Japan's successful industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century largely exhausted its then abundant natural resources. Rather than exemplifying rapid development in the absence of natural resources, Japan shows how laissez-faire government and successfully transplanted classical...

Roll (1988) observes low R2 statistics for common asset pricing models due to vigorousfirms-specific returns variation not associated with public information. He concludes (p. 56) that this implies acirc;not;Seither private information or else occasional frenzy unrelated to concrete...

This paper contrasts and empirically tests two different views of corporate pension policy: the traditional view that pension funds are managed without regard to either corporate financial policy or the interests of the corporation and its shareholders, and the corporate financial perspective...

The Common Law, parliamentary democracy, and academia all institutionalize dissent to check undue obedience to authority; and corporate governance reformers advocate the same in boardrooms. Many corporate governance disasters could often be averted if directors asked hard questions, demanded...

The value of mandatory securities disclosure is intensely debated. Two big questions occupy much of the attention: Do more accurate share prices contribute to the efficient provision of goods and services in the economy? Even if they do, will mandatory disclosure effectively contribute to share...

Roll [1988] observes low R2 statistics for common asset pricing models due to vigorous firms-specific return variation not associated with public information. He concludes (p. 56) that this implies quot;either private information or else occasional frenzy unrelated to concrete information.quot;...

We document a robust cross-sectional positive association across industries between a measure of the economic efficiency of corporate investment and the magnitude of firm-specific variation in stock returns. This finding is interesting for two reasons, neither of which is a priori obvious....

This paper explores how unfunded pension obligations affect the market values of firms. Finns appear to choose the interest rate they use in discounting future benefit obligations so as to balance the tax advantages of a low rate against the more healthy looking annual reports a high rate...

This paper investigates the systematic variation of stock price reactions to corporate capital budget announcements. We first use an event study methodology to measure the market's reaction to capital investment announcements. These reactions are then regressed upon measures of agency problems...

The value of reported vested pension obligations depends critically on the interest rate a firm uses to discount future benefit obligations. Firms with substantial benefit obligations relative to existing pension assets tend to reduce the reported present value of their obligations by using a...