Essays in Corporate Finance

This dissertation consists of three essays about firm financing. The first essay detects the bank-firm relationship in a transition country while the second and third essays address the importance of country factors in a company's capital structure decisions. The question of the extent in which the financial sector problems "spill over" to firms is an important issue to study and it is particularly under-explored in the context of transition economies, where the financial systems are fragile. In my first essay I study the effect of an Estonian bank's failure in 1998 on its corporate loan clients by comparing the performance of clients to that of a random sample of other firms. First, I analyze whether bank bankruptcy causes the bankruptcy of client firms. I find that client firms are less likely to survive until 2000 even after controlling for their pre- bank bankruptcy performance. Second, I analyze the behavior of firms' profitability, liquidity, and growth of fixed assets. I find liquidity to be the only variable that decreases for the client firms compared to the control firms after the bank bankruptcy. In my second essay I evaluate the importance of firm-specific, country- institutional and macroeconomic factors in explaining the firm leverage variation simultaneously. I use a large European...CERGEFaculty of Social SciencesFakulta sociálních vě

The size of the longest filament in the Luminous Red Galaxy distribution

Filaments are one of the most prominent features visible in the galaxy distribution. Considering the Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven (SDSS DR7), we have analyzed the filamentarity in 11 nearly two dimensional (2D) sections through a volume limited subsample of this data. The galaxy distribution, we find, has excess filamentarity in comparison to a random distribution of points. We use a statistical technique "Shuffle" to determine $L_{\rm MAX}$, the largest length-scale at which we have statistically significant filaments. We find that $L_{\rm MAX}$ varies in the range $100-130 \, h^{-1} {\rm Mpc}$ across the 11 slices, with a mean value $L_{\rm MAX}=110 \pm 12 \, h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. Longer filaments, though possibly present in our data, are not statistically significant and are the outcome of chance alignments.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

The Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey XII: Clustering of Galaxies

A clustering analysis is performed on two samples of $\sim 600$ faint galaxies each, in two widely separated regions of the sky, including the Hubble Deep Field. One of the survey regions is configured so that some galaxy pairs span angular separations of up to 1 deg. The median redshift is $z_{med}\approx 0.55$. Strong clustering is obvious, with every pencil-beam field containing a handful of narrow redshift-space features, corresponding to galaxy structures with sizes of 5 to 20 Mpc. The structures are not obviously organized on planes, though one prominent, colinear triplet of structures is observed, spanning $\sim 20$ Mpc. This may be evidence of a filament. A galaxy--galaxy correlation function calculation is performed. No significant evolution of clustering (relative to stable clustering) is found in the redshift range 0.3<z<1.0. This is not surprising, since uncertainties in the correlation amplitude estimated from surveys like these are large; field-to-field variations and covariances between data points are both shown to be significant. Consistent with other studies in this redshift range, the galaxy--galaxy correlation length is found to be somewhat smaller than that predicted from local measurements and an assumption of no evolution. Galaxies with absorption-line-dominated spectra show much stronger clustering at distances of <2 Mpc than typical field galaxies. There is some evidence for weaker clustering at intermediate redshift than at low redshift, when the results presented here are compared with surveys of the local Universe. In subsets of the data, the measured pairwise velocity dispersion of galaxies ranges from 200 to $600 km s^{-1}$, depending on the properties of the dominant redshift structures in each subset.Comment: accepted for publication in the Ap

Exploring star formation using the filaments in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Five (SDSS DR5)

