In this paper, we use the definition of residual income to develop a framework that decomposes changes in net income into different components. The two components we focus on are the change in net income driven by investment (investment-driven growth), and the change in net income driven by improvements in the productivity of existing assets (productivity-driven growth). Building on the vast li...

Tests of the life cycle human capital investment theory using the implied restrictions on the covariance structure of earnings have not been favorable to the theory. The theory implies that earnings follow individual specific growth paths, which has been modeled as a random coefficient on experience, or “random growth.” The random growth model implies an individual effect in earnings changes. A...

Information asymmetry in stock market can increase the risk of investment which in turn increases the capital cost of firms. Bhattacharya (1979) proposed a hypothesis that states dividend can act as a powerful signal in order to solve information asymmetry problem. We measured information asymmetry by lack of earnings transparency. Therefore we examine the effect of earnings transparency on cap...

investment institutions with substantial shareholdings in a firm have the resources and incentives to monitor and influence management decisions. whether the institutions actually monitor and exert pressure on managers is an empirical question.this study is designed to provide insights into the monitoring role of institutional investors by examining whether institutional ownership affects the i...

This dissertation consists of two essays. The first essay provides a rational explanation of the mysterious earnings discontinuity phenomenon. It also develops two new empirical predictions which are supported by the empirical tests. The second essay identifies conditions under which leading indicator variables discourage long-term investment. Essay 1: Discontinuity in Earnings Distribution: A ...

Attending college seems to be a profitable and affordable investment in the US. Nevertheless, a number of academically talented young people still hesitate to attend college. This puzzle motivates this paper to test for whether college education is a risky investment. To measure the riskiness of college attendance, I estimate the risk differential in earnings between college attendees and high ...

The theoretical and empirical literature generally regards international migration as producing a cycle of dependency and stunted development in sending communities. Most migrants' earnings are spent on consumption; few funds are channeled into productive investment. We argue that this view is misleading because it ignores the conditions under which productive investment is likely to be possibl...

We argue that when immigrant earnings are considered in the context of post-arrival human capital investment: cohort quality should be defined in terms of the present value of the whole earnings profile; and, an appropriate definition of “macro” effects is obtained using the earnings profile of the native born cohort entering the labour market at the same time as an immigrant cohort. We illustr...

This paper provides a dynamic rational expectations equilibrium model in which investors have heterogeneous information and investment opportunities. Informed investors privately receive advance information about future earnings that is unrelated to current earnings. In response to good advance information, stock prices increase and informed investors act as trend chasers, increasing their inve...

We examine the effect of intangible investment on earnings non-commonality, defined as the extent to which a firm’s earnings performance is determined by firm-specific factors versus marketand industry-wide factors. Such insight is important in determining the appropriate weight to place on each of these factors when forecasting a firm's earnings. We measure earnings non-commonality as the unex...