In 1990, Pennsylvania enacted Senate Bill 1310, containing five provisions designed to make takeovers prohibitively expensive but allowing firms to opt out of some or all of the law's provisions. We find that firms that opted out of SB 1310 had lower insider control of voting rights and were...

From 1986 to 1993, the United Shareholders Association (USA) provided a conduit through which small atomistic shareholders could unite, and attempt to influence the governance of large US corporations. This paper describes the USA's actions and examines its impact on targeted corporations. We...

In 1990, Pennsylvania enacted Senate Bill 1310 which contains five provisions designed to make takeovers prohibitively expensive. Firms were permitted, however, to Opt out of some or all of the law's provisions. We examine the relation between the opt-out decision and attributes of corporate...