Search Results
Showing results 1 to 10 of approximately 12.
(refine search)
Journal Article
The effects of price limits on trading volume: a study of the cotton futures market
Will trading volume shift from a market with price limits to a closely related market without them? An examination of the U.S. cotton market reveals that trading volume does in fact move from a class of security that is subject to trading limits (cotton futures) to another that is not (options on cotton futures). The results add to the debate on trading limits by calling into question the limits' overall effectiveness.
Report
Board structure, antitakeover provisions, and stockholder wealth
This paper's regression analyses from a sample of 261 firms that adopted 486 antitakeover provisions (supermajority, classified boards, fair-price, reduction in cumulative voting, anti-greenmail and poison pills) in the 1984-1988 period indicate that the negative market reactions to antitakeover provisions vary depending on firms' board structures. This paper's empirical evidence indicates that while separating the positions of CEO and chairperson of the board reduces the negative effect, increased outsider representation increases negative market reactions.
Report
The performance of investment newsletters
This paper analyzes the recommendations of common stocks made by the investment newsletters followed by the Hulbert Financial Digest. We conclude that, taken as a whole, the securities that newsletters recommend do not outperform appropriate benchmarks. Our data provide modest evidence that the future performance of a newsletter is related to its past performance, when performance is measured by raw returns. However, evidence of persistence vanishes when performance is measured by abnormal returns. We find little, if any, evidence of herding, i.e., cross-sectional dependence of ...
Journal Article
Recent revisions to corporate profits: what we know and when we knew it
Initial estimates in the National Income and Product Accounts significantly overstated U.S. corporate profits for the 1998-2000 period. Subsequent revisions reveal that the profitability of the nation's corporate sector in the late 1990s was substantially weaker than "real-time" data indicated. An unexpected surge in employee stock options exercised-and perhaps, in some sectors, firms' inflated statements of profit-may help explain the large downward revisions.
Discussion Paper
Banks versus Hurricanes
The impacts of hurricanes analyzed in the previous post in this series may be far-reaching in the Second District. In a new Staff Report, we study how banks in Puerto Rico fared after Hurricane Maria struck the island on September 17, 2017. Maria makes a worst case in some respects because the economy and banks there were vulnerable beforehand, and because Maria struck just two weeks after Hurricane Irma flooded the island. Despite the immense destruction and disruption Maria caused, we find that the island’s economy and banks recovered surprisingly quickly. We discuss the various ...
Journal Article
Securities trading and settlement in Europe: issues and outlook
The institutional arrangements for trading and settling securities in Europe remain fragmented along national lines, making cross-border trading costly. Consolidation efforts are under way, however, and major market centers have now emerged in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Although the restructuring of trading and settlement systems should bring the European Community closer to its goal of a single capital market, changes in corporate governance and the competitive environment may raise significant regulatory issues.
Report
The effects of corporate antitakeover provisions on long-term investment: empirical evidence
This paper's empirical results indicate that the average effect of antitakeover provisions on subsequent long-term investment is negative. The interpretation of these results depends on whether one thinks that there was too much, too little, or just the right amount of long-term investment prior to the antitakeover provision adoption. We use agency theory to devise more refined empirical test of the effects of antitakeover provision adoptions by managers in firms with different incentive and monitoring structures. Governance variables (e.g., percentage of outsiders on corporate boards, and ...
Report
The effects of daily price limits on cotton futures and options trading
The New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) imposes price limits on the trading of cotton futures, whereby the price at which cotton futures trade during a day is restricted to a band centered around the previous day's close. However, the NYCE has no such restrictions on the trading of options on cotton futures. These exchange rules allow for essentially a controlled experiment to study the market participants' responses to the price limits on futures. We show that, as a higher fraction of the trading day is constrained by the price limit, futures volume significantly decreases, options volume ...
Report
Banks versus Hurricanes: A Case Study of Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria
We study Puerto Rico’s experience after the severe hurricane season of 2017 to better understand how extreme weather disasters affect bank stability and their ability to lend. Despite the devastation wrought by two category 5 hurricanes in a single month, we find relatively modest and transitory impacts on bank performance with no evident decline in lending capacity. We discuss various mitigants that help limit bank exposure to extreme weather and whether these mitigants may be vulnerable given the potential for more severe and more impactful climate events.
Report
The differential impact on stockholder wealth of various antitakeover provisions
This paper examines the relationship between the passage of six types of corporate antitakeover provisions (supermajority, classified boards, fair-price, reduction in cumulative voting, anti-greenmail and poison pills) and stockholder wealth. Our event study from a sample of 38l firms that adopted 486 antitakeover provisions in the 1984-1988 period indicates a strongly negative effect on stockholder wealth, supporting the management entrenchment view of antitakeover provisions. Moreover, the empirical results of this paper indicate that the market reacts equally negatively to both ...