The European single market supported the creation of multinational banking groups. However, the European banking directives and the single license system were built along the model of the stand-alone bank and cannot keep pace with recent market developments. The national character of prudential...

We investigate how investor protection (IP) affects target selection when a firm decides to enter a foreign market through an acquisition. A law and finance model shows the acquirer prefers better-performing firms when the target country has weaker IP than its home country. This cherry picking...

In this paper we note that unrelated research in the management and finance fields, if combined, makes predictions concerning board reforms in emerging countries. Specifically, outside directors' demographic characteristics that are salient to foreign investors should reduce stock price...

There are few things more constant in life than the rise and fall of financial markets. When markets crash, however, we are forced to restore them while learning from our mistakes. In the wake of the recent subprime mortgage crisis, Congress has drastically but deservedly overhauled the...

Corporate governance systems are continuously converging and inherently presuppose the predominance of law. Strong emphasis is put on checks and balances and monitoring systems. However, despite convergence tendencies there are also differences in corporate governance systems that often stem...

Earnouts are contractual agreements in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals that link part of the acquisition price to the future performance of the target company. These contracts seem to be a panacea for adverse selection and valuation risk issues in M&As. However, earnouts are not very popular....

Using a sample of non-U.S. firms from 43 countries, we investigate whether laws and regulations as well as votes cast by U.S. institutional investors are consistent with an effective shareholder voting process. We find that laws and regulations allow for meaningful votes to be cast as...

The evolution of the Chinese takeover market and its integration with the international takeover market are analysed in three ways. First, the paper charts the legal and institutional changes in China in the last two decades to develop a decentralised “Anglo-Saxon” takeover market. Second,...

Western economists have argued that the legal environment for the protection of minority shareholders and mechanisms for restricting the expropriation of minority shareholders will be important in determining the size and extent of a country's capital markets. In China, the protection of...