This paper develops a theory of how organizations make timing decisions. We consider a problem in which an uninformed principal decides when to exercise an option and needs to rely on the information of an informed but biased agent. This problem is common in firms: examples include headquarters...

In most countries, large corporations are controlled by a few very wealthy individuals or families. However, whether a large concentration of control over major assets leads to poor financial development remains an open question. In this article, we present a political economy model of financial...

This paper develops a model of communication and decision-making in corporate boards. The key element of the paper is that the quality of board communication is endogenous, because it depends on the effort directors put into trying to communicate their information to others. In the model,...

Shareholder proposals are a common form of shareholder activism. Voting for shareholder proposals, however, is nonbinding since management has the authority to reject the proposal even if it received majority support from shareholders. We analyze whether nonbinding voting is an effective...

This paper studies optimal design of a capital allocation system in a firm in which the division manager with empire-building preferences privately observes the arrival and properties of investment projects, and the headquarters is able to audit each project at a cost. Under certain conditions,...

This paper studies the interaction between takeover activity, means of payment (cash versus stock), and premiums in a dynamic real-options model. The timing of takeovers and the equilibrium bids in contests with multiple bidders are driven by three factors: synergies of the bidder with the...

We provide a dynamic model of an industry in which agents strategically time liquidation decisions in an effort to protect their reputations. As in traditional models, agents delay liquidation attempting to signal their quality. However, when the industry faces a common shock that...