Since 2009, the European Commission requires firms to incorporate an array of new elements into CEO compensation contracts, such as bonus caps, claw back provisions, bonus deferral, performance-vesting, and minimum shareholding guidelines. This paper examines whether CEO contract design in line...

While previous work suggests two competing explanations for the effect of labor market regulation on firms' demand for debt, our results reconcile both the “strategic use of debt” and “financial flexibility” view. Exploiting staggered changes to labor laws in 28 OECD countries, we find...

While previous work suggests two competing explanations for the effect of labor market regulation on firms' demand for debt, our results reconcile both the “strategic use of debt” and “financial flexibility” view. Exploiting staggered changes to labor laws in 28 OECD countries, we find...

This paper explores an extensive novel panel-data set covering more than 4,000 listed firms in 16 European countries to study the effects of shareholder protection on ownership structure and firm performance. Recent research criticizes the existing law and finance literature using (i)...