We document that market reactions to insider purchases and sales are different in terms of price and volume. With an extensive data set that covers the period from 1991 to 2006, we systematically segregate the asymmetric effects of these two types of insider transactions. We follow the design of previous studies (e.g., Basu, 1997; Ball and Shivakumar, 2005, Leone et al. 2006) to understand the ...

The average cash holdings of Chinese-listed firms decreased significantly after the split share structure reform in China, which specified a process that allowed previously nontradable shares held by controlling shareholders to be freely tradable on the exchanges. The reduction in cash holdings is greater for firms with weaker governance and firms facing more financial constraints prior to the ...

Using an objective measure of executive facial attractiveness we find that shareholders value beauty. Specifically, more attractive executives are associated with a higher abnormal return around the announcement of their appointment as CEO. These results are strongest for insider appointments and relatedly, more attractive facial features increase the likelihood of an executive winning a tourna...

In this study, we identify a subset of nucleotides that specify aminoacylation of tRNA(Pro) by Escherichia coli proline tRNA synthetase in vitro. Twenty-two tRNA(Pro) variants were prepared by in vitro transcription and their efficiency of aminoacylation with proline (kcat/KM) was measured. From this analysis, we conclude that recognition elements for tRNA(Pro) aminoacylation by ProRS are locat...

The paper investigates market reaction to announcements of stock repurchases and dividends and determinants of choice between the two payout methods. The analysis uses data on Polish firms with the sample period encompassing a significant tax regulation change. The average announcement period abnormal returns are relatively high and exceed 6% for stock repurchases and 2% for dividend initiation...

This study investigates the relationship between gender diversity on board and dividend payouts in China using a large sample over period 2003–2017. Our results provide robust strong evidence showing that is positively associated with cash payments of dividends. The empirical outcomes confirm facilitates corporate governance subsequently promotes payouts. We demonstrate has greatest effect when...

Does option-based compensation have a causal influence on payout policy? To address this question we examine the adoption of mandatory expensing of stock options (via accounting standard FAS123R), a plausible exogenous shock to the use of option-based compensation. As FAS123R applies to all firms, our identification strategy exploits the fact that the reduction in option-based compensation in r...

Article history: Received 18 March 2009 Received in revised form 26 June 2009 Accepted 25 August 2009 Available online 4 November 2009 This study investigates whether prior experience of share repurchases matters in the market reactions to the subsequent repurchase announcements. Specifically, we study the prior record on actual buybacks and post-announcement stock performance. We find that upo...

This article examines founding family influence on pay-out policies for Swiss listed firms over the period 2003-2010. We find that founding family firms have higher dividends and total pay-outs than non-family firms. There is no significant difference between stock repurchases for the two types of firms. We show that specific firm characteristics such as active involvement of family members, th...

Article history: Received 7 January 2010 Accepted 13 August 2010 Available online 21 August 2010 This paper simultaneously analyses optimal dividend, debt and investment policy within a conventional multi-period DCF framework, and takes account of differential personal taxation over both investors and types of income, the effect of dividends and interest on the level of share issues and hence s...