This paper provides novel evidence on the effects of employee stock ownership (ESO), a prominent example of shared capitalism. In so doing, we take advantage of our access to new panel data on Japanese ESO plans for a highly representative sample of publicly-traded firms in Japan (covering more...

Japan has experienced a deep and prolonged banking crisis in the 1990s. In this paper we attempt to identify the characteristics of companies which have the most to lose from the banks' malaise. Using stock price data, we calculate abnormal returns of non-financial companies around significant...

Japan has experienced a deep and prolonged banking crisis in the 1990s. In this paper we attempt to identify the characteristics of companies which have the most to lose from the banks' malaise. Using stock price data, we calculate abnormal returns of non-financial companies around significant...

In this paper, we examine the causes of the first merger boom since the late 1990s in Japan. Using industry-level data, we show that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are driven mainly by economic shocks. While industries with higher growth opportunities are likely to have more M&A activity,...

We examine the turnover of top executives in Japanese firms throughout the period from 1990 to 2013. During this time, the presence of a main bank has been weakened, the ownership of institutional investors has dramatically increased, and independent outside directors have been introduced in...