Our work provides refined tests of the existence and source of merger gains in a neglected industry: utilities. While excluded from traditional analyses, utilities offer fertile ground for a detailed analysis of the traditional theories of synergy, collusion, hubris and anticipation. The...

This interview is Part 1 Video 2 of a two-part series (which series contains 2 pdf files of the transcripts and 4 videos) in which Professor Ralph Walkling, the Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel University, interviews...

This interview is Part 2 Video 4 of a two-part series (which series contains 2 pdf files of the transcripts and 4 videos) in which Professor Ralph Walkling, the Stratakis Chair in Corporate Governance and Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel University, interviews...

Recent studies suggest the transfer of privileged information via social ties but do not explicitly examine the cost of these ties to shareholders. We document a significant, positive relation between stock transaction costs and a company's social ties to the investment community. Social ties...

A sample of firms that focus by divesting at least one segment allows us to investigate the characteristics of segments divested as well as the nature of focusing firms. We find that firms are more likely to divest segments unrelated to the core activities of the firm and that the probability...

We test the signaling and wealth transfer hypotheses around the announcement of share repurchases using a recent and larger sample of data than previously examined while employing a methodology designed to enhance the power of our tests. Disentangling the wealth transfer and signaling hypotheses...

Our results provide strong evidence of the anticipation and transfer of information throughout an industry at the announcement of initial bidding activity. First, the abnormal returns of bidding firms are significantly positively related to the length of time between bid announcements in the...

Using a large sample of director elections, we document that shareholder votes aresignificantly related to firm performance, governance, director performance, and votingmechanisms. However, most variables, except meeting attendance and ISSrecommendation, have little economic impact on...