This paper investigates how a foreign firm’s decision to cross-list its shares in the U.S. is related to the concentration of the ownership of its cash flow rights and of its control rights. Theory has proposed that when private benefits are high, controlling shareholders are less likely to...

This paper develops and tests a model of how country characteristics, such as legal protections for minority investors, and the level of economic and financial development, influence firms’ costs and benefits in implementing measures to improve their own governance and transparency. The model...

This paper investigates Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deregistrations by foreign firms from the time the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in 2002 through 2008. We test two theories, the bonding theory and the loss of competitiveness theory, to understand why foreign firms leave...

During the past two decades, there has been a dramatic change in IPO activity around the world. Though vibrant IPO activity, attributed to better institutions and governance, used to be a strength of the U.S., it no longer is. IPO activity in the U.S. has fallen compared to the rest of the world...

Over the past forty years, financial markets throughout the world have steadily become more open to foreign investors. With open markets, asset prices are determined globally. A vast literature on portfolio choice and asset pricing has evolved to study the importance of global factors as well as...

This paper examines whether the introduction of the Euro was associated with lower stock return volatility, market risk exposures and foreign exchange rate risk exposures for 3,921 nonfinancial firms from 18 European countries, the United States and Japan. While the Euro led to a significant...

This study analyzes how electricity price volatility evolves over time for different electricity trading hubs in several deregulated markets around the world. The goal is to uncover common features across hubs within each market in the daily spot price volatility processes related to...

We study return volatility and trading volume at times of earnings announcements to see if the increased disclosure faced by non-U.S. firms when listing shares in the U.S. has economically significant consequences. We find a surprising change in market behavior around earnings releases: absolute...

This article discusses the main contributions and findings of Hochberg, Sapienza and Vissing-Jorgensen's 'A Lobbying Approach to Evaluating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.' I offer a synopsis of the Journal of Accounting Research conference discussion of the paper as well as provide some broader...

For years, there has prevailed a conventional wisdom rationalizing why firms pursue overseas listings. It argues that firms seek such opportunities to benefit from a lower cost of capital that arises because its shares become more accessible to global investors whose access would otherwise be...