Despite SEC and state-level resistance, and contrary to the trend pursued by other firms, many electric utilities have diversified into non-electric and unregulated businesses. Moreover, this failure to focus has been rewarded with higher firm values, again contrary to the discounts documented...

Legal rights of investors are recognized as an essential component of corporate governance. We assess the efficacy of these rights by examining board changes surrounding the filings of shareholder derivative lawsuits. We find that the incidence of derivative lawsuits is higher for firms with a...

Non-U.S. firms can converge toward U.S. capital market and legal regulations by cross-listing in the U.S. or by being acquired by a U.S. bidder. We show companies that are smaller, have lower growth opportunities, are capital intensive, and benefit from bonding through compliance with U.S....

Both formal (legal) and informal (culture, language, religion) institutions determine the intensity of cross-border joint ventures between one US and one foreign partner. Using a sample of cross-border joint ventures from 105 countries, we investigate the impact of country legal, cultural and...

An existing finance theory predicts that managers of takeover targets will increase leverage to enhance managerial control which can, in turn, allow target managers to thwart a takeover attempt altogether. We find that targets significantly increase leverage, not only by issuing more debt, but...

We investigate determinants of foreign ownership in newly privatized firms. We analyze data on privatized Czech firms to address two related general questions. First, what characteristics distinguish transition firms that attract a foreign investor? Second, how do firm-specific characteristics...

Significant increases in the level of target leverage have been previously documented, following unsuccessful takeover attempts. This increased leverage may signal managerial commitment to improved performance, suggesting that corporate performance and leverage should be positively related. If,...