Sudipto Dasgupta

Managing procurement auctions

Three mechanisms are considered that extend the standard fixed quantity auction: (I) sole sourcing with output chosen in advance by a buyer with downward-sloping demand; (II) sole sourcing with an output schedule based on revelation of cost parameters; and (III) multiple sourcing with output allocation across suppliers based on revelation of cost parameters. Procedures are characterized for the sole sourcing and multiple sourcing problems that implement the buyers optimal mechanism.

Transparency, Price Informativeness, and Stock Return Synchronicity: Theory and Evidence

This paper argues that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, stock return synchronicity (or R2) can increase when transparency improves. In a simple model, we show that, in more transparent environments, stock prices should be more informative about future events. Consequently, when the events actually happen in the future, there should be less “surprise†(i.e., less new information is impounded into the stock price). Thus a more informative stock price today means higher return synchronicity in the future. We find empirical support for our theoretical predictions in 3 settings: namely, firm age, seasoned equity offerings (SEOs), and listing of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).

Sunk Investment, Bargaining and Choice of Capital Structure

This paper shows how a firm might optimally choose debt to affect the outcome of bilateral bargaining with workers or other input suppliers. It is shown that debt may alleviate the well-known underinvestment problem associated. with the inability to write precommitment contracts. Also, in such circumstances, debt could be Pareto improving over complete equity financing. The relationship between the optimal level of debt and asset specificity of investmen t and bargaining power of the firm vis-a-vis the workers is explored. The Williamson conjecture that higher asset specificity will lead to less debt is shown not to be valid in general. Copyright 1993 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Bargaining and brinkmanship : capital structure choice by regulated firms

A bargaining model of regulation is developed. It is shown that regulated firms can improve their bargaining positions and induce the regulator to set higher prices for firm output by choosing more debt. Firms, in choosing an optimal level of debt, trade off this bargaining advantage against expected bankruptcy costs. The model predicts that firms would tend to choose higher levels of debt in harsher regulatory environments. This prediction is shown to be consistent with cross-sectional evidence for U.S. electric utilities for the sample period 1972–1983.

Contractual incompleteness and the optimality of equity joint ventures

Firms engaged in the pooling of complementary skills often choose the Equity Joint Venture (EJV) over alternative profit-sharing arrangements. This paper addresses the issue of how equity shares are different from profit shares. It is shown that, in settings of contractual incompleteness, marketable equity ownership, when compared to non-transferable profit-sharing contracts, provides better ex ante incentives to the parties involved by mitigating ex post hold-up problems. Among other things, the prevalence of the 51–49 or 50–50 EJV in which one party has 51 percent (or 50 percent) equity shares is explained.

Bargaining, Bonding, and Partial Ownership

This article provides a theory of interfirm partial ownership. We consider a setting in which an upstream firm can make two alternative types of investment: either specific investment that only a particular downstream firm can use or general investment that any downstream firm is capable of using. When the benefits from specific and general investments are both stochastic, equity participation by the downstream firm in the upstream firm can lead to more efficient outcomes than take-or-pay contracts. The optimal ownership stake of the downstream firm is less than 50 percent under a natural assumption about relative bargaining power.

Where did all the dollars go? The effect of cash flows on capital and asset structure

This paper documents the short- and long-term balance sheet effect of cash flows. We show that cash savings in the short run and debt reduction in both the short and the long run account for a substantial fraction of cash flow use. Although, in the long run, investment exhibits substantial sensitivity to cash flows, investment does not absorb the entire cash flow shock. In fact, the tighter the financial constraints, the smaller the fraction of cash flow absorbed by investment and the more by leverage reduction. Firms stage their response to increases in cash flow, delaying investment while building up cash stocks and reducing leverage. These results suggest that much of the short-run economic effect of cash flow shocks to the corporate sector may be channeled into the corporate debt market rather than the capital goods market, especially when financing constraints tighten.

Discipline or Disruption? Stakeholder Relationships and the Effect of Takeover Threat

Although a sizable literature suggests that firms benefit from vulnerability to takeovers because it reduces agency problems, the threat of takeovers can also impose ex ante costs on firms by adversely affecting relationships with important stakeholders, such as major customers. We find that when firms have corporate customers as important stakeholders, an exogenous reduction in the threat of takeovers increases their ability to attract new customers and strengthens their relationships with existing customers, resulting in improvement in operating performance. The positive effect on operating performance is greater for suppliers that are likely to offer unique and durable products to their customers. Our results suggest a beneficial aspect of protection from takeovers when stakeholder relationships are important. Data, as supplemental material, are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2252 . This paper was accepted by Wei Jiang, finance.

The Relationship between Ownership, Financing Decisions and Firm Performance: A Signaling Model

The authors develop a signaling model to show how adverse selection and moral hazard interact to determine a firms ownership structure and financing and investment decisions endogenously. Testable implications are derived regarding the relationship between insider ownership, performance measures such as Tobins Q ratio, and elements of financial structure such as the debt-equity ratio. Copyright 1998 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Auctions in Corporate Finance

This paper reviews the applications of auction theory to corporate finance. It starts with a review of the main auction theory frameworks and the major results. It then goes on to discuss how auction theory can be applied, in the context of the market for corporate control, not only to “inform” a company’s board or regulators, but also to understand some of the observed empirical evidence on target and bidder returns. It then considers the role of preemptive bidding, stock versus cash offers, the effect of toeholds on bidding behavior, the effect of bidder heterogeneity and discrimination in auctions, merger waves, bankruptcy auctions, share repurchases and “Dutch” auctions, IPO auctions, and the role of debt in auctions. It concludes with a brief discussion of the econometrics of auction data.Abstract This paper reviews the applications of auction theory to corporate finance. It starts with a review of the main auction theory frameworks and the major results. It then goes on to discuss how auction theory can be applied, in the context of the market for corporate control, not only to “inform” a company’s board or regulators, but also to understand some of the observed empirical evidence on target and bidder returns. It then considers the role of preemptive bidding, stock versus cash offers, the effect of toeholds on bidding behavior, the effect of bidder heterogeneity and discrimination in auctions, merger waves, bankruptcy auctions, share repurchases and “Dutch” auctions, IPO auctions, and the role of debt in auctions. It concludes with a brief discussion of the econometrics of auction data.