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This study measures the turnover rate of top managers (Chief Executive Offi cers or Presidents) in acquisition

Recent advances in technology have created oppomnities for firms to invest in expensive automated equipment designed to improve volume flexibility. Such investments are made on the basis that flexibility benefits the firm by increasing managerial control over output, reducing the risk of demand uncertainty, and improving productivity. The presumption is that these benefits will eventually translate to higher cash flows, appreciation in the firm's market value, and better return to shareholders. Yet, there is no managerially useful analytical framework for measuring this relationship. This study develops a model that uses contingent claims analysis to evaluate the effect of volume flexibility on the firm's value and to determine the optimal degree of automation that maximizes share value. The analysis is done by taking into consideration alternative demand characteristics, cost patterns, and the effectiveness of volume flexibility in increasing managerial control over output, reducing the risk of demand uncertainty, and improving productivity.

Studies suggest that investment flows, liquidity imbalances, and institutional trading may create intraday trading patterns and opportunities for investors to time their trades to reduce transaction costs. Motivated by these studies, we divide each trading day into 13 half-hour trading intervals and measure information asymmetry from price changes, trade sizes, and trade directions. We find that information asymmetry starts high in the morning, drops continuously until it reaches a midday low during Interval 7, rises to a midday high during Interval 10, and drops continuously after. In contrast, neither the spread nor the depth exhibit similar midday extreme values. Essentially, we identify a 90-min window in the afternoon when net valuable information arrives to the market in high frequency while liquidity is stable, and that may be an opportunity for some investors to time their trades. In addition, we show that market makers employ dynamic strategies that change the spread, the depth, or both to manage information asymmetry. This is particularly evident during the last three trading intervals, where the significant drop in information asymmetry is countered primarily by a significant increase in the depth while the spread is almost constant.Results of recent studies suggest that the intraday pattern of information asymmetry is neither U-shaped nor reverse J-shaped. Garvey and Wu (2009) report that execution speed and execution cost exhibit intraday time-dependent

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