The remaining variables are firm-specific controls motivated by Opler, Pinkowitz, Stulz, and Williamson
(1999). These variables include firm size, leverage, market to book, cash flow to total assets, standard
deviation of cash flow for the past ten years, net working capital to total assets, research and development
(R&D) to sales, capital expenditures to assets, acquisition spending to assets, a dividend dummy that takes a
value of one if a company pays a dividend and zero otherwise, and a bond dummy that takes a value of one if
the firm has S&P long-term ratings and zero otherwise. For the purpose of this research, assets are defined as
total assets net of cash and cash equivalents.