Boone and Mulherin (2007) document the private firm sale process and find that the wealth eff ects for target shareholders are comparable in both auctions and negotiations. Since auctions are more costly relative to negotiations, this begs the question of whether firms should use auctions. We...

Focusing on economic distress episodes in an industry, we estimate the effect of conglomeration on resource allocation. Distressed segments have higher sales growth, higher cash flow, and higher expenditure on research and development than single-segment firms. This is especially true for...

Large U.S. firms modify top executives' compensation before pension-related events. Top executives receive one-time increases in pensionable earnings through higher annual bonuses one year before a plan freeze and one year before retirement. Firms also boost pension payouts by lowering plan...