Economies of scope in financial intermediation continue as a focal point in strategic and regulatory debates. In this paper, we summarize the theoretical research on the value of diversification in financial services firms, and survey the empirical research so far on the conglomerate discount in...

This paper investigates the problem of time stamp errors in the IBES database, the most important data provider of analyst recommendations and forecasts currently. We compare IBES to alternative data sources and show that IBES announcement dates of both recommendations and forecasts are...

We address the heated debate over the staggered board. One theory claims that a staggered board facilitates entrenchment of inefficient management and thus harms corporate value. Consequently, some institutional investors and shareholder rights advocates have argued for the elimination of the...

We investigate whether the diversification discount occurs partly as an artifact of poor corporate governance. In panel data models, we find that the discount narrows by 16% to 21% when we add governance variables as regression controls. We also estimate Heckman selection models that account for...

This paper investigates whether geographic diversification is value-enhancing or value-destroying in the financial services sector, broadly defined. Our dataset comprises approximately 3,579 observations over the period from 1985 to 2004 and covers the entire range of U.S. financial...

This paper examines the persistence of raw and risk-adjusted returns for equity long/short hedge funds using the portfolio approach of Hendricks, Patel, and Zeckhauser (1993). Only limited evidence of persistence is found for raw returns. Funds with the highest raw returns last year continue to...

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the role of trust in the relationship between venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Following the social sciences literature, we try to differentiate between trust as an affective, value-based category from confidence which is understood as a...

The new Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) is going to be embedded in the risk management practices at many financial institutions shortly, but the academic and financial world are still discussing about several topics related to the new capital adequacy rules. One of the most important and...

This paper investigates whether functional diversification is value-enhancing or value-destroying in the financial services sector, broadly defined. Based on a U.S. dataset comprising approximately 4,060 observations covering the period 1985-2004, we report a substantial and persistent...