Financial Policy and Ownership Stability

Abstract

I investigate the relationship between corporate financial policy and the ownership stability of a firm's institutional shareholders. In each chapter of my dissertation I empirically investigate this relationship in a different setting: the first chapter with respect to earnings management, the second chapter with respect to corporate spin-offs, and the third chapter with respect to payout policy. Unique to my research I utilize the complete ownership history of each institutional stock position to create measures of ownership stability including fund investment horizon and ownership length. Overall, I find significant relationships between each one of the three financial policies and measures of ownership stability.