We focus on chronically under performing firms and assess the roles of institutional investors in either facilitating asset redeployment or entrenching managers. We find no evidence that holdings of traditional activist public pension funds lead to improved performance

When investment banks advise on merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions, are they fiduciaries of their clients, gatekeepers for investors, or simply arm's-length counterparties with no other-regarding duties? Scholars have generally treated M&A advisors as arm's-length counterparties, putting...

This study examines the impact of diversifying acquisitions on acquiring Turkish firms. Using a sample of 98 acquisitions during 2000-2011, the study finds that acquiring firms experience statistically significant wealth gains surrounding the announcement date. The cross-sectional regression...

This study uses the 2008 mortgage crisis to demonstrate how the relationship between vertical integration and performance crucially depends on corporate governance. Prior research has argued that the vertical integration of mortgage origination and securitization aligned divisional incentives...

This paper examines the importance of institutional quality in cross-border buyout performance. Using 2,639 cross-border buyout investments during 1998-2007 in 38 countries, we find that the higher the institutional quality of the country where the portfolio company is located, the higher the...

When are banks fiduciaries of their customers and clients? This question is of more than theoretical interest given the organizational structure of modern financial institutions and the broad-ranging functions they perform. In this chapter of the Oxford Handbook of Fiduciary Law, I canvass...

Scholars and antitrust enforcers have raised concerns about anticompetitive effects that may arise when institutional investors hold substantial stakes in competing firms. Their concern rests on empirical evidence that such common concentrated ownership is associated with higher prices and lower...

This paper examines changes in Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads as a proxy for default risk after M&A announcement for the companies involved. Existing literature extensively documents wealth effects triggered by M&A announcements from the shareholders' perspective, but there is limited...

When investors commit capital to a private equity fund, the money is not immediately invested but is called by the fund manager throughout an investment period of up to five years. This business model allows private equity fund managers to invest the committed capital at their own discretion,...

This paper provides evidence on the impact of different types of institutional investors on a firm's thrust to compete. A firm's thrust to compete, as an attribute of corporate culture, captures the relative importance of corporate values that push a firm to achieve shareholder value in the...