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Discussion Paper
The Rise in Equity Valuation Ratios
Recent discussions by some market participants have noted that a number of equity valuation ratios are elevated.
Working Paper
Profitability and the lifecycle of firms
Using data on listed and unlisted firms in the U.K., this study documents that average profitability changes systematically with age. In their early years, firms realize substantial profitability increases, while mature firms face slow declines in profitability. A model of endogenous profitability changes arising from product development captures this pattern. Investment in product development generates profitability increases for young firms while competitive pressures from new entrants lead to profitability declines for mature firms. In addition, the model predicts that young firms realize ...
Discussion Paper
Equity Issuance and Retirement by Nonfinancial Corporations
The Financial Accounts of the United States reports quarterly net equity issuance of nonfinancial corporations. To highlight the importance and potential use of our new data, we conclude this note by mentioning a few studies that have examined the determinants and consequences of equity financing.
Working Paper
The Monetization of Innovation
We develop a dynamic model for digital service firms, which invest in monetization to generate revenues from services provided to customers for free. Our model captures and explains why such firms often build a large customer base and become highly valued while continuing to suffer losses—traditional models would struggle to explain this pattern. Counterfactual analysis reveals that monetization uncertainty slows technological advancement by diverting resources away from innovation. We also show that regulation aimed at protecting user privacy has sizable adverse effect on firm size and the ...
Discussion Paper
Effects of Fixed Nominal Thresholds for Enhanced Supervision
Following the financial crisis, the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and the implementation of Basel III significantly changed the regulatory landscape in the U.S. This note discusses how the use of such fixed nominal thresholds impacts the extent of enhanced prudential supervision. Section 1 presents the various thresholds that are in place as of May 15, 2018. Section 2 analyzes the effect of these thresholds on the number and total assets of the affected banks, and examines whether the thresholds have caused any bunching of banks. ...
Working Paper
Finance and Productivity Growth: Firm-level Evidence
Using data on a broad set of European firms, we find a strong positive relationship between the use of external financing and future productivity (TFP) growth within firms. This relationship is robust to various measures of financing and productivity, and strengthens as financing costs increase. We provide evidence against a reverse-causality explanation by showing that this relationship arises from the component of TFP that is outside the information set of the firm. These findings indicate that financial development supports productivity growth within firms, and helps explain why economic ...
Working Paper
Capital ratios and bank lending: a matched bank approach
This paper examines the impact of bank capital ratios on bank lending by comparing differences in loan growth to differences in capital ratios at sets of banks that are matched based on geographic area as well as size and various business characteristics. We argue that such comparisons are most effective at controlling for local loan demand and other environmental factors. For comparison we also control for local factors using MSA fixed effects. We find, based on data from 2001 to 2009, that the relationship between capital ratios and bank lending is insignificant until the recent financial ...
Working Paper
Time-varying Volatility and the Power Law Distribution of Stock Returns
While many studies find that the tail distribution of high frequency stock returns follow a power law, there are only a few explanations for this finding. This study presents evidence that time-varying volatility can account for the power law property of high frequency stock returns. The power law coefficients obtained by estimating a conditional normal model with nonparametric volatility show a striking correspondence to the power law coefficients estimated from returns data for stocks in the Dow Jones index. A cross-sectional regression of the data coefficients on the model-implied ...