This paper provides comprehensive, detailed documentation of major corporate governance reforms (CGRs) undertaken by 26 advanced and emerging economies. Have these reforms impacted corporate investment decisions by altering investor protection (IP)? To answer this question, we estimate the CGRs'...

Both the United States and Australia have increased the use of default settings in defined contribution (DC) plans such as 401(k)s. However, policy makers in the two countries have taken different approaches to important aspects of default investment products. This article discusses the...

High-profile corporate scandals earlier in this decade provoked outrage and legislative action, however corporate executive-level ethical lapses continue to come to light. This article examines the work of Professor Dunfee and his co-authors on corruption, ethical leadership, and social...

A recent high-profile bankruptcy filing by Asarco has generated numerous demands among legal commentators, policy-makers, and the media for reform of bankruptcy law, environmental law, corporate law, or perhaps all three. The concern is that the current structures of these three areas of the law...

Using a database of 605,106 option grant filings by insiders between 1992 and 2002, we find significant abnormal stock return reversals around the grant date. Consistent with the hypothesis that managers influence their pay, the reversals are positively related to grant size and the seniority of...

I exploit the passage of the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 as a shock to U.K. firms' cost of doing business. Around the Act's passage, U.K. firms operating in high-corruption countries experience a drop in firm value, while their non-U.K. competitors in these countries encounter an increase. U.K. firms...

Corporate fraud is costly, involving hundreds of billions of dollars in lost reputational and out of pocket costs for stakeholders and hundreds of thousands of job losses for employees, suppliers and customers as well as loss of lives. To prevent fraud, general counsels (GCs) are charged as the...

The overall independence of a firm's governance system depends not only on the independence of its board of directors but also on CEO influence over the other top executives. We find that board independence and independence from CEO influence in the executive suite are inversely related....

This manuscript discusses how the Department of Justice (DOJ) has viewed waiver of the attorney-client privilege as an important factor evidencing cooperation when determining whether to enter non-prosecution or deferred prosecution agreements with firms allegedly involved in criminal...

The Wall Street Journal, in interviews with top women executives, discussed their path to the top and the importance of mentoring in getting there. The response of Michelle Coleman Mayes was typical. She stressed the importance of having many mentors at different points in one's career, and to...