Corporate ownership structure with a controlling shareholder is widespread around the world. Conventional accounts of concentrated ownership warn against controlling shareholders' abusive exercise of control and extraction of “private benefits” at the expense of minority shareholders. These...

This paper examines how post-closing contingent payment (PCP) mechanisms, such as earnouts and purchase price adjustments, can facilitate mergers and acquisitions transactions. The paper examines two informational environments: in the first, the seller has superior information about the value of...

The paper reconsiders an old question in law and economics: will firms prefer to rely on legal sanctions or market sanctions as a means of committing to provide high quality goods? In the model, legal sanctions are expensive to deploy because of litigation costs, whereas market sanctions are...

The paper analyzes the effects of holding firms liable for non-disclosure of material information when raising capital. We develop a model in which a privately-informed entrepreneur can choose to withhold information from prospective investors when issuing and selling stock and the investors can...

This paper examines the long-standing debate over whether firms have a market-based incentive to adopt optimal governance provisions at their initial public offering (IPO). Various scholars and practitioners have argued that firms that offer stock to the public with suboptimal governance...

In 2021, several publicly traded companies, such as GameStop and AMC, experienced a dramatic influx of retail investors in their shareholder base. This Article analyzes the impact of the “meme stock surge” phenomenon on the companies, particularly with respect to their governance outcomes...

When a seller encumbers a property with a right of first refusal, whenever a third party offers to purchase the property, the right-holder can acquire the property by simply matching the third party's offer. We model the right as a modified auction where the right-holder gets to observe the...

The paper examines the equilibrium quality of mass market contract terms, such as those in end user license agreements, when consumers can read and search for a better set of terms. Firms compete over price and quality of the terms. They can also choose to disclose (speak) the terms to consumers...

In 2021, several publicly traded companies, such as GameStop and AMC, became “meme stocks,” experiencing a sharp rise in their stock prices through a dramatic influx of retail investors into their shareholder base. Analyses of the meme stock surge and its implications for corporate...