THE DETERMINANTS of INITIAL STOCK REPURCHASES

We present univariate and multivariate evidence to show that firms which engage in initial stock repurchases have some specific economic and financial attributes when compared to size-and industry-matched firms. We find that initial repurchase firms are younger, have lower leverage and operating risk, and higher payouts, operating cash flows, profitability and market-to-book than matched non-repurchase firms. Compared to secondary or “seasoned” repurchase matched firms, these initial repurchase firms are also younger and have higher cash, profitability, sales growth and market-to-book, as well as lower payouts, leverage and retained earnings. Therefore, we analyze the determinants and motivations that may explain why firms repurchase their own stock for the first time by studying the theoretical hypotheses found in the financial literature that are most important in explaining initial stock repurchases. The results support the free cash flow and risk reduction signaling hypotheses and the flexibility motivation for conducting stock repurchases. We do not find strong support for any other theoretical explanations of stock repurchases, such as undervaluation signaling, timing, tax effects and options and dilution hypotheses.Stock Repurchases, Initial Stock Repurchases; Payout Policy, Theoretical Hypotheses.

THE CAPITAL and CASH FLOW SOURCES and USES of INITIAL STOCK REPURCHASE FIRMS

This study investigates the capital sources and uses of firms that are conducting stock repurchase transactions for the first time, both prior and subsequent to those financial operations. We hypothesize that this capital and cash flow analysis may shed some light about the relative importance of some financial motivations and theoretical hypotheses in explaining initial stock repurchases. In particular, our findings support the risk reduction signaling and the dividends substitution hypotheses as the primary drivers for the initial stock repurchase decision. We also find that the importance of the most theoretical explanations and financial motivations vary according to whether initial repurchase firms are also conducting acquisitions and significant divestitures, distributing cash dividends, relying on external financing and using debt or cash reserves.Stock Repurchases, Initial Stock Repurchases; Sources of Financing; Cash Flow Distribution.

The impact of the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework Agreement on electricity prices in MIBEL: A mixed-methods approach

European Union member countries signed the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework Agreement on October 24, 2014. This framework brings with it changes in the expectations of energy consumers and producers, which opens new avenues of research. This study examines and compares the behavior of spot electricity prices in the Iberian market, MIBEL, before and after the 2030 Agreement. We adopt a mixed-methods approach that combines a more traditional GARCH model with the qualitative fsQCA. The GARCH accounts for the well-documented characteristics of electricity prices: seasonality, high volatility, and price peaks. This method generates evidence from the Spanish and Portuguese data of reduced volatility and higher stability in prices after the signing of the 2030 Agreement. The fsQCA supports these results by identifying a larger number of paths that lead to price stability for the sub period after the signing of the 2030 Agreement.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Corporate governance and earnings quality : international evidence

We examine the relationship between corporate governance and earnings quality worldwide. Results suggest a substitute relationship between corporate governance and earnings quality. We find that the country effect is extremely relevant in shaping this relationship. Indeed, this relation is more pronounced in developed countries, in countries with strong investor protection. Our findings are consistent with the view that poor accounting information may force firms to adopt costlier corporate governance mechanisms, in particular in environments in which they are effective. Likewise, in such environments, firms with better quality accounting information may not need to invest so much in costly governance mechanisms.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Board Structure and Price Informativeness

We develop and test the hypothesis that private information incorporated into stock prices affects the structure of corporate boards. Stock price informativeness may be a complement to board monitoring, because the information revealed by prices can be used by directors to monitor management. But price informativeness may also be a substitute for board monitoring, because more informative prices can trigger external monitoring mechanisms, such as takeovers. We find robust evidence for the substitution effect: Stock price informativeness, as measured by the probability of informed trading (PIN), is negatively related to board independence. Consistent with the model's predictions, this relationship is particularly strong for firms exposed to external governance mechanisms and internal governance mechanisms, and firms for which firm-specific knowledge is relatively unimportant. We address endogeneity concerns in a number of different ways and conclude that our results are unlikely to be driven by omitted variables or reverse causality. The results are also robust to using different measures of price informativeness and different proxies for board monitoringCorporate boards, Independent directors, Price informativeness

Earnings quality and firm valuation: international evidence

This study uses a sample of over 7000 firms in 38 countries to investigate the relation between firm valuation and earnings quality. We find a positive and significant relation between firm valuation and an aggregate earnings quality measure based on seven earnings attributes (accruals quality, persistence, predictability, smoothness, value relevance, timeliness, and conservatism). This relation is particularly strong for firms with greater investment opportunities and more need for external finance, and for firms in low investor protection countries. Thus, firms are able to compensate for a weak legal environment by adopting higher earnings quality standards, particularly when they need to gain access to global capital markets. Overall, our findings suggest that firms with higher earnings quality are valued more highly in stock markets, supporting the idea that investors require a premium for the information risk associated with lower-quality earnings.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The determinants of initial stock repurchases.

