Which legal, political, and economic institutions are shaping privatization processes in the world? This paper addresses the issue, presenting new evidence for a sample of 49 countries. From an empirical analysis for the period 1977-96, the decision to privatize appears to be influenced by...

At approximately the same time that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act increased the costs associated with being a public company, important Delaware case law created a difference in the standard of judicial review for the two basic methods of freezing out minority shareholders. While a freeze-out executed...

In this paper, we examine the key legal characteristics of 375 employment contracts between some of the largest 1500 public corporations and their Chief Executive Officers. We look at the actual language of these contracts, asking whether and in what ways CEO contracts differ from what are...

Econometrics played a major role in the investigation and litigation of the Federal Trade Commission's successful challenge to the proposed merger between two office superstore chains, Staples and Office Depot. Our goal in writing this essay is to describe the econometric issues at stake in...

This paper presents a new theory of institutions. It develops a novel answer to the theoretical question of why social institutions emerge. The theory is general and applies to all forms of incorporation, including religious organizations, business corporations, partnerships, professional...

In this study we investigate whether the importance of accounting information in contracting and communication with shareholders and creditors affects earnings timeliness in publicly disclosed general purpose financial statements. To operationalize the relationship between timeliness demands and...

In this paper we examine the effect of filing form 10-K on EDGAR on the incidence of small and large trades. We find that the change to EDGAR filings results in significant increases in the volume of small, but not large trades, during the five day window (-1, 3) around the filing date. While...

Governments often have the power to take property rights from private citizens but their responsibility to pay compensation is typically not well specified. In this paper we examine how the compensation rule adopted by a country affects both private investment decisions and takings decisions. We...

A lawyers claim that the principle of client confidentiality overrides the public's right to know in the wake of wide-spread and deep corporate malfeasance has raised new awareness and concern. The latest round of this debate began with the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 307...

Demand for international capital increased with widespread privatization efforts in the 1980s and 1990s stemming from the collapse of Communism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and from economic reform in China, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, perceived as...