Regulators and shareholders are calling for independent directors. Independent directors, however, have numerous external professional commitments. Using To- bin's Q as an approximation of market valuation and controlling for endogeneity, our empirical analysis reveals that neither external...

This article addresses the proposition advanced by academic and press commentators that European corporation law promotes stockholder welfare better than its U.S. counterpart. Those who express that view often point to the stronger rights afforded to stockholders under the laws of the European...

Serafeim [2011] examines the determinants and economic consequences of embedded value (EV) reporting, a voluntary disclosure arrangement in the life insurance industry. He finds substantial reductions in bid-ask spreads for EV reporting firms, and links the occurrence of this disclosure practice...

This paper reviews recent advances from the institutional economics and accounting literatures to help build a nascent framework for ‘new institutional accounting' (NIA) research. The framework has five basic elements: (i) institutional structure (formal versus informal); (ii) level of...

Theory can have profound effects on practice, some intended and desirable, others unintended and undesirable. That's the story of the influence the field of law and economics has had on the domain of law and accounting. That influence comes primarily from agency theory and modern finance theory,...

We analyse the principles for sound compensation practices at financial institutions and their implementation standards (briefly PSSCPs) issued in 2009 by the Financial Stability Board (FSB). We examine, first of all, the political economy of the PSSCP. We describe their formation as a result of...

Serafeim [2011] examines the determinants and economic consequences of embedded value (EV) reporting, a voluntary disclosure arrangement in the life insurance industry. He finds substantial reductions in bid-ask spreads for EV reporting firms, and links the occurrence of this disclosure practice...

In this Article we submit that the compensation structures at banks before the financial crisis were not necessarily flawed and that recent reforms in this area largely reflect already existing best practices. In Part I we review recent empirical studies on corporate governance and executive pay...

Research Question/Issue: How do organisations with multiple boards provide operating advantages?Research Findings/Insights: Multiple boards allow: (i) avoidance of absolute power to mitigate hubris and corruption of board members and the organisation; (ii) distributing power to allow and value...

I explore whether directors who resign in dissent from their board are rewarded in the labor market for directors. Using a hand collected sample of 278 boardroom disputes reported in 8-K filings during 1995-2006, I show that firms which have disputes are small, highly levered, have poor...