We present univariate and multivariate evidence to show that firms which engage in initial stock repurchases have some specific economic and financial attributes when compared to size-and industry-matched firms. We find that initial repurchase firms are younger, have lower leverage and operating risk, and higher payouts, operating cash flows, profitability and market-to-book than matched non-repurchase firms. Compared to secondary or “seasoned” repurchase matched firms, these initial repurchase firms are also younger and have higher cash, profitability, sales growth and market-to-book, as well as lower payouts, leverage and retained earnings. Therefore, we analyze the determinants and motivations that may explain why firms repurchase their own stock for the first time by studying the theoretical hypotheses found in the financial literature that are most important in explaining initial stock repurchases. The results support the free cash flow and risk reduction signaling hypotheses and the flexibility motivation for conducting stock repurchases. We do not find strong support for any other theoretical explanations of stock repurchases, such as undervaluation signaling, timing, tax effects and options and dilution hypotheses.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The capital and cash flow sources and uses of initial stock repurchases firms

This study investigates the capital sources and uses of firms that are conducting stock repurchase transactions for the first time, both prior and subsequent to those financial operations. We hypothesize that this capital and cash flow analysis may shed some light about the relative importance of some financial motivations and theoretical hypotheses in explaining initial stock repurchases. In particular, our findings support the risk reduction signaling and the dividends substitution hypotheses as the primary drivers for the initial stock repurchase decision. We also find that the importance of the most theoretical explanations and financial motivations vary according to whether initial repurchase firms are also conducting acquisitions and significant divestitures, distributing cash dividends, relying on external financing and using debt or cash reserves.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How did regulation and market discipline influence banking distress in Europe? : Lessons from the global financial crisis

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the relationship between regulation, market discipline and banking distress. Design/methodology/approach – To address the empirical question put forward above, a multivariate logit model is applied to an international sample of 586 banks from 21 European countries in the period between 2000 and 2012. To give robustness to the results, different variables have been used to test the role played by market discipline and regulation as well as an alternative methodology known as duration/survival analysis. Findings – It can be found that market discipline is a good indicator in signalling banking distress, that is, market discipline has penalized more banks with a higher likelihood of being in distress. Nonetheless, as broadly acknowledged, market discipline was not sufficient per se to avoid banking distress in Europe. With regard to regulation, this paper evidences that the adoption of other regulatory measures beyond the simple transposition of changes occurred in the EU Directives such as borrowerbased measures and limits on pre-emptive exposures’ concentration, have contributed toward reducing the probability of distress of EU banks, showing that the introduction of this kind of measures was necessary and relevant. In addition, in this paper, it can be found that the NPL ratio, size, capital (including the well-known regulatory capital ratio, as well as the novel leverage ratio which discards the risk weights present in the former one) and liquidity are good indicators of banking distress which lead us to conclude that the new regulatory framework known as Basel III is on the right path to mitigate the probability that a new banking crisis similar to the last one takes place again. Research limitations/implications – The first limitation regards the period of time chosen, that is, from 2000 to 2012, empirically neglecting, to some extent the important regulatory changes occurred after the aforementioned period. Nonetheless, as mentioned in the Data and Methodology section, the period ends in 2012 because it is difficult to flag a reasonable number of banks’ bailouts afterwards, to properly run the type of model used in this paper. The second limitation is the fact that the possible changes in the risk management and risk assessment by institutions and in the behaviour of investors, acknowledge as weak and inappropriate before the on-set of the global financial crisis, albeit very relevant, are not in the scope of this paper.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the timing of initial stock repurchases

In this paper, we study the timing of initial stock repurchases for a sample of firms from their IPO onwards, using panel adjusted logistic regressions and hazard models to examine which variables may predict and theoretical hypotheses may explain these transactions. First, we find that initial repurchases (in comparison with non-repurchase firms) seem to have similar financial characteristics of dividend initiators (relative to matched dividend postpone firms), as reported by Kale et al., (2006) and Bulan et al., (2006). Second, our empirical findings in the two multivariate empirical approaches used are particularly consistent with the timing and undervaluation signaling hypotheses in explaining the timing of stock repurchases, consistent with the results of Jagannathan and Stephens (2003) for the likelihood of less frequent stock repurchases. We also offer some support for the risk reduction signaling, free cash flow and maturity hypotheses for initial repurchase firms which are also dividend payers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio