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...

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...

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,...

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 examines the effects on equity Home Bias of two mechanisms adopted by Euronext when it was formed by the merger of four European countries' stock exchanges in 2002. Home Bias is the well-documented tendency of investors everywhere to over-invest in domestic securities relative to...

Impacts on the probability of transition to entrepreneurship in rural China associated with the utilization of information communication technology (ICT) are estimated using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) survey. We identify cell phone ownership and internet use as...