In this paper, we analyse whether bank owners or bank managers were the driving force behind the risks incurred in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/2008. We show that owner controlled banks had higher profits in the years before the crisis, and incurred larger losses and were more likely...

In this paper, we analyse whether bank owners or bank managers were the driving force behind the risks incurred in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/2008. We show that owner controlled banks had higher profits in the years before the crisis, and incurred larger losses and were more likely...

We find that listed parents' carve-outs have investment-cash flow sensitivities 80% lower than unlisted parents' carve-outs, on average. Such a finding is stronger when we consider only equity carve-outs in technological industries. The finding suggests that listed parents are more capable of...

This study analyzes the relation between CEO personal risk-taking, managerial risk-taking and total firm risk. We find evidence that CEOs who possess private pilot's licenses, our proxy for personal risk-taking, are associated with riskier firms. Firms led by CEO pilots have higher equity return...

Building on a unique panel data set of German Prime Standard companies for the period 2005-2008, this paper investigates the influencing factors of both director compensation levels and structure, i.e. the probability of performance-based compensation. Drawing on agency theory arguments and...

Germany is the largest economy in Europe and yet there has been very little research in the area of shareholder activism. Main objective of this research paper is to discuss shareholder activism for DAX 30 companies. We provide the most recent empirical evidence that formal activism in Germany...

[enter Abstract Body]We use a sample of randomly selected CRSP-listed firms to explore the cross-sectional determinants of corporate board size. We find that the average number of directors on boards differs significantly across industries. Further evidence indicates that these differences are...

I find that corporate boards frequently link CEO compensation to subjective performance measures that are neither accounting ratios nor stock returns. Subjective measurement incorporates soft information privately observed by the board about the CEO's contribution to long-term firm value. I show...

We study the effect of corporate board structure on firm performance under different product market conditions. Using customer-supplier links to identify exogenous downstream demand shocks, we find that board independence has a more significant effect on firm performance when the firm-specific...

We show that financial constraints may benefit innovation by improving the efficiency of innovative activities. We measure firm-level innovative efficiency by patents (or patent citations) scaled by R&D (research and development) investment or the number of employees, and find that financial...