We provide evidence on the link between busyness of CEOs and/or chairmen and the performance of family firms in India. We show that the level of CEO busyness has a negative effect on firm performance, measured by Tobin's q. That is, the frequency of the CEO attending board meetings is positively...

Using block share acquisitions made by private equity (PE) funds, we examine the sources of value gains in PE minority equity investments. We find that compared with non-PE acquirers, PE acquirers are more likely to place representatives with finance experience or those with experience in the...

Most extant studies consider golden parachutes as the totality of change-in-control payments. However, for the median CEO of firms listed in the S&P SmallCap 600 index in 2009, golden parachute payments are only 46% of total change-in-control compensation. We measure total change-in-control...

This paper documents the puzzling evidence that a substantial number of large public non-financial US firms follow a zero-debt policy. Over the 1962-2009 period, on average 10.2% of such firms have zero debt and almost 22% have less than 5% book leverage ratio. Neither industry nor size can...

This study analyzes how the relationship between non-controlling and controlling large shareholders affects corporate valuations. Using data from the Chinese market, we find that a firm's value is lower when its non-controlling large shareholders have a relationship with its controlling...

We examine the ex-ante performance of 1185 firms that filed for bankruptcy between 1992 and 2009. Evidence suggests that firm specific poor operating performance and industry wide distress are the principal causes (contributing 42% each for cash flow shortfall) of corporate distress. We observe...

This report evaluates the corporate governance practices of Colombian SOEs against the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The assessment was prepared based on information provided by the Colombian authorities, an analysis of the available literature and...

We provide a model and empirical tests showing how an active acquisition market affects firm incentives to innovate and conduct R&D. Our model shows that small firms optimally may decide to innovate more when they can sell out to larger firms. Large firms may find it disadvantageous to engage in...

We investigate the determinants of the capital structure of Brazilian companies between 2000 and 2009. We use a quantile regression model and compare its results with the ones provided by conventional models (least squares and fixed effects). We show that the effects of the capital structure...

We show that firms with CEOs who personally benefitted from options backdating were more likely to engage in other forms of corporate misbehavior, suggestive of an unethical corporate culture. These firms were more likely to overstate firm profitability and to engage in less profitable...