We combine agency theory with the law and finance approach to analyze how the legal protection of investors and the corporate ownership structure affect the corporate investment in research and development (R&D). We use information from 1,091 firms from the five most R&D intensive industries in...

This study examines the governance attributes of post-IPO (initial public offering) retained ownership of private equity in business group constituent firms in contrast to their unaffiliated counterparts, in 202 newly listed firms in 22 emerging African economies. We adopt an actor centred...

This paper examines how ownership type and institutional environment affect firm taxation. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 1999 to 2006, we find that private firms enjoy a lower effective tax rate than local state-owned enterprises. In addition, the preferential taxation of private...

We analyze the role of institutional cross-ownership in internalizing corporate governance externalities using granular mutual fund proxy voting data. Exploiting within-proposal and within-institution variation, we show that an institution's holdings in peer firms are positively associated with...

This paper examines how the difference in institutional environment across various provinces in China can explain IPO underpricing in the Chinese equity market. Using Chinese IPO data from 1999 to 2007, we find strong evidence that firms located in regions with better institutional environment...

This study examines the role of institutional common owners on a firm's cost of equity capital. Following the theoretical and empirical literature on common ownership, we hypothesize that common owners could reduce a firm's cost of capital by reducing product market competition and improving...

We examine two inconclusive issues in the IPO underpricing literature. It is unclear if private firms or government-owned firms (SOEs) underprice their IPOs more and how institutional environment affects IPO underpricing. Using a much larger China IPO sample of SOEs, we conclude that SOEs...

We analyze the relative importance of firm-, industry-, and country-level factors as determinants of the level of ownership concentration of firms. Building particularly on the work of Demsetz & Lehn (1985), Thomsen & Pedersen (1999; 1997, 1998), and La Porta et al.(1998, 1999), we develop...

The large increase in common institutional ownership raises significant antitrust concerns, even if the precise channel of any potential influence on market outcomes is unclear. Using a novel dataset on shareholders’ board representation, we examine the role of common institutional directors...