We have quantified the average filamentarity of the galaxy distribution in seven nearly two dimensional strips from the SDSS DR5 using a volume limited sample in the absolute magnitude range -21 < M_r < -20. The average filamentarity of star forming (SF) galaxies, which are predominantly blue, is found to be more than that of other galaxies which are predominantly red. This difference is possibly an outcome of the fact that blue galaxies have a more filamentary distribution. Comparing the SF galaxies with only the blue other galaxies, we find that the two show nearly equal filamentarity. Separately analyzing the galaxies with high star formation rates (SFR) and low SFR, we find that the latter has a more filamentary distribution. We interpret this in terms of two effects (1.) A correlation between the SFR and individual galaxy properties like luminosity with the high SFR galaxies being more luminous (2.) A relation between the SFR and environmental effects like the density with the high SFR galaxies preferentially occurring in high density regions. These two effects are possibly not independent and are operating simultaneously. We do not find any difference in the filamentarity of SF galaxies and AGNs.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Final accepted version in MNRAS, in pres

The Local Dimension: a method to quantify the Cosmic Web

It is now well accepted that the galaxies are distributed in filaments, sheets and clusters all of which form an interconnected network known as the Cosmic Web. It is a big challenge to quantify the shapes of the interconnected structural elements that form this network. Tools like the Minkowski functionals which use global properties, though well suited for an isolated object like a single sheet or filament, are not suited for an interconnected network of such objects. We consider the Local Dimension $D$, defined through $N(R)=A R^D$, where $N(R)$ is the galaxy number count within a sphere of comoving radius $R$ centered on a particular galaxy, as a tool to locally quantify the shape in the neigbourhood of different galaxies along the Cosmic Web. We expect $D \sim 1,2$ and 3 for a galaxy located in a filament, sheet and cluster respectively. Using LCDM N-body simulations we find that it is possible to determine $D$ through a power law fit to $N(R)$ across the length-scales 2 to $10 {\rm Mpc}$ for $\sim 33$ of the galaxies. We have visually identified the filaments and sheets corresponding to many of the galaxies with $D \sim 1$ and 2 respectively. In several other situations the structure responsible for the $D$ value could not be visually identified, either due to its being tenuous or due to other dominating structures in the vicinity. We also show that the global distribution of the $D$ values can be used to visualize and interpret how the different structural elements are woven into the Cosmic Web.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure, Accepted for Publication to MNRAS-lette

Statistically significant length scale of filaments as a robust measure of galaxy distribution

We have used a statistical technique "Shuffle" (Bhavsar & Ling 1988; Bharadwaj, Bhavsar & Sheth 2004) in seven nearly two dimensional strips from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Six (SDSS DR6) to test if the statistically significant length scale of filaments depends on luminosity, colour and morphology of galaxies. We find that although the average filamentarity depends on these galaxy properties, the statistically significant length scale of filaments does not depend on them. We compare it's measured values in SDSS against the predictions of Lambda CDM N-body simulations and find that Lambda CDM model is consistent with observations. The average filamentarity is known to be very sensitive to the bias parameter. Using Lambda CDM N-body simulations we simulate mock galaxy distributions for SDSS NGP equatorial strip for different biases and test if the statistically significant length scale of filaments depends on bias. We find that statistically significant length scale of filaments is nearly independent of bias. The average filamentarity is also known to be dependent on the galaxy number density and size of the samples. We use Lambda CDM dark matter N-body simulations to test if the statistically significant length scale of filaments depends on these factors and find a very weak dependence. Finally we test the reliability of our method by applying it to controlled samples of segment Cox process and find that our method successfully recovers the length of the inputted segments. Summarizing these results we conclude that the statistically significant length scale of filaments is a robust measure of the galaxy distribution.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitte

On the kinematics of the Local cosmic void

We collected the existing data on the distances and radial velocities of galaxies around the Local Void in the Aquila/Hercules to examine the peculiar velocity field induced by its underdensity. A sample of 1056 galaxies with distances measured from the Tip of the Red Giant Branch, the Cepheid luminosity, the SNIa luminosity, the surface brightness fluctuation method, and the Tully-Fisher relation has been used for this purpose. The amplitude of outflow is found to be ~300 km/s. The galaxies located within the void produce the mean intra-void number density about 1/5 of the mean external number density of galaxies. The void's population has a lower luminosity and a later morphological type with the medians: M_B = -15.7^m and T = 8 (Sdm), respectively.Comment: Version 1. 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted to Astrophysics, Volume 54, Issue

