The corporate governance literature is rich with empirical tests of the relation between board composition and firm performance. We consider the effect of board composition on a different measure of performance, the probability a firm will be sued by shareholders. We find firms that are...

It is generally agreed that boards are endogenously determined institutions that serve both an oversight and advisory role in a firm. While the oversight role of boards has been extensively studied, relatively few studies have examined the advisory role of corporate boards. We examine the...

The corporate governance literature is rich with empirical tests of the relation between board composition and firm performance. We consider the effect of board composition on a different measure of performance, the probability a firm will be sued by shareholders. We find firms that are...

It is generally agreed that boards are endogenously determined institutions that serve both an oversight and advisory role in a firm. While the oversight role of boards has been extensively studied, relatively few studies have examined the advisory role of corporate boards. We examine the...

The rise of contract farming and vertical integration is one of the most important changes in modern agriculture. Yet the adoption and diffusion of these new forms of organization has varied widely across regions, commodities, or farm types. Transaction cost theories have done much in helping us...

This article provides a unique perspective to why U.S. producers' hedging practices are not consistent with the price-risk management literature. We conduct a formal test of income support program impacts with survey data from South Africa and the United States, which have different producer...

As a student at the London School of Economics (LSE), Ronald Coase posed a seemingly naïve question that would, in time, fundamentally change the face of economics and earn him the Nobel Prize: ‘Why do firms exist?' The import of this simple question derived not only from the response Coase...

Even if the corporate tax effects the cost of debt financing, firms' responses to tax changes may differ conditional on country-specific corporate structure. For instance, South Korea is a newly developed country and has distinctive, family-controlled conglomerate structures. This paper explores...