It is commonly believed that women are more likely to seek advice than men; for example, on aspects of health or asking for directions when lost. This paper investigates whether women’s relatively greater propensity for advice seeking extends to important business decisions, specifically those...

Young male CEOs appear to be combative: they are 4% more likely to be acquisitive and, having initiated an acquisition, they are over 20% more likely to withdraw an offer. Furthermore, a young target male CEO is 2% more likely to force a bidder to resort to a tender offer. We argue that this...

This paper examines whether the gender of CEOs or corporate directors plays a role in the pricing of and returns on mergers and acquisitions. We show that the bid premium over the pre-announcement target share price is statistically and economically smaller if the CEO of the bidding company is a...

This paper examines the association between female director representation on corporate boards and mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Using acquisition bids initiated by the S&P 1500 firms during 1997-2009, we find that each ten-percent representation of female directors on a corporate board is...

It is commonly believed that women are more likely to seek advice than men; for example, on aspects of health or asking for directions when lost. This paper investigates whether women's relatively greater propensity for advice seeking extends to important business decisions, specifically those...

Does director gender influence CEO empire building? Does it affect the bid premium paid for target firms? Less overconfident female directors less overestimate merger gains. As a result, firms with female directors are less likely to make acquisitions and if they do, pay lower bid premia. Using...

Adjustment of behavior to maintain risk, known as risk homeostasis, has previously been studied in a variety of psychological, health, social and economic contexts. This paper examines the evidence for risk homeostasis in corporate financial decisions involving mergers and acquisitions (M&As)....