Mixed public and private ownership is common in Europe and Asia but a relatively new phenomenon in North America. Government purchase of shares in private corporations has become increasingly frequent in Canada in particular. Mixed enterprise differs fundamentally from total public ownership and...

This paper introduces, analyzes, and values a new form of contingent convertible (CoCo), a Call Option Enhanced Reverse Convertible (COERC). Issued as a bond, it converts to new shareholders' equity if a bank's market value of capital falls below a pre-specified trigger. The COERC avoids the...

We study right offerings around the world, using a sample of 8,238 rights offers announced during 1995-2008 in 69 countries. Although shareholders prefer having the option to trade rights, issuers deliberately restrict tradability in 38% of the offerings. We argue that firms restrict rights...

Bidders have an incentive to pay with stock when their shares are overvalued, but target firms should be reluctant to accept such overvalued payment. In a sample of 2,978 acquisitions, we find that stock payment is readily accepted only when the bidder can justify the financing decision in terms...

This paper uses the 2013 fiscal cliff as a natural experiment to examine how the political affiliation of the CEO affected a firm's response to an expected increase in personal taxes on dividends. Firms could avoid such additional taxes by paying extra dividends and accelerating dividends in the...

We study the relation between board gender diversity and initial public offering (IPO) price formation. We find that IPOs experience significantly greater underpricing when the firm’s board has at least one female director, relative to when no women sit on the board. The underpricing effect is...

We show that investor preferences for diversity have had a significant effect on the initial returns earned by U.S. firms going public with gender diverse boards over the past decade. There is no difference in economic fundamentals, such as profitability, between these firms and firms without...

This paper introduces, analyzes, and values a new form of contingent convertible (CoCo) bond, a Call Option Enhanced Reverse Convertible (COERC). If an issuing bank’s market value of capital falls below a trigger, COERC investors would be issued many new equity shares that would heavily dilute...