This paper examines the hypothesis that firms in competitive industries should benefit relatively less from good governance, while firms in non-competitive industries--where lack of competitive pressure fails to enforce discipline on managers--should benefit relatively more. Whether we look at...

We investigate whether cultural differences between professional decision-makers affect financial contracts in a large dataset of international syndicated bank loans. We find that lead banks offer smaller loans at a higher interest rate to more culturally distant borrowers. Furthermore, lead...

The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the effect of financial constraint, information asymetry on the firm investment. On the basis of a data relating to 394 Tunisian firms observed over the period 2001-2008 and by adopting the panel data method, our findings show that the effect of...

Combining information from labor historians and using techniques from finance we analyze the strikes that labor historians have agreed are pivotal in American history' during the period 1925-1937. Using information we collected on strike dates and historical financial market stock price data we...

The Common Law, parliamentary democracy, and academia all institutionalize dissent to check undue obedience to authority; and corporate governance reformers advocate the same in boardrooms. Many corporate governance disasters could often be averted if directors asked hard questions, demanded...

Recent theoretical approaches have linked shifts in firms' internal funds and investment spending, holding constant underlying investment opportunities. An important impediment to convincing tests of these models is the lack of firm-level data on the relative costs of internal and external...

Using the firm-level data set, the paper attempts to examine the dynamic patterns in the allocation of credit across firms in recent Korea. In particular, the paper examines the dynamic patterns in the allocation of credit across large and small firms before and after the crisis. The data...

This paper analyses corporate risk choice when firms and their managers have private information regarding firm quality. Managers – representing themselves or shareholders – have a short time horizon and wish to boost the firm’s reputation in the market. Investors observe the firm’s...

This paper presents a comprehensive review of positive theories and their empirical evidence regarding the contibutionof corporate risk management to shareholder value. It is argued that vecause of realistic capital market imperfections, such as agency costs, transaction costs, taxes, and...

This paper offers empirical evidence for the Spanish case on the hypothesis that public ownership may be a determinant of a firm's performance. Two alternative definitions of efficiency are proposed: relative productivity and profitability. The role of ownership is tested, conditioning for the...