting from corporate deals, competition, and regulations. In the first essay, I examine if targets of serial acquirers retain or hire a specific type of financial advisors. Using pairwise matching between target firms and potential financial advisors, I find that 41% of firms targeted by serial acquirers use the financial advisor of a previous target of the same acquirer. After controlling for prior relations and reputation, I find that targets hire these advisors with a significantly higher likelihood than others. These targets earn higher returns and can complete deals sooner. On the other hand, serial acquirers suffer from lower returns. The results suggest that targets adopting this strategy of hiring "repeated advisors" gain an information advantage. The "repeated advisors" collect knowledge about the acquirers from prior deal negotiations and can transfer this information to the later targets. The results also provide a potential explanation for why serial acquirers perform poorly in their later deals. The second essay (with Sungjoung Kwon) studies the choices of corporate venturing by public corporations. While existing literature on corporate venture capital (CVC) primarily focuses on investments through CVC units, corporations frequently make investments in startups directly. We document that between 2000 and 2019, approximately 42% of deals made by U.S. public firms were through direct investments, and 90% of public firms with CVC units also made direct investments in startups. The agency hypothesis predicts that managers use direct investments to entrench themselves. In contrast, the organizational friction hypothesis posits that firms rely on direct investments to address immediate strategic goals. Our findings provide strong support for the organization friction hypothesis. Firms directly invest in startups whose operations are highly correlated with theirs and which are less likely to be potential investment targets of their CVC units. Using a difference-in-differences design around the introduction of Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud, we find that firms increase direct investments (but not investments through their CVC units) when the entry of startups increases. Overall, our findings shed light on choices of corporate venturing under different firm strategies. The final essay investigates the effects of merger objection lawsuits on acquirers and deal outcomes. In recent years these lawsuits have significantly increased in numbers, and a majority of them usually settle with the addition of more information to the proxy statements and substantive attorney fees. Since these settlements do not benefit the shareholders, most merger litigations are deemed as frivolous lawsuits in recent years. In response to this, in January 2016, Delaware Chancery Court introduced In re Trulia ruling, which states that the court will dismiss all lawsuits leading to "disclosure-only" settlements. This phenomenon lowered the massive volume of merger lawsuits faced by firms. Using this quasi-natural shock to the settlements of litigations, I find that acquirers incorporated in the states that adopted this ruling perform more acquisitions post-2016 and complete deals faster. I also find that such deals do not result in negative acquirer returns or higher offer premiums. Overall, the results indicate that this ruling provided some relief for the acquirers from the nuisance of the frivolous lawsuits.