We investigate whether the flexibility in making contributions towards defined benefit pension plans sponsored by firms in the United States allows managers to save cash and increase investments. Firms invest more at higher levels of pension deficit, defined as pension benefit obligations less...

Nepotism emerges in a multiplicity of contexts from political assignments to firm hiring decisions, but what are its real effects on the economy? This paper explores how nepotism affects corporate investment. To measure nepotism, we build a unique dataset of family connections among individuals...

We investigate the effect of CEO inside debt (i.e. pension benefits and deferred compensation) on firms' asset tangibility and investment. Asset tangibility is measured by Property, Plant and Equipment, Asset Tangibility (Berger, Ofek and Swary, 1996), and tangible assets. Our findings are...

This paper shows that it is profitable for a firm to hire an overoptimistic manager to commit to a certain investment strategy in an R&D tournament situation. In the unique symmetric equilibrium, all firms delegate to overoptimistic managers, where the optimal degree of overoptimism depends on...

This paper shows that top management structures in large US firms radically changed since the mid-1980s. While the number of managers reporting directly to the CEO doubled, the growth was driven primarily by functional managers rather than general managers. Using panel data on senior management...

This paper shows that top management structures in large US firms radically changed since the mid-1980s. While the number of managers reporting directly to the CEO doubled, the growth was driven primarily by functional managers rather than general managers. Using panel data on senior management...

Does corporate governance affect the timing of large investment projects? Hazard model estimates suggest strong shareholder governance may deter managers from pursuing large investments. Controlling for investment opportunities, firms with good governance experience longer spells between large...

This paper examines how and when CEO debt-like compensation (i.e., “inside debt”) affects debt contracting terms and corporate investment levels. We find a negative relation between inside debt and both R&D and capital expenditures for firms with low financing constraints, but this...

Many investors purchase open-end mutual funds through intermediaries, paying brokers and financial advisors for fund distribution and advice via alternative sale charge fee structures. We argue that the fee structure choice reveals valuable information about investors horizon. That allows...

We study non-contractible intangible investment in a dynamic agency model with multitasking. The manager's short-term task determines current performance which deteriorates with investment in the firm's future profitability, his long-term task. The optimal contract dynamically balances...