-1995, we examine empirically the choice between insiders and outsiders as CEO. We employ a theoretical framework in which firms … value both the incentive that the contest to become CEO provides to insiders and the choice of a more able (whether insider … position where commonality among inside candidates is greater, where there are more inside candidates, and where the firm …

between firm performance and both board size and the proportion of outside directors could be driven by politics. Specifically …, politics may lead simultaneously to larger and more outsider oriented boards and to poorer firm performance. We assess this … importance of politics in regressions that find this negative effect of board size and composition on firm performance. Although …

insiders are more comparable to each other and less comparable to outsiders, and where there are more inside candidates. Using … successions in large U.S. firms over the 1974-1995 period and find a variety of evidence consistent with these implications of …

, and the size of the handicap imposed on outside candidates (i.e., the bias toward insiders). We find that, at the optimum … precommit reduces the handicap imposed on outsiders, raises the payment to insider CEOs, and lowers the