Capital markets perform two distinct functions: provision of capital and facilitation of good governance through information production and monitoring. I argue that the governance function has more impact on the efficiency with which resources are utilized within the firm. Based on industry...

Business corporations seek profit. That is, after subtracting cost, they maximize net revenue. Spillovers (both costs and benefits) involve trade-offs governing boards should make. Spillovers, especially when coupled with clumsy applications of discounted present value, distort a business'...

We extend agency theory to propose that structural reform positively impacts firm profitability in developing countries because the improvements in external monitoring that accompany structural reform decrease the agency costs faced by firms. However, we also argue that not all firms benefit...

In this review article, we bring together a number of aspects of family firms that are ubiquitous in a number of institutional contexts, often as part of larger business groups. We pay particular attention to the mechanisms by which families retain control over firms, and the incentives of the...

This paper documents that law affects finance in emerging markets through the methods used by controlling shareholders to “tunnel” wealth out of the firm. We find that Bulgarian securities law enabled financial tunneling via dilution and freeze-out tender offers. During the period 1999-...

Post-privatization restructuring of former state-owned enterprises (FSOEs) encompasses both shorter-run "defensive" actions and longer-run "strategic" measures. Restructuring involves changes in corporate governance, organizational structure, management, labor, capital, technology, output, and...

We study the influence of bank insolvency on corporate restructuring in a dynamic model of bank relationship. Using a poorly developed banking technology our model shows that bank insolvency can have a positive effect on firms' incentives to restructure. Due to the technology each firm faces...

Privatization in Estonia has produced varied ownership configurations. This enables hypotheses on the productivity effects of different ownership forms to be tested. Findings are based on fixed effects production function models and are estimated using a large, random sample of firms. Depending...

performance. On the one hand, concentration of ownership that, in turn, concentrates management control in the hands of a strategic investor, eliminates agency problems associated with dispersed ownership. On the other hand, it may lead to entrenchment of upper management which may be...

This paper studies the relationship between the governance mechanisms and the market valuation of publicly listed firms in China empirically. We construct measures for corporate governance mechanisms and measures of market valuation for all publicly listed firms on the two stock markets in China...