We provide a cross-country evidence on the impact of corporate and personal income taxes, and corporate governance systems on debt maturity structures and leverage using a comprehensive sample of 212,642 firm-year observations based on a sample of 19,573 firms from 24 OECD countries over the...

We investigate the takeover strategies of high default risk acquirers and their value impact. We find that these bidders select bigger, less profitable and unrelated targets, pursue transactions during recessions, and pay with shares by offering target shareholders high premiums. Their long-term...

We use merger-induced changes to shareholder structure to test for active catering to dividend clienteles. Following mergers, acquirers adjust their dividend payout toward that of the target, but only when they inherit target shareholders through stock swaps. This adjustment is stronger when...

We argue that insiders' decisions to trade in short windows before news announcements are likely to result from a trade-off between the incentives to capitalize on the foreknowledge of the disclosure and the risk of regulatory scrutiny and reputation loss. We provide evidence that the decision...

I analyse the tax systems and tax reforms in Germany and the U.K. and test the hypothesis that ex-day returns are related to each country's tax differential between dividends and capital gains. The results indicate that in the U.K., where this tax differential is high and short-term trading is...

We analyze the time-series distribution of large blockholders and managerial ownership in the UK over the last decade. We find a significant decrease in the size of block ownership of a large number of companies. We show that the increase in firm's size and risk and the decrease in performance...

We assess the market valuation of an unusual form of stock dividends, referred to as bonus distributions, which are carried out by transferring the accumulated equity reserves, mainly the inflation revaluation equity reserves, to paid‐in capital leaving the total equity unchanged. In the...

We test a number of hypotheses to assess changes in director ownership during lockup periods. We find that these transactions are additional signalling devices. Our results also imply that they are contractual arrangements between directors and underwriters, as directors increase their holdings...

We assess the extent to which remotely-located firms are likely to discretionarily accumulate cash rather than distribute it to shareholders. We consider that these firms are less subject to shareholder scrutiny and, thus, will have high agency conflicts as the distance will facilitate the...

We analyse a uniquely constructed data set of share repurchases in France, Germany and the UK. We find significant differences across the three countries in the popularity of this strategy, in the market reaction and its determinants, and in the likelihood of subsequent share repurchase...