A filament of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies

It is a firm prediction of the concordance Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmological model that galaxy clusters live at the intersection of large-scale structure filaments. The thread-like structure of this "cosmic web" has been traced by galaxy redshift surveys for decades. More recently the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) residing in low redshift filaments has been observed in emission and absorption. However, a reliable direct detection of the underlying Dark Matter skeleton, which should contain more than half of all matter, remained elusive, as earlier candidates for such detections were either falsified or suffered from low signal-to-noise ratios and unphysical misalignements of dark and luminous matter. Here we report the detection of a dark matter filament connecting the two main components of the Abell 222/223 supercluster system from its weak gravitational lensing signal, both in a non-parametric mass reconstruction and in parametric model fits. This filament is coincident with an overdensity of galaxies and diffuse, soft X-ray emission and contributes mass comparable to that of an additional galaxy cluster to the total mass of the supercluster. Combined with X-ray observations, we place an upper limit of 0.09 on the hot gas fraction, the mass of X-ray emitting gas divided by the total mass, in the filament.Comment: Nature, in pres

Minivoids in the Local Volume

We consider a sphere of 7.5 Mpc radius, which contains 355 galaxies with accurately measured distances, to detect the nearest empty volumes. Using a simple void detection algorithm, we found six large (mini)voids in Aquila, Eridanus, Leo, Vela, Cepheus and Octans, each of more than 30 Mpc^3. Besides them, 24 middle-size "bubbles" of more than 5 Mpc^3 volume are detected, as well as 52 small "pores". The six largest minivoids occupy 58% of the considered volume. Addition of the bubbles and pores to them increases the total empty volume up to 75% and 81%, respectively. The detected local voids look like oblong potatoes with typical axial ratios b/a = 0.75 and c/a = 0.62 (in the triaxial ellipsoide approximation). Being arranged by the size of their volume, local voids follow power law of volumes-rankes dependence. A correlation Gamma-function of the Local Volume galaxies follows a power low with a formally calculated fractal dimension D = 1.5. We found that galaxies surrounding the local minivoids do not differ significantly from other nearby galaxies on their luminosity, but have appreciably higher hydrogen mass-to-luminosity ratio and also higher star formation rate. We recognize an effect of local expansion of typical minivoid to be \Delta H/H_0~(25+-15)%.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures. Astrophysical Journal, accepte

The Sloan Great Wall. Morphology and galaxy content

We present the results of the study of the morphology and galaxy content of the Sloan Great Wall (SGW). We use the luminosity density field to determine superclusters in the SGW, and the fourth Minkowski functional V_3 and the morphological signature (the K_1-K_2 shapefinders curve) to show the different morphologies of the SGW, from a single filament to a multibranching, clumpy planar system. The richest supercluster in the SGW, SCl~126 and especially its core resemble a very rich filament, while another rich supercluster in the SGW, SCl~111, resembles a "multispider" - an assembly of high density regions connected by chains of galaxies. Using Minkowski functionals we study the substructure of individual galaxy populations determined by their color in these superclusters. We assess the statistical significance of the results with the halo model and smoothed bootstrap. We study the galaxy content and the properties of groups of galaxies in two richest superclusters of the SGW, paying special attention to bright red galaxies (BRGs) and to the first ranked galaxies in SGW groups. About 1/3 of BRGs are spirals. The scatter of colors of elliptical BRGs is smaller than that of spiral BRGs. About half of BRGs and of first ranked galaxies in groups have large peculiar velocities. Groups with elliptical BRGs as their first ranked galaxies populate superclusters more uniformly than the groups, which have a spiral BRG as its first ranked galaxy. The galaxy and group content of the core of the supercluster SCl~126 shows several differences in comparison with the outskirts of this supercluster and with the supercluster SCl~111. Our results suggest that the formation history and evolution of individual neighbour superclusters in the SGW has been different.Comment: Comments: 26 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in Ap