Thailand was at the origin of the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Our research seeks to understand what economic and political factors contributed to the collapses of Thailand's financial institutions during the crisis. The distinctive feature of our model is that it incorporates variables for...

Purpose: Our purpose is to explore CSR inequality, which is the inequality across different CSR categories. Higher inequality suggests a less balanced CSR policy. To determine if CSR inequality is beneficial or harmful, we investigate how independent directors view CSR inequality, using an...

We investigate how independent directors view corporate social responsibility (CSR). Exploiting the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the associated exchange listing requirements as an exogenous regulatory shock, we document that independent directors view CSR activities unfavorably....

We use agency theory to investigate the influence of CEO dominance on variation in capital structure. Due to agency conflicts, managers may not always adopt leverage choices that maximize shareholders' value. Consistent with the prediction of agency theory, the evidence reveals that, when the...

We explore the impact of liquidity on capital structure decisions. Firms that enjoy more liquid equity experience a lower cost of equity and may be more motivated to adopt more equity and less debt in their capital structure. Consistent with this notion, the empirical evidence demonstrates an...

Not all firms that intend to go private do so successfully. A number of management buyouts are announced but subsequently withdrawn. It is documented in this study that the stock market reacts negatively to MBO withdrawal announcement. This adverse effect, however, is alleviated in firms where...

Corporate governance is usually viewed in the context of strengthening shareholder rights and enhancing shareholders' welfare. However, the impact of corporate governance on bondholders is much less understood. We explore how corporate governance influences the cost of debt financing. Using...

Using a sample of 50 largest Chinese banks during the period of 2003-2010, we explore a comprehensive set of board characteristics (size, composition and functioning of the board) and analyze their impacts on bank performance and bank asset quality in China. We find that the number of board...

We show that a firm's CSR policy is significantly influenced by the CSR policies of firms in the same 3-digit zip code, an effect possibly due to investor clienteles, local competition, and/or social interactions. We then exploit the variation in CSR across the zip codes to estimate the effect...

Motivated by the on-going debate on the costs and benefits of CSR, we explore how talented managers view CSR investments. Based on nearly 20,000 observations across 17 years, our evidence reveals a non-monotonic effect of managerial talent on CSR. Exploiting a novel measure of managerial ability...