This paper solves the dynamic investment problem of a risk averse agent compensated with a performance related bonus plus a salary guaranteed up to a certain level of underperformance. The main contribution is to explicitly take into account the financial fragility of the principal [employer],...

This article examines the Proper Purpose Rule and the Exercise of Directors' Power in the recent JKX case as decided by the UK Supreme court. The decision of the JKX case now represents the leading Common law authority on the interpretation and application of the Proper Purpose Rule (the Rule or...

This study proposes the marital status of a CEO as an alternative explanation of the cash holding behavior of the U.S. firms. Given that marital status determines the risk-taking behavior of the firm, we test whether this behavior is reflected in cash holding. Particularly, we test the...

We provide evidence that outside directors’ trading and ratification decisions are incrementally useful in assessing their independence. Because crises test the independence of boards, we first investigate the CEO replacement decision in firms caught intentionally misreporting earnings. We...

We examine whether governance matters for acquisitions. Acquisitions are frequently beneficial to the CEO of the acquiring firm, but can often be value-destructive to acquirer shareholders and other stakeholders such as employees. We find that corporate governance does not appear to influence...

Most Economics and Finance research relegates the possible influence of managers' personal characteristics or "style" over the main corporate policies and firm performance to a secondary level, preferably investigating market, industry or firm characteristics. However, a growing theoretical and...

We study whether bank CEO optimism (optimistic bank) plays a role in technological progress. We find that optimistic banks lend more to smaller/riskier firms and charge higher loan spreads to compensate for the higher risk exposures. More interestingly, these optimistic banks prefer lending to...

DeAngelo and Roll (2015) observe that leverage cross-sections change significantly over even short periods. This finding is largely incompatible with existing models operating on the assumption that firms choose leverage levels in isolation. In this paper, we ask how executive networks might...

We show that economic conditions when managers enter the labor market have long-run effects on their career paths and managerial styles. Managers who began their careers during recessions become CEOs more quickly, but at smaller firms. They also have more conservative styles, such as lower...

Using a news-based index of aggregate policy uncertainty in the US economy, we document a strong negative relation between policy uncertainty and corporate risk-taking. We show that high levels of policy uncertainty are associated with significantly lower future stock return volatility at the...