The reciprocal interlocking of chief executive officers (CEOs) is a non-trivial phenomenon of the composition of boards of directors and of corporate governance: among large companies in 1991, about one company in seven was part of a relationship whereby the CEO of one company sat on a second...

Firms covered by more analysts are more likely to become takeover targets and more likely to enter deals in which their acquirers initiate private merger negotiations. Moreover, when equity analysts' pre-acquisition price forecasts imply greater target undervaluation, target firms are more...

We present evidence that busy outside directors are associated with weak corporate governance based on a sample of U.S. industrial firms from 1989 to 1995. When a majority of outside directors serve on three or more boards, firms exhibit lower market-to-book ratios as well as weaker operating...

I analyze 1,493 first-time director appointments to the boards of Fortune 1000 firms during 1997-1999, to investigate whether certain outside directors are better than others. I find that investor reactions to director appointments are significantly higher when appointees are CEOs of other firms...

Prior research argues that universal demand (UD) laws, which weaken shareholders' litigation rights, incentivize managers to report more and better-quality information. This view relies on post-UD increases in the length and frequency of voluntary disclosure. We find that the increase in...

Internal slack is a primary contributor to agency problems. As such, shareholders' updated valuation of internal slack reveals their revised assessment of potential agency conflicts. We study how the value of internal cash changes following state antitakeover regulation events. After carefully...

Acquirer CEOs with experience in the target's industry supply chain (‘supply chain CEOs') are associated with wealth effects of first-order importance: they earn 1% higher merger announcement returns. Conversely, their targets get a lower share of the merger gains. Acquisitions by supply chain...

Takeover targets often experience substantial share price appreciations around public announcements of mergers and acquisitions. We analyze hedge fund and mutual fund holdings around takeover announcements to assess the differences in investment strategies across institutions. Our results...

We examine completed M&A deals with large acquirer shareholder dollar wealth gains at announcement. We find that large-gain acquisitions are (i) typically “bolt-on” deals that are small relative to the acquirer's size; (ii) transaction-specific events (not firm- nor CEO-specific events);...

Analyses of bank performance around the 2007-2008 financial crisis suggest that outside directors with financial experience acquired through longer board service at their own banks are more effective than those with financial experience attained elsewhere. Institutions with more long-tenured...