Outside directors of public companies play a central role in overseeing management. Nonetheless, they have rarely incurred personal, out-of-pocket liability for failing to carry out their assigned tasks, either in the litigation-prone United States or other countries. Historically, as threats to...

We investigate ceo turnover in the Italian financial market analyzing a dataset covering the period 1992-2003 for all listed companies. The likelihood of ceo turnover is higher for poorly performing companies, unless the company is controlled by a family. Managers’ entrenchment is observed:...

We compare the trading performance of independent directors and other officers of the firm. We find that independent directors earn positive and substantial abnormal returns when they purchase their company stock, and that the difference with the same firm's officers is relatively small at most...

The paper first investigates the causes of the recent financial and liquidity crisis in the US and all over the world as a preliminary phase of the imminent recession. It then questions Paulson-Bernanke’s plan as a solution to the crisis and ponders over the differences between EU plan and the...

In view of recent corporate scandals, it is argued that corporate governance can learn from public governance. Institutions devised to control and discipline the behaviour of executives in the political sphere can give new insights into how to improve the governance of firms. Some proposal such...

We identify two opposing effects of issuing equity with tag-along rights that secure an equal price in the event of a takeover. First, the anti-self dealing effect commits controlling owners to sell only to new owners that increase shareholder value. Second, the rent transfer effect shifts rents...

We analyze the impact of a 75 pct. Break-Through rule on 1,035 European firms with dual class <p> shares. In 3-5 pct. of the firms the controlling owners incur a direct loss of control, whereas in <p> additional 11-17 pct. of the firms the controlling owners are likely to incur a control loss. Firms...</p></p>

Using the regression discontinuity design of close gubernatorial elections in the U.S., we identify a significant and positive impact of the social networks of corporate directors and politicians on firm value. Firms connected to elected governors increase their value by 3.89%. Political...

In recent years the problem of the determination of causality has become an increasingly important question in the field of corporate governance. This paper reviews contemporary literature on the topic and finds that the current approach is to attempt to determine causality empirically and that...

The legal environment is one important determinant of corporate governance. However,  within  legal families,  also cultural  differences can explain the level of corporate governance to some extent. We analyze this relationship for the case of Switzerland.  Swiss firms  are mainly located...