"This book is more than a collection of ideas, equations, and chapters. It has an important integrating theme-that of value creation. This theme, which is carried throughout the book, provides a framework that helps students understand the relations between the various concepts covered in the...

We report evidence on the determinants of whether the relationship between a firm and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is governed by an explicit (written) or an implicit agreement. We find that fewer than half of the CEOs of S&P 500 firms have comprehensive explicit employment agreements....