This paper examines how the educational profiles of the LBO management team, in particular the MBA graduates (MBAs) from prominent schools who tend to have strong alumni networks, might influence syndication decisions. With a unique hand-collected dataset of 941 LBO investments, I find that MBAs...

Geopolitical risk (GPR) is negatively associated with both domestic and inbound cross-border acquisition activity. In support of the predictions of a real options channel, the negative effect of GPR is more pronounced when acquirers have foreign business segments or are financially constrained,...