Using a sample of 8000 targets in the US and Western Europe over the 1997–2009 period, we find that private targets receive significantly higher payments from bidders than public targets. We find that the private valuation premium is inversely related to the size of the target. We also find...

We investigate the prevalence of informed options trading prior to takeover announcements, when the legal prohibition against insider trading is strictest. Although insider trading laws apply equally to the options and stock markets, the options market is considerably more transparent than the...

From 1990 through 2005 18 German firms listed their shares in the U.S. in the hopes of increasing their market values and lowering their cost of capital. We examine whether these anticipated benefits materialized and find the companies obtained no valuation benefits from their listings. The...

Information leakages experienced by U.S. targets in the pre-bid period are especially pronounced when they involve foreign bidders whose countries have weak insider trading sanctions, are perceived to have prevalent insider trading activity, have a low level of local merger activity, and are not...

We study the impact of internal corporate governance on performance during the current financial crisis for a comprehensive cross-country sample of 4046 publicly traded non-financial firms from the U.S. and 22 developed countries. Using a broad-based index of corporate governance quality, we...

Using a sample of U.S. dual class companies, we empirically investigate the effects of the divergence between insiders’ voting and cash flow rights on market reaction to seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and long-run stock performance following SEOs. We find that SEO announcement returns and...

We analyse the long-term stock performance of Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) between the years of 2000 and 2007. The results reveal that firms with political connections experience better long-term stock performance. Our results suggest that the abolition of the Issuance Quota System...

We examine the textual content of merger and acquisition related SEC filings in an effort to understand the role of managerial attitudes and beliefs in merger negotiations and outcomes. Using a textual algorithm to identify the degree to which filings of bidders and targets exhibit...

This paper examines the role of R&D intensity in cross border strategic alliance formation. Firms can exploit their existing R&D capabilities by entering into overseas markets via strategic alliances. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find R&D intensity to be a major determinant of cross-border...

Tail dependence plays an important role in financial risk management and determination of whether two markets crash or boom together. However, the linear correlation is unable to capture the dependence structure among financial data. Moreover, given the reality of fat-tail or skewed distribution...