The market far corporate control that has arisen in the last two decades isgenerating large benefits for shareholders and for the economy as a whole. The corporatecontrol market generates these gains by loosening control over vast amounts of resourcesand making it possible for those resources to...

Our purpose is to provide a review of the development of the modern theory of corporate finance. Through the early 1950s the finance literature consisted in large part of ad hoc theories. Dewing (1919; 1953) the major corporate finance textbook for a generation, contains much institutional detail...

This paper reviews much of the scientific literature on the market for corporate control. The evidence indicates that corporate takeovers generate positive gains, that target firm shareholders benefit, and that bidding firm shareholders do not lose. The gains created by corporate takeovers do...

It is now difficult to launch a takeover against a Board willing to use the powers granted by the Unocal court to discriminate among shareholders. A determined Board could, in the extreme, pay out all the corporation's assets and leave the acquirer holding a worthless empty shell.The Unocal...

The publicly held corporation has outlived its usefulness in many sectors of the economy. New organizations are emerging. Takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and other going-private transactions are manifestations of this change. A central source of waste in the public corporation is the conflict...

The interests and incentives of managers and shareholders conflict over such issues as the optimal size of the firm and the payment of cash to shareholders. These conflicts are especially severe in firms with large free cash flows--more cash than profitable investment opportunities. The theory...

The foundations are being put in place for a revolution in the science of organizations. Some major analytical building blocks for the development of a theory of organizations are outlined and discussed in this paper. This development of organization theory will be hastened by increased...