Exit theory predicts a governance role of outside blockholders' exit threats; but this role could be ineffective if managers' potential private benefits exceed their loss in stock-price declines caused by outside blockholders' exit. We test this prediction using the Split-Share Structure Reform...

We investigate the interplay between the distribution of ownership, short sale constraints, and market efficiency from the perspective of US cross-listed stocks domiciled in Canada during the short sale ban of 2008. Using minute-by-minute data, we show that prices in the two markets remained...

We evaluate the impacts of tax policy on asset returns using the U.S. municipal bond market. In theory, tax-induced ownership segmentation limits risk-sharing, creating downward-sloping regions of the aggregate demand curve for the asset. In the data, cross-state variation in tax privilege...

The governments which undertake privatization of their state owned enterprises often maintain some ownership in the newly privatized firms. This paper examines the effect of the presence of the government as a minority shareholder on the protection of the minority shareholders in privatized...

Foreign IPO firms incur higher issuance costs than domestic firms due to greater information asymmetry and ex ante valuation uncertainty. Little is known about how to overcome such liability of foreignness. This study, based on foreign-listed Chinese firms, shows that pre-IPO financing...

We analyze the impact of firm-specific stock market liberalization events on the capital structure and debt maturity decisions of firms from emerging market economies. In particular, we focus on the potentially different responses of firms with different ownership structures and associated...

Using a data set for 162 largest Hungarian firms during the period of 1994-1999 this paper explores the determinants of equity shares held by both foreign investors and by Hungarian corporations. We find evidence of a post-privatisation evolution towards more homogeneous equity structures, where...

The legal environment is one important determinant of corporate governance. However, within legal families, also cultural differences can explain the level of corporate governance to some extent. We analyze this relationship for the case of Switzerland. Swiss firms are mainly located in two...

Following Zwiebel (1995) and Zingales (1995) the block premium is related to the share of total control rents which is being transferred through a block transaction relative to the share of control rents enjoyed by the market. The former share is measured by the difference in the seller's (the...