The empirical analysis of firms financing and investment decisionsempirical corporate financehas become a dominant field in financial economics. The growing interest in everything corporate is fueled by a healthy combination of fundamental theoretical developments and recent widespread access to large transactional data bases. A less scientificbut nevertheless importantsource of inspiration is a growing awareness of the important social implications of corporate behavior and governance.

*Takes stock of the main empirical findings to date across an unprecedented spectrum of corporate finance issues
*Discusses everything from econometric methodology, to raising capital and capital structure choice, and to managerial incentives and corporate investment behavior.
*Contributors are leading empirical researchers that remain active in their respective areas of expertise
*Writing style makes the chapters accessible to industry practitioners