We examine the response of different types of Limited Partners (LPs) to alleged opportunistic behavior on the part of Venture Capitalists (VCs). We use a sample of litigated VCs (identified by Atanasov, et al, 2012, Journal of Finance) to proxy for VC opportunistic behavior. Based on their...

We examine whether the reinvestment choices of public pension funds affect the governance of venture capital funds. We start with a hand-collected dataset of litigation against venture capitalists (VCs) that provides significant shocks to the reputation of VCs. We combine that information with...

We provide the first systematic analysis of the role of reputation in limiting opportunistic behavior by venture capitalists towards four types of counterparties: entrepreneurs, investors, other VCs, and buyers of VC-backed startups. Using a hand-collected database of lawsuits, we document that...

We explore the potential for abuse of startup founders and other common stock shareholders by venture capitalists. We first analyze a set of 26 lawsuits involving venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Our analysis of lawsuits reveals that VC-related litigation is almost always initiated by...

Insiders (managers and controlling shareholders) can extract (tunnel) wealth from firms using a variety of methods. This article examines the different ways in which U.S. law limits, or fails to limit, three types of self-dealing transactions – cash flow tunneling, asset tunneling, and equity...

We estimate the slope of the demand curve for newly auctioned FHLB discount notes and investigate the impacts of arbitrage risk and heterogeneity of investor beliefs on demand elasticity. Our unique dataset of roughly 2,900 observations of two price-quantity pairs - the first from a pre-auction...

This study explores the strategic interaction between large institutional investors and firms that issue put options written on their own stock. The firms experience large positive abnormal annual returns after they sell put options. The vast majority of issued put options expire without being...

This online appendix contains additional results for Atanasov and Black (2018, The Trouble with Instruments: The Need for Pre-Treatment Balance in Shock-IV Designs (Trouble with Instruments). Part 1 of the Appendix provides an extended checklist for implementing shock-IV designs. Part 2...

Credible causal inference in accounting and finance research often comes from “natural” experiments. These experiments can be exploited using several “shock-based” research designs, including difference-in-differences (DiD), instrumental variables based on the shock (shock-IV), and...