Family Control and Financing Decisions

Empirical studies examining the financing decisions of the firm focus exclusively on publicly held firms, not family-controlled firms despite their economic importance. This study investigates the external financing behavior of family-controlled firms, using a comprehensive sample of 777 large European firms during the period 1998 to 2008. We document that, unlike nonfamily-controlled firms, the external financing decisions of family-controlled firms are influenced by control incentives and information asymmetry considerations. We find that family firms have a strong preference for debt financing, a noncontrol diluting security, while they are more reluctant to raise capital through equity offerings in comparison to nonfamily firms. We also find that credit markets, view family firms as more risk-averse and that family firms invest more in low-risk (fixed-asset capital expenditures (CAPEX)), than in high-risk investments (R&D expenditures) confirming their non-risk seeking behavior.Family firms, financing decisions, equity issues, debt issues, capital structure.

Split fermion quasi-normal modes

In this paper we use the conformal properties of the spinor field to show how we can obtain the fermion quasi-normal modes for a higher dimensional Schwarzschild black hole. These modes are of interest in so called split fermion models, where quarks and leptons are required to exist on different branes in order to keep the proton stable. As has been previously shown, for brane localized fields, the larger the number of dimensions the faster the black hole damping rate. Moreover, we also present the analytic forms of the quasi-normal frequencies in both the large angular momentum and the large mode number limits.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, version 2 added reference

Black hole quasinormal modes using the asymptotic iteration method

In this article we show that the asymptotic iteration method (AIM) allows one to numerically find the quasinormal modes of Schwarzschild and Schwarzschild de Sitter (SdS) black holes. An added benefit of the method is that it can also be used to calculate the Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter (SAdS) quasinormal modes for the case of spin zero perturbations. We also discuss an improved version of the AIM, more suitable for numerical implementation.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX; references added; substantially expanded versio

Angular Eigenvalues of Higher-Dimensional Kerr-(A)dS Black Holes with Two Rotations

In this paper, following the work of Chen, L\"u and Pope, we present the general metric for Kerr-(A)dS black holes with two rotations. The corresponding Klein-Gordon equation is separated explicitly, from which we develop perturbative expansions for the angular eigenvalues in powers of the rotation parameters with $D\geq 6$.Comment: 10 pages, no figures. To appear in the proceedings of 2011 Shanghai Asia-Pacific School and Workshop on Gravitatio

Bulk dominated fermion emission on a Schwarzschild background

Using the WKBJ approximation, and the Unruh method, we obtain semi-analytic expressions for the absorption probability (in all energy regimes) for Dirac fermions on a higher dimensional Schwarzschild background. We present an analytic expression relating the absorption probability to the absorption cross-section, and then use these results to plot the emission rates to third order in the WKBJ approximation. The set-up we use is sufficiently general such that it could also easily be applied to any spherically symmetric background in $d$-dimensions. Our results lead to the interesting conclusion that for $d>5$ bulk fermion emission dominates brane localised emission. This is an example contrary to the conjecture that black holes radiate mainly on the brane.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

THE OPERATIONAL HEDGING PROPERTIES OF INTANGIBLE ASSETS: THE CASE OF NON-VOLUNTARY FOREIGN ASSET SELLOFFS

In this paper we examine the valuation effects and long-term performance of U.S. multinational firms involved in forced transfers of their foreign operating assets during the 1965-1988 period. The evidence suggests that the operational hedging ability of the firm to address country risk (nationalization threats) is related to the level of its intangible assets. While it is well known that firms with high levels of intangible assets prefer foreign direct investment, our results show that intangible assets have hidden properties of protection against country risk as well. We document significantly negative abnormal returns only for divesting firms with low levels of intangible assets, but not for firms with high levels of intangible assets. In addition, we show that low (high) growth firms are involved in partial (complete) withdrawals, and show that the long-term economic performance of firms choosing the complete withdrawal strategy is better than those that opt to remain. We argue that management's attempt to maintain economic links in a hostile foreign environment can be attributed in part to the firm's low growth opportunities, performance, and lack of contingent plans to address country risk

Graviton emission from simply rotating Kerr-de Sitter black holes: Transverse traceless tensor graviton modes

In this article we present results for tensor graviton modes (in seven dimensions and greater, $n\geq 3$) for greybody factors of Kerr-dS black holes and for Hawking radiation from simply rotating (n+4)-dimensional Kerr black holes. Although there is some subtlety with defining the Hawking temperature of a Kerr-dS black hole, we present some preliminary results for emissions assuming the standard Hawking normalization and a Bousso-Hawking-like normalization.Comment: 12 pages, 18 figure

Security Analysis, Agency Costs, and UK Firm Characteristics

This paper assesses the monitoring power of security analysts from the manager-shareholder conflict perspective. Using a sample of UK firms tracked by security analysts, our evidence supports the view that security analysis acts as a monitoring mechanism in reducing agency costs. We also find that security analysts are more effective in reducing agency costs for smaller and more focused firms rather than larger and more diversified firms suggesting that for larger and more complex firms security analysis is less effective. The UK findings suggest that the monitoring role of security analysts is not restricted to the U.S. capital market environment.

Fermion excitations of a tense brane black hole

By finding the spinor eigenvalues for a single deficit angle (d-2)-sphere, we derive the radial potential for fermions on a d-dimensional black hole background that is embedded on a codimension two brane with conical singularity, where the deficit angle is related to the brane tension. From this we obtain the quasi-normal mode spectrum for bulk fermions on such a background. As a byproduct of our method, this also gives a rigorous proof for integer spin fields on the deficit 2-sphere.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur