We examine whether pre-bid target stock price runups lower bidder takeover gains and deter short-term toehold purchases in the runup period. A dollar increase in the runup raises the initial offer price by $0.80 (markup pricing). Bidder gains, while decreasing in offer price markups, are...

We survey empirical research on the Swedish auction bankruptcy system, which requires that filing firms are put up for sale in an auction. The bids determine whether the firm will be liquidated piecemeal or continued as a going concern. The auctions are competitive and there is little evidence...

Corporate term loans typically include a penalty-free prepayment option. In a model where borrowers strategically prepay, we show that high prepayment risk can trigger credit rationing by the bank. However, an upfront fee, which allows the bank to lower the loan spread and therefore the...

Mandated board gender-balancing is a social-policy instrument, which in principle is unrelated to concerns about firms' economic performance. Nonetheless, imposing such a policy may have unintended consequences (positive or negative) for firm value, which is important for all of the firm's...

Institutional shareholders around the world increasingly use active share-voting to protect their portfolio investments and improve corporate governance. However, exercising voting rights involves costly and often arcane country-specific legal rules. This report is one of a series examining the...