In the corporate governance of banks, bank boards of directors play a significant role by monitoring and advising management in the formulation and implementation of strategies. Our hypothesis is that certain characteristics of bank boards (size, composition and proactiveness) determine the...

This paper studies bank distress in MENA countries and investigates whether mergers are commonly considered as a solution for resolving individual bank distress. Both specific bank levels and macro variables are deployed to predict banking distress. In line with other recent papers, we challenge...

This study is an empirical attempt to investigate whether firms' bond issues mitigate rent extraction by their banks. To that end, I focus on the cash holdings of Japanese listed firms in the early 1980s, when Japanese banks used compensation balances as a device to extract rent from their...

Although some studies have documented that there is a price increase for firms added to the S&P 500 Index other studies show mixed results. A more recent research suggests that managers are under greater scrutiny once they are added to the S&P500, and work harder to improve firm performance....

Although existing research has documented in very wide and detailed terms the impact of the presence of female directors on the financial performance of firms, very little is known about the link between board composition and corporate risk-taking. Drawing from the academic literature...

Large number of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) reliably predicts subsequent low equally weighted aggregate stock returns and the return differential between small and big firms, both in-sample and out-of-sample. The forecasting patterns are consistent with a behavioral story featuring investor...

The study empirically investigates the financial characteristics that discriminate firms that went private and firms that remain publicly traded. Based on the results of logit and probit model, companies that reverted to the private domain are characterized as having higher cash balance, higher...

Divestitures have the potential to create shareholder value. However, the magnitude of the wealth effect depends on the likelihood of finding more valuable uses for the divested assets and the seller's ability to eliminate negative synergies. Strong performers should have less scope to benefit...

This paper analyses the role of venture capitalists in Italian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). Between 1999 and 2012 venture capital backed IPOs are on average less underpriced than non-venture backed IPOs. By using a regression-based approach to account for the non-random distribution of...