26 research outputs found

    On the Distribution of College Dropouts: Wealth and Uninsurable Idiosyncratic Risk

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    We present a dynamic model of college education where the students face uncertainty about their income stream after graduation due to unobserved heterogeneity in their innate scholastic ability. As students write exams, they reevaluate their expectations and may find it optimal to drop out and join the workforce without reaping the whole benefit of college education. The model shows that, in accordance with the data, poorer students are less likely to graduate and are more likely to drop out earlier than wealthier students. Our model generates these results without introducing credit constraints. Conditioning on measures of innate ability, we find in the data that poor students are at least 31 % more likely to drop and they do so around a year before rich students. ∗We thank Andrea Pozzi. We also benefited from comments by seminar participants at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System. Sarojini Rao provided excellent research Around 40 % of every cohort that enrolls in 4-year U.S. colleges drops out and there is a highe

    The Distress Premium Puzzle

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    Financial leverage, corporate investment, and stock returns

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    This paper presents a dynamic model of the firm with risk-free debt contracts, investment irreversibility, and debt restructuring costs. The model fits several stylized facts of corporate finance and asset pricing: First, book leverage is constant across different book-to-market portfolios, whereas market leverage differs significantly. Second, changes in market leverage are mainly caused by changes in stock prices rather than by changes in debt. Third, when the model is calibrated to fit the cross-sectional distribution of book-to-market ratios, it explains the return differences across different firms. The model also shows that investment irreversibility alone cannot generate the cross-sectional patterns observed in stock returns and that leverage is the main source of the value premium.Corporations - Finance ; Stocks - Rate of return

    The distress premium puzzle

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    Fama and French (1992) suggest that the positive value premium results from risk of financial distress. However, recent empirical research has found that financially distressed firms have lower stock returns, using empirical estimates of default probabilities. This paper reconciles the positive value premium and the negative distress premium in a model that decouples actual and risk-neutral default probabilities. Moreover, in agreement with the data, firms with higher bond yields have higher stock returns in the model. The model also captures the fact that book-to-market value dominates financial leverage in explaining stock returns. Finally, the model predicts that firms with higher risk-neutral default probabilities should have higher stock returns, a hypothesis that can be tested using credit default swap premiums.Corporations - Finance ; Default (Finance)

    On the distribution of college dropouts: household wealth and uninsurable idiosyncratic risk

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    This paper presents a dynamic model of the decision to pursue a college education in which students face uncertainty about their future income stream after graduation due to unobserved heterogeneity in their innate scholastic ability. After students matriculate and start taking exams, they reevaluate their expectations about succeeding in college and may find it optimal to drop out and join the workforce without completing an undergraduate degree. The model shows that, in accordance with the data, poorer students are less likely to graduate and are more apt to drop out earlier than are wealthier students. Our model generates these results without introducing credit constraints. Conditioning on measures of innate ability, in the data we find that poor students are at least 27 percent more likely to drop out of college and they do so sooner than wealthier students.College graduates ; Education - Economic aspects
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