We examine the impact of lead arrangers' reputation on the design of loan contracts such as spread, fees and the inclusion of restrictive covenants. Controlling for the non-randomness of the lender-borrower match (self-selection bias), we find that the reputation of top tier arrangers leads to...

The reform of bank supervision represents one of the great institutional challenges for the European Union. The recent pattern of cross-border failures in supervision reflects the extent to which a better functioning system of supervision is critical for the safe operation of the banking system...

At the end of the twentieth century, it was thought by many that the Anglo-American system of corporate governance was performing effectively and some observers claimed to see an international trend towards convergence around this model. There can be no denying that the recent corporate...

This paper studies the short- and long-run share price performance of firms that have gone public on the Euro New Markets (EuroNMs) since their foundation in 1996/97. The initial and long-run returns are remarkable in four ways. First, underpricing is on average 2-3 times higher than that on the...

This paper evaluates the primary legal and financial mechanisms that help support the development of a venture capital market. Specifically, we argue that emulating the organizational and contractual pattern of the US venture capital market could enhance the development of the European venture...

This article appears as Chapter One in Corporate Governance of Non-Listed Companies. The chapter evaluates the role of corporate law in formulating effective solutions to the core agency problems that arise in non-listed companies. We show how a range of legal strategies, which were originally...