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Asset Sales, Firm Performance, and the Agency Costs of Managerial Discretion

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Author Info
Larry Lang
Annette Poulsen
Rene M. Stulz

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Abstract

We argue that management sells assets when doing so provides the cheapest funds to pursue its objectives rather than for operating efficiency reasons alone. This hypothesis suggests that (1) firms selling assets have high leverage and/or poor performance, (2) a successful asset sale is good news and (3) the stock market discounts asset sale proceeds retained by the selling firm. In support of this hypothesis, we find that the typical firm in our sample performs poorly before the sale and that the average stock-price reaction to asset sales is positive only when the proceeds are paid out.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 4654.

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Date of creation: Feb 1994
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Publication status: published as Journal of Financial Economics, 1995, pp. 3-38
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4654

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-29, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Miller, Merton H & Rock, Kevin, 1985. " Dividend Policy under Asymmetric Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1031-51, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Oliver Hart & John Moore, 1990. "A Theory of Corporate Financial Structure Based on the Seniority of Claims," NBER Working Papers 3431, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicolás S., 1945- & Sloan School of Management., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Working papers 1523-84., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management. [Downloadable!]
  5. Robert A. Korajczyk & Deborah J. Lucas & Robert L. McDonald, 1989. "Understanding Stock Price Behavior around the Time of Equity Issues," NBER Working Papers 3170, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Stewart C. Myers & Nicholas S. Majluf, 1984. "Corporate Financing and Investment Decisions When Firms Have InformationThat Investors Do Not Have," NBER Working Papers 1396, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Myers, Stewart C. & Majluf, Nicholas S., 1984. "Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have information that investors do not have," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 187-221, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Paul Asquith & Robert Gertner & David Scharfstein, 1991. "Anatomy of Financial Distress: An Examination of Junk-Bond Issuers," NBER Working Papers 3942, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Alexander, Gordon J & Benson, P George & Kampmeyer, Joan M, 1984. " Investigating the Valuation Effects of Announcements of Voluntary Corporate Selloffs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(2), pages 503-17, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Lang, Larry H. P. & Stulz, ReneM. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1989. "Managerial performance, Tobin's Q, and the gains from successful tender offers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 137-154, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Stulz, ReneM., 1990. "Managerial discretion and optimal financing policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 3-27, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. McConnell, John J. & Muscarella, Chris J., 1985. "Corporate capital expenditure decisions and the market value of the firm," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 399-422, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Jain, Prem C, 1985. " The Effect of Voluntary Sell-off Announcements on Shareholder Wealth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 209-24, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Reid W. Click & Paul Harrison, 2000. "Does multinationality matter? Evidence of value destruction in U.S. multinational corporations," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2000-21, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  2. Gayane Hovakimian & Sheridan Titman, 2003. "Corporate Investment with Financial Constraints: Sensitivity of Investment to Funds from Voluntary Asset Sales," NBER Working Papers 9432, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Bruce M. Burton, 2003. "Evidence on the extent of relationships among investment opportunity set proxies," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(7), pages 437-441, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. William Lang & Choon-Geol Moon & Loretta Mester & Joseph Hughes & Michael Pagano, 2001. "Do Bankers Sacrifice Value to Build Empires? Managerial Incentives, Industry Consolidation, and Financial Performance," Departmental Working Papers 200117, Rutgers University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Hege, Ulrich & Lovo, Stefano & Slovin, Myron & Sushka, Marie, 2006. "Equity and cash in intercorporate asset sales : theory and evidence," Les Cahiers de Recherche 859, Groupe HEC. [Downloadable!]
  6. Laeven, Luc, 2001. "International evidence on the value of product and geographic diversity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2729, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. Mara Faccio & Rajdeep Sengupta, 2006. "Corporate response to distress: evidence from the Asian financial crisis," Working Papers 2006-044, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  8. José Manuel Campa & Simi Kedia, 1999. "Explaining the Diversification Discount," Working Papers 99-06, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. William Gentry & David M. Schizer, 2002. "Frictions and Tax-Motivated Hedging: An Empirical Exploration of Publicly-Traded Exchangeable Securities," NBER Working Papers 9243, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Nicolaj Siggelkow, 1999. "Expense Shifting: An Empirical Study of Agency Costs in the Mutual Fund Industry," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 99-09, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
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