We study the accounting and stock performance of 4,547 US acquisitions during 1989 and 2008. We categorise acquisitions into four types based on the four possible combinations of positive or negative abnormal stock performance and abnormal accounting performance. First, we compare the bidder,...

There is a growing controversy as to the impact of private equity acquisitions, especially in terms of their impact on employment and subsequent organizational performance. It has been suggested that closer owner supervision and the injection of a new management team revitalize the acquired...

We study the relation between the chair of the board of directors and the CEO. We argue that substantial age dissimilarity between the two - giving rise to cognitive conflict - increases board monitoring and firm value for firms with greater monitoring needs. We find evidence for our hypothesis...

This paper studies the factors that influence the CEO succession decision in family firms whose incumbent CEO is a member of the controlling family. The sample includes all such firms from France, Germany and the UK. We propose a new measure of directors' independence, which adjusts for various...

Some – such as La Porta et al. (1999) explain the dispersed control, which is the norm in common law countries, by the better protection of minority shareholders. Conversely, concentrated control, which prevails in civil law countries, is thought to be caused by low shareholder protection....

This paper investigates whether female independent directors are more likely to impose high dividend payouts. We find evidence that firms with a larger fraction of female directors on their board have greater dividend payouts. This finding is robust to alternative econometric specifications, and...

We argue that CEOs have different attitudes toward the firm's stakeholders and that these differences in attitudes affect the firm's decision making. We hypothesize that these differences stem from differences in political ideology: Liberal CEOs, as compared to their conservative...

We examine initial public offerings (IPOs) with single, multiple, and no credit ratings. We document a beneficial effect of credit ratings provided by the three main credit rating agencies on IPO underpricing, which is amplified by the existence of multiple credit ratings. Credit rating levels...

This paper unveils the diversity in lock-in agreements of firms listed on the Nouveau Marche stock exchange in France. We give the main economic reasons why shareholders adopt lock-in agreements that are more stringent than legally required. We relate the abnormal returns and the abnormal volume...

German firms pay out a lower proportion of their cash flows than UK and US firms. However, on a published profits basis, the pattern is reversed.Company law provisions and accounting policies account for these conflicting results. A partial adjustment model is used to estimate the implicit...