We develop and test hypotheses on the impact of target shareholders' investment style preferences on the method of payment and premiums in acquisitions. Stock offers (unlike cash offers) allow target shareholders to defer capital gains taxes. This deferral value, however, depends on target...

We investigate whether the timing of equity sales to exploit market overvaluation may account for the reported poor post-offer stock performance of firms issuing equity. We posit that rights offers, targeted to a firm’s current shareholders, are less likely to be timed to exploit...

Almost 50 prominent business schools were "named" in the 1980s and 1990s, in exchange for sizable donations. We view this as an interesting example of the exhaustible resource market examined in Hotelling (1931). Schools face a trade-off that involves a possible benefit from waiting (to receive...

We use the unique economic, legal, and political landscape of China to examine the impact of auditors on the incidence of accounting fraud. In particular, we examine whether large audit firms reduce the incidence of financial statement fraud in China, an emerging market in which auditors face...

Despite mixed stock returns for acquirer shareholders in large stock-for-stock mergers, acquiring-firm merger proxy votes rarely fail; in the sample we examine, the average approval rate of votes cast is 95%. Our examination of whether merger votes are effective in monitoring management’s...

We use the horrific events of September 11, 2001 ("nine-eleven") as a natural test of the hypothesis that closed-end mutual fund discounts from fund net asset values reflect small investor sentiment. Because nine-eleven was a sudden, unforeseen, and significantly negative and exogenous shock to...