Using economic distress in an industry as a natural experiment, we test the alternate theories of conglomeration. We find that segments in distressed industries experience better performance than single-segment firms. The distressed segments have higher sales growth, higher Ramp;D expenditure...

Purpose: Does Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies have information content; that is, is the list a source for market-beating performance? The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: Using data for 26 annual periods, 1991–2016, the paper...

There is widespread evidence that bidders are more highly valued than their targets, and that both parties tend to be in temporarily high-valued industries. We find that valuation differences are also uniquely important for predicting who will be acquired and when. A firm is more likely to be a...

Using a hand-collected data, we provide evidence of extensive use of commodity derivative in hedging among U.S oil and gas producers. We find large variations in hedging intensity and hedging profits while on average they generate significant positive profits. The profits relate positively to...

We show that large public companies in the United States change the assumptions of the benefit formulas of the defined benefits pension plans for their top executives in anticipation of plan freezes and executive retirements. In particular, on average top executives receive a boost in annual...