| This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay investigates financial characteristics of bank mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the U.S. banking industry, employing the most recent data available for U.S. banks. It is interesting, but not surprising, to find several new attributes that relate to M&A, given the dynamically changing environment of the current U.S. banking industry, especially in the areas of technology and deregulation. This study found that acquiring banks were, overall, larger in their size and market-to-book value ratio than other groups of banks, i.e. the acquired and nonmerging banks. Acquired banks were generally less efficient in operation, compared with independent banks, and were, to a degree larger than chance would suggest, a type of bank holding company (BHC). Furthermore, the variables, size, and (operating) efficiency, showed intertemporal stability between the two periods (the years, 1996 and 1997).; The second essay tests the hypothesis that there are country and industry effects on the capital structure of large corporations headquartered in the United States and Korea. So far, very few studies have focused systematically on these issues between developed and less developed countries. For book value based leverage ratios, Korea firms had higher debt ratios than their U.S. counterparts, while there were no or few significant country effects in the construction and the chemical industries at market value based leverage ratios. Moreover, there were statistically significant industry differences on the leverage ratios using both book value and market value measures across the two countries.; The third essay investigates the determinants of the capital structure of large corporations in the U.S. and Korea. This study was motivated by the arguments by Harris & Raviv (1991) that many of theoretical implications on the determinants of capital structure have not yet been tested empirically. Profitability, size, non-debt tax shields, growth, and business risk were tested as the possible determinants of capital structure for the sample firms in the two countries, separately. Also, the construction industry in the U.S. showed a significantly higher leverage than its control group (the wholesale trade industry), while the food industry in Korea had high control group. |
