We introduce some new econometric tests and techniques for identifying and overcoming the problem of weak instruments in the context of joint provision of audit and non-audit fees. We use this context because identifying appropriate instruments is difficult due to the lack of theoretical...

While firm-initiated compensation recovery (or clawback) provisions are gaining popularity and the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Act seeks to make the clawback of erroneously awarded compensation mandatory for all listed companies, little is known about their effectiveness. We find that the...

We examine how corporate transparency and financing choices differ for family and non-family firms in the S&P 1500 Index. While transparency on average is better for firms in the S&P 500 Index than for firms in the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 indices, the improvement is much larger for...

This study examines the impact of mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on bank loan contractual terms. Our sample covers more than 20,000 bank loans for borrowers from 23 countries that mandate IFRS adoption and 16 countries that do not mandate IFRS adoption...

Restrictive home-country regulations lead to degraded transparency abroad and exert negative externalities on the global banking system. Our finding that the negative externalities primarily exist in countries with weak supervisory power highlights the importance of bank supervision when...

Compared to non-family firms, family firms face less severe agency problems due to the separation of ownership and management, but more severe agency problems that arise between controlling and non-controlling shareholders. These characteristics of family firms affect their corporate disclosure...

Compared to non-family firms, family firms face less severe agency problems due to the separation of ownership and management, but more severe agency problems that arise between controlling and non-controlling shareholders. These characteristics of family firms affect their corporate disclosure...

Non-compete covenants are widely used in employment contracts to promote employee stability. Using legal amendments of non-compete enforceability as a natural experiment, we find that as non-compete enforceability increases, firms display an increased likelihood of meeting short-term earnings...

To deter financial misstatements, many companies have recently adopted compensation recovery policies – commonly known as “clawbacks” – that authorize the board to recoup compensation paid to executives based on misstated financial reports. Clawbacks have been shown to reduce financial...

While recent literature has documented that U.S. family firms differ markedly from their non-family counterparts, there is a paucity of evidence on how these firms differ in terms of their cost of capital or financial structure. In this paper, we show that family and non-family firms differ in...