In the first experiment, 4 pigeons were each presented with a recurring sequence of four key colors followed by the delivery of grain (block clock). Once the rate of pecking had stabilized, three of the colors were replaced, during different series of sessions, by a darkening of the key. The rate of pecking was reduced within those segments of the interval between deliveries of food during whic...

Upon systemic administration of apomorphine, a potent dopamine agonist, pigeons show a bout of pecking behaviour. When the drug is repeatedly administered a sensitization takes place that is associated with pronounced discrimination learning. Here we show that intra-cerebral injections of apomorphine in the periphery of the nucleus accumbens of pigeons also elicit pecking. We additionally show ...

We use the staggered introduction of a major financial reporting regulation worldwide as an exogenous shock to the information environment of individual companies and study whether treated firms change financing decisions consistent with the pecking-order theory. Exploiting within country-year variation in firms’ financing frictions, we document that financially constrained firms increase the i...

Using a novel information asymmetry index based on measures of adverse selection developed by the market microstructure literature, we test whether information asymmetry is an important determinant of capital structure decisions, as suggested by the pecking order theory. Our index relies exclusively on measures of the market’s assessment of adverse selection risk rather than on ex ante firm cha...