Research articles for the 2019-06-08

Bitcoin Speculation or Value Creation? Corporate Blockchain Investments and Stock Market Reactions
Autore, Don M.,Clarke, Nicholas,Jiang, Danling
SSRN
We study the stock price reaction to the first public news that a firm is investing in blockchain technology. The initial reaction averages close to +15% and is followed by a reversal over the next three months. However, reactions differ substantially based on the credibility of the investment and investors’ speculative tendencies. Investments associated with lottery-type stocks and higher investor attention and sentiment exhibit higher initial reactions but are followed by significant reversals. Blockchain investments that are at an advanced stage or confirmed in subsequent financial statements, however, are associated with higher initial reactions and little or no reversal.

Managerial Ownership and Corporate Cash Holdings: Insights from an Emerging Market
Abdioglu, Nida
SSRN
This paper examines the impact of managerial ownership on cash holding decisions of the firms listed in Borsa Istanbul 100 index between 2005 and 2013. Main aim of the study is to analyse whether there is any evidence for managerial alignment or managerial entrenchment effect on the corporate cash holdings. A non-monotonic relation between managerial ownership and cash holding is found. The findings indicate that managerial ownership aligns the interests of managers with those of shareholders. These firms with managerial ownership prefer to hold less cash. In addition, it is reported that at higher level of managerial ownership, entrenchment effect of managers is seen. Managers practice their own interests at the expense of shareholders’ and the firms with higher level of managerial ownership hold more cash. The results also reveal that prior year’s cash holding positively affects this year’s cash holding. Firm size, liquidity and tangibility are also effective on cash holding decisions of Turkish firms.

On the Determinants of Corporate Dividend Policy: A Tobit Model Approach
Abdioglu, Nida
SSRN
This study examines the factors that impact the dividend payout ratio of Turkish firms that are listed in Borsa Istanbul-100 Index for the period 2005-2013. Random-effect Tobit panel regression is used in order to investigate the determinants of dividend policy. According to the empirical results, firms which have higher cash flows, large firms, firms with high growth opportunities pay higher dividends. Although a significant coefficient for the managerial ownership can not be found for the whole sample, this variable negatively affects dividend payout ratio in dividend paying firms. Further, the sample is divided into two parts as low leverage firms and high leverage firms. The expected substitution among leverage, managerial ownership and dividend payments is investigated and a significant relation can not be found.

The Determinants of Capital Structure for the Manufacturing Industry Firms Listed in Borsa Istanbul
Abdioglu, Nida
SSRN
This paper investigates the factors that determine the capital structure of the manufacturing industry firms that are listed in BİST between the period 2009 and 2013. We use the data for 188 firms that are included in sub sectors of manufacuring industry. These sectors are food-beverage-tobacco, textile-wearing apparel-leather, paper and paper products-printing-publishing, chemicals-petroleum rubber-plastic products, non-metalic mineral products, basic metal industries, fabricated metal products-machinery-equipment, wood products including furniture. We use the ratio of total debt to total liabilities as a proxy for capital structure. We also use random effect panel regression to run our analyses. Our findings indicate consistent results with pecking order theory.

The Distortive Effect of the National Practitioner Data Bank on Medical Malpractice Litigation and Settlement
Maliha, George
SSRN
Congress created the National Practitioner Data Bank ("NPDB") in 1986 to address a concern that medical liability cases were increasing throughout the nation. In order to prevent physicians from moving from state to state in order to escape a poor outcome, the NPDB was supposed to provide a central clearinghouse of information for every physician in the country-regardless of where they practiced. However, the NPDB distorts medical malpractice litigation and settlement-harming defendant-physicians, plaintiff-patients, and insurers. The NPDB's brooding shadow over medical malpractice has led many litigants and commentators to term it a "blacklist." Part II explores whether this term is appropriate by describing the NPDB in the context of insurer-physician relations. This discussion will connect the well-described model of insurer-insured relations to the prescient concerns raised about the NPDB's potential distortive effect on litigation and settlement as the data bank was being enacted in the late 1980s. Part III will explore mechanisms to alter reports-and place a physician's "side" into the record kept by the NPDB. Attempts to alter reports have triggered litigation against reporting entities and the NPDB itself, and although they have largely failed, these suits illustrate the unique problems that the NPDB causes physicians. In Part IV, these unsuccessful suits will be contrasted against a body of law surrounding the accuracy of another putative "blacklist"-credit scores. Part V will begin to sketch out some basic policy recommendations.