This paper examines the impact of advertising on the firm performance as measured two profit variables and market structure as measured by market concentrations and the relationship is analyzed by two different distribution systems: independent agency writers vs. direct writers. The empirical...

We analyze the relation between different forms of debt financing at the firm's start-up and subsequent firm outcomes. We distinguish between business debt, obtained in the name of the firm, and personal debt, obtained in the name of the firm's owner and used to finance the start-up firm....

Conglomerates, multinational corporations and business groups are non-exclusive forms of complex firms. Often organized as corporate networks, complex firms control a myriad of firms connected through ownership links. We investigate whether parent-subsidiary links within corporate networks...

This study examines the earnings management behaviour of 455 distressed US firms that filed for bankruptcy during the period 1986-2001. We examine (a) possible earnings management during the years prior to bankruptc-filing, (b) whether qualified audit opinions cause conservative earnings...

Using a global sample of 26,444 M&A transactions, we empirically investigate the main drivers of serial acquirer takeover performance, focusing on the benefits of organizational learning and the detriments of post-merger integration (PMI) problems. Taking single acquirers as a control group, we...

The information content and the impact of the S&P/TSX Composite Index revision on firm performance is studied. The results show that added companies experience significant increases in their expected earnings following the addition. For deletion, after adjusting for matched firms, the removed...

We hypothesize that when managers do not exercise their options, they signal valuable private information. Accordingly, we construct a proxy to capture managers’ private information from their in-the-money vested options unexercised (VOU) and find a positive relation with subsequent operating...

The role of institutional investors on the register constitutes a significant puzzle. Concentrated investors could intervene (i.e., exercise 'voice') so as to improve firm governance mechanisms. Alternatively, acting as informed traders, they could effectively discipline management if they adopt...

In this paper Coase's Conjecture is analyzed in a finite-horizon formulation. In addition to utility discounting models decreasing-willingness-to-pay models are analyzed. We find that in contrast to Coase's Conjecture a monopolist may extract full monopoly profit in the finite-horizon problem...

Infrastructure matters. Markets are designed by market participants for the benefit of market participants and assessed measuring utility to market participants. The natural result is that market structure becomes a tool used by the most powerful market participants to extract rents from the...