We analyze the role of knowhow acquisition in the formation and duration of joint ventures. Two parties become partners in a joint venture in order to benefit from each other's knowhow. Joint operations in the joint venture provide each party with the opportunity to acquire part of its partner's...

In spite of the fact that they can draw on a larger, more liquid and more diversified pool of capital than the equity of reinsurance companies, financial markets have failed to displace reinsurance as the primary risk-sharing vehicle for natural catastrophe risk. We show that this failure can be...

We characterize the conditions under which two firms choose to (i) merge, (ii) form an alliance, or (iii) trade assets. For that purpose, we distinguish between the firms' assets, their knowhow, and their core competencies. We show that a merger is chosen when the two firms have similar core...

Over the period 2002 to 2003, Switzerland and the European Union (EU) were engaged in negotiations regarding banking secrecy. The EU's stated goal was for Switzerland to abolish banking secrecy. Switzerland refused and offered to impose a withholding tax on interest income instead. The two...

We analyze the role of knowhow acquisition in the formation and duration of joint ventures. Two parties become partners in a joint venture in order to benefit from each other's knowhow. Joint operations in the joint venture provide each party with the opportunity to acquire part of its partner's...

We view debt and outside equity as serving to elicit credible information from different specialists about the value of an enterprise in its various uses. The equity valuation specialist provides a price forecast for equity that reveals information about the value for the enterprise in its...

We model the role various forms of nonrecourse secured debt play in efficiently allocating control rights over assets whose value is state-specific. Ex ante, the entrepreneur makes a noncontractable investment that is specific to the best use of the asset in the status quo, or good, states. The...

This paper presents a unified theory of debt and outside equity based on specialized valuation of the corporate enterprise. We model the decision of an entrepreneur to use debt and equity finance to get credible information from different specialists about the value of the enterprise in various...

Shareholder agreements govern the relations among shareholders in privately-held companies, such as joint ventures or venture capital-backed firms. We provide an economic explanation for the use of put and call options, pre-emption rights, catch-up clauses, drag-along rights, demand rights, and...

Every equilibrium model of IPO underpricing predicts a positive relationship between ex ante uncertainty about firm value and the extent to which entrepreneurs will issue shares at a discount to their subsequent market value. Since ex ante uncertainty is unobservable, the empirical literature...