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Alexander W. Butler

Bio: Alexander W. Butler is an academic researcher from Rice University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Underwriting & Equity (finance). The author has an hindex of 26, co-authored 67 publications receiving 2950 citations. Previous affiliations of Alexander W. Butler include University of Texas at Dallas & Louisiana State University.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors found that the difference in the investment banking fee for firms in the most liquid vs. the least liquid quintile is about 101 basis points or 21% of the average investment banking fees in their sample.
Abstract: We show that stock market liquidity is an important determinant of the cost of raising external capital. Using a large sample of seasoned equity offerings, we find that, ceteris paribus, investment banks' fees are significantly lower for firms with more liquid stock. We estimate that the difference in the investment banking fee for firms in the most liquid vs. the least liquid quintile is about 101 basis points or 21% of the average investment banking fee in our sample. Our findings suggest that firms can reduce the cost of raising capital by improving the market liquidity of their stock.

372 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: This article found that positive local media slant strongly relates to firm equity values, and the effect is stronger for small firms, firms held predominantly by individual investors and firms with illiquid or highly volatile stock, low analyst following, or high dispersion of analyst forecasts.
Abstract: When local media report news about local companies, they use fewer negative words compared to the same media reporting about non-local companies. We document that one reason for this positive slant is due to the firms’ local media advertising expenditures. Abnormal positive local media slant strongly relates to firm equity values. The effect is stronger for small firms, firms held predominantly by individual investors, and firms with illiquid or highly volatile stock, low analyst following, or high dispersion of analyst forecasts. These findings show that news content varies systematically with the characteristics and conflicts of interest of the source.

353 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper found that when local media report news about local companies, they use fewer negative words compared to the same media reporting about nonlocal companies, and that one reason for this positive slant is the firms' local media advertising expenditures.
Abstract: When local media report news about local companies, they use fewer negative words compared to the same media reporting about nonlocal companies We document that one reason for this positive slant is the firms' local media advertising expenditures Abnormal positive local media slant strongly relates to firm equity values The effect is stronger for small firms; firms held predominantly by individual investors; and firms with illiquid or highly volatile stock, low analyst following, or high dispersion of analyst forecasts These findings show that news content varies systematically with the characteristics and conflicts of interest of the source

321 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors exploit unique features of the U.S. municipal bond underwriting market to assess how political integrity affects primary financial market outcomes and show that state corruption and political connections have strong effects on several aspects of municipal bond sales and underwriting.
Abstract: We exploit unique features of the U.S. municipal bond underwriting market to assess how political integrity affects primary financial market outcomes. We show that state corruption and political connections have strong effects on several aspects of municipal bond sales and underwriting. Specifically, we find that higher state corruption is associated with greater credit risk, higher bond yields, greater use of external credit enhancement, and use of lower quality underwriters. States that are more corrupt can eliminate the corruption yield penalty by purchasing credit enhancements, effectively selling integrity-related default risk to an independent financial intermediary. Underwriting fees do not vary with cross-state corruption, but were significantly higher during an era when under writers routinely made political campaign contributions to win underwriting business. Furthermore, this pay-to-play underwriting fee premium exists only for negotiated bid bonds where underwriting business can be allocated on the basis of political favoritism. Overall, our results show a strong impact of state corruption and political connections on economic and financial outcomes.

206 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that state corruption and political connections have strong effects on municipal bond sales and underwriting, and that higher state corruption is associated with higher credit risk and higher bond yields.
Abstract: We show that state corruption and political connections have strong effects on municipal bond sales and underwriting. Higher state corruption is associated with greater credit risk and higher bond yields. Corrupt states can eliminate the corruption yield penalty by purchasing credit enhancements. Underwriting fees were significantly higher during an era when underwriters made political contributions to win underwriting business. This pay-to-play underwriting fee premium exists only for negotiated bid bonds where underwriting business can be allocated on the basis of political favoritism. Overall, our results show a strong impact of corruption and political connections on financial market outcomes. The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

179 citations


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Book
01 Jan 2009

8,216 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 1981
TL;DR: This chapter discusses Detecting Influential Observations and Outliers, a method for assessing Collinearity, and its applications in medicine and science.
Abstract: 1. Introduction and Overview. 2. Detecting Influential Observations and Outliers. 3. Detecting and Assessing Collinearity. 4. Applications and Remedies. 5. Research Issues and Directions for Extensions. Bibliography. Author Index. Subject Index.

4,948 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors comprehensively reexamine the performance of variables that have been suggested by the academic literature to be good predictors of the equity premium and find that by and large, these models have predicted poorly both in-sample and out-of-sample (OOS) for 30 years now.
Abstract: Our article comprehensively reexamines the performance of variables that have been suggested by the academic literature to be good predictors of the equity premium. We find that by and large, these models have predicted poorly both in-sample (IS) and out-of-sample (OOS) for 30 years now; these models seem unstable, as diagnosed by their out-of-sample predictions and other statistics; and these models would not have helped an investor with access only to available information to profitably time the market.

3,339 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Goyal and Welch as mentioned in this paper showed that many predictive regressions beat the historical average return, once weak restrictions are imposed on the signs of coefficients and return forecasts, and that the implied predictability of returns is substantial at longer horizons.
Abstract: Goyal and Welch (2007) argue that the historical average excess stock return forecasts future excess stock returns better than regressions of excess returns on predictor variables. In this article, we show that many predictive regressions beat the historical average return, once weak restrictions are imposed on the signs of coefficients and return forecasts. The out-of-sample explanatory power is small, but nonetheless is economically meaningful for mean-variance investors. Even better results can be obtained by imposing the restrictions of steady-state valuation models, thereby removing the need to estimate the average from a short sample of volatile stock returns. (JEL G10, G11) Towards the end of the last century, academic finance economists came to take seriously the view that aggregate stock returns are predictable. During the 1980s, a number of papers studied valuation ratios, such as the dividend-price ratio, earnings-price ratio, or smoothed earnings-price ratio. Value-oriented investors in the tradition of Graham and Dodd (1934) had always asserted that high valuation ratios are an indication of an undervalued stock market and should predict high subsequent returns, but these ideas did not carry much weight in the academic literature until authors such as Rozeff (1984), Fama and French (1988), and Campbell and Shiller (1988a, 1988b) found that valuation ratios are positively correlated with subsequent returns and that the implied predictability of returns is substantial at longer horizons. Around the same time, several papers pointed out that yields on short- and long-term treasury and corporate bonds are correlated with subsequent stock returns (Fama and Schwert,1977;KeimandStambaugh,1986;Campbell,1987;FamaandFrench, 1989).

2,258 citations

01 Jan 2016

1,631 citations