We examine the relation between audit committee compensation and the demand for monitoring of the financial reporting process. We find that total compensation and cash retainers paid to audit committees are positively correlated with audit fees and the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, our...

We investigate firms' going-private decisions in response to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The Act has the potential to bring both benefits, in terms of more transparent disclosure and improvements in corporate governance, and costs, in terms of complying with the new...

Multiple-performance-measure agency models predict that optimal contracts should place greater reliance on performance measures that are more precise and more sensitive to the agent's effort. We apply these predictions to CEO retention decisions. First, we develop an agency model to motivate...

This paper investigates the importance of role-specific performance measures and sociopolitical factors in the career paths of CFOs. We find that forced CFO turnover is associated with poor performance in functions over which they have more direct influence, including financial reporting,...

The financial crisis has led to renewed interest in the effects of deregulation on bank governance and incentives provided to bank CEOs. We examine the relation between bank CEO turnover and performance, and whether this relation has been affected by banking deregulation. We find that bank CEO...

We study the effect of shareholder litigation rights on CEO turnover policies using U.S. states’ staggered adoption of Universal Demand laws, which restrict shareholder lawsuits that allege a breach of fiduciary duty by directors or managers. We document that reduced shareholder litigation...

This paper analyzes corporate governance decisions at firms making initial public offerings (IPOs) of common stock between 1996 and 1999. Our objective is to examine relationships between firms' corporate governance practices and the quality and availability of accounting- and market-based...

We examine the governance role of debt in the context of US-based dual class ownership structures. We hypothesize that the use of debt alleviates the conflict between shareholder classes by balancing the power of controlling insiders. We document that dual class firms have higher leverage and a...