The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This is the eighth most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function - By Michael C. Jensen - 22,687 downloads.
Abstract
"This paper examines the role of the corporate objective function in corporate productivity and efficiency, social welfare, and the accountability of managers and directors. I argue that since it is logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension, purposeful behavior requires a single valued objective function. Two hundred years of work in economics and finance implies that in the absence of externalities and monopoly (and when all goods are priced), social welfare is maximized when each firm in an economy maximizes its total market value. Total value is not just the value of the equity but also includes the market values of all other financial claims including debt, preferred stock, and warrants."
Number 9.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - July 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - June 30, 2009
The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This is the seventh most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
Taxes, Financing Decisions, and Firm Value - By Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French - 22,946 downloads.
Abstract
"We use cross-section regressions to study how a firm's value is related to dividends and debt. With a good control for profitability, the regressions can measure how the taxation of dividends and debt affects firm value. Simple tax hypotheses say that value is negatively related to dividends and positively related to debt. We find the opposite. We infer that dividends and debt convey information about profitability (expected net cash flows) missed by a wide range of control variables. This information about profitability obscures any tax effects of financing decisions."
Number 8.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - June 28, 2009
The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This article is the sixth most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
A Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation - By Mebane T. Faber - 27,692 downloads.
Abstract
"The purpose of this paper is to present a simple quantitative method that improves the risk-adjusted returns across various asset classes. A simple moving average timing model is tested since 1900 on the United States equity market before testing since 1973 on other diverse and publicly traded asset class indices, including the Morgan Stanley Capital International EAFE Index (MSCI EAFE), Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI), National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Index (NAREIT), and United States government 10-year Treasury bonds. The approach is then examined in a tactical asset allocation framework where the empirical results are equity-like returns with bond-like volatility and drawdown."
Number 7.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - June 26, 2009
The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This article is the fifth most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
Value Based Management: Economic Value Added or Cash Value Added? By Fredrik Weissenrieder - 28,505 downloads
Abstract
"What we use today to follow up a company's profitability and value creation is inconsistent with the capital market's mechanism, and what the market considers determines value--it is therefore imprecise and irrelevant. The accounting used will not any longer be a sufficient provider of financial information. Companies will experience a demand for more precise tools, both when it comes to metrics and the tool's ingredients (relevance) due to the increasing activity among shareholders/investors. The relevance in financial management must be dramatically improved. Companies must now identify the Value Based Management (VBM) concept that will best initiate a higher degree of Shareholder Value awareness in the company. A true VBM framework is consistent with the market's mechanism and our four factors that, according to the capital markets, determine value. The metric must be precise and relevant. Not random and irrelevant as accounting is today as a decision base."
Number 6.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - June 24, 2009
The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This article is the fourth most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
Value Versus Growth: The International Evidence - Eugene F. Fama and Kenneth R. French - 29,559 downloads.
Abstract
"Value stocks have higher returns than growth stocks in markets around the world. For 1975-95, the difference between the average returns on global portfolios of high and low book-to-market stocks is 7.60% per year, and value stocks outperform growth stocks in 12 of 13 major markets. An international CAPM cannot explain the value premium, but a two-factor model that includes a risk factor for relative distress captures the value premium in international returns."
Number 5.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - June 22, 2009
The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This is the third most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
A Comparison of Dividend, Cash Flow, and Earnings Approaches to Equity Valuation
Stephen H. Penman and Theodore Sougiannis - 37,934 downloads
Abstract
"Standard formulas for valuing the equity of going concerns require prediction of payoffs "to infinity" but practical analysis requires that they be predicted over finite horizons. This truncation inevitably involves (often troublesome) "terminal value" calculations. This paper contrasts dividend discount techniques, discounted cash flow analysis, and techniques based on accrual earnings when applied to a finite-horizon valuation. Valuations based on average ex-post payoffs over various horizons, with and without terminal value calculations, are compared with (ex-ante) market prices to give an indication of the error introduced by each technique in truncating the horizon. Comparisons of these errors show that accrual earnings techniques dominate free cash flow and dividend discounting approaches. Further, the relevant accounting features of techniques that make them less than ideal for finite horizon analysis are discovered. Conditions where a given technique requires particularly long forecasting horizons are identified and the performance of the alternative techniques under those conditions is examined."
Number 4.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Daily Link Orgy - June 20, 2009
The Social Science Research Network is an excellent source of academic papers regarding many different topics. Don't be misled by the Social Science name, as the site has many financial and investing related papers.
Over the next week or so, I will post a list of the top ten downloaded financial or investing related papers. Some of them are classics and some may be a little surprising. Most of them are free to download as well.
This article is the second most downloaded paper related to a financial or investing topic.
Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure
Michael C. Jensen and William H. Meckling - Downloaded 57,828 times
Abstract
"This paper integrates elements from the theory of agency, the theory of property rights and the theory of finance to develop a theory of the ownership structure of the firm. We define the concept of agency costs, show its relationship to the 'separation and control' issue, investigate the nature of the agency costs generated by the existence of debt and outside equity, demonstrate who bears the costs and why, and investigate the Pareto optimality of their existence. We also provide a new definition of the firm, and show how our analysis of the factors influencing the creation and issuance of debt and equity claims is a special case of the supply side of the completeness of markets problem."
Just to show how influential this paper is, it has been cited 2,180 times in other academic papers.
Number 3.
