This paper focuses on dominant owners' use of leverage to finance their blockholdings and its relationship to dividend policy. We postulate that blockholder leverage may impact payout policy, in particular when earnings are hit by a negative shock. We use panel data for France where blockholders...

We analyze real economic consequences of financing with (mispriced) utility tokens that give access to consumption utility and are traded on a secondary market. Projects can be financed by equity or by selling tokens. In a baseline analysis, efficient projects prefer equity, while inefficient...

This survey article summarises the findings of four research projects on the venture capital industry in Europe and the role played by legal institutions and the legal framework. A study on patent litigation insurance argues that insurance can create a level playing field for small innovators,...

We consider the allocation of corporate control in a company with two large and a continuum of small shareholders. Control is determined in a shareholders' meeting, where the large shareholders submit competing proposals in order to attract the vote of small shareholders. The presence of...

We investigate the impact of hedge fund activism on corporate transaction markets. We find that activism targets as well as firms exposed to hedge fund threats increase divestitures and receive more merger bids. On balance, they also make fewer acquisitions, but this effect is entirely due to...