This paper examines the effect of competition in the product markets on the design of a firm's governance structure. In oligopolies, profits are not just a function of a firm's own actions but also of the actions taken by rivals. Firms therefore behave strategically and commit to actions which...

We study fund-firm connections that arise when firm executives and directors serve as fund directors. We find that connected funds are significantly more likely to vote with management in proposals with negative ISS recommendations or low shareholder support. As our data shows that management...

Different market characteristics and investor behavior render the use of underpricing, widely used for equity IPOs, inadequate as a measure of gains from primary market allocations in corporate bonds. We propose a measure that reflects the illiquidity costs that investors save by avoiding...

The short period of time, from the fourth week of April to the end of May, referred to as the proxy season, has about 333 proposals voted a day relative to 27 proposals voted per day outside the proxy season. The compressed workload results in 17.6% fewer negative recommendations from ISS during...

This paper examines the effect of a change in WSJ’s ownership in 2007 when it was acquired by News Corp., which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. We find that WSJ’s coverage of firms with board connections to News Corp. is 36.5% more positive, relative to New York Times (NYT), after its...

We study the propensity of firms to commit financial fraud using a sample of SEC enforcement actions from 2000 to 2006. Controlling for year effects, Fama-French 48-industry effects, and several firm characteristics, we find a significant relation between fraud probability and CEO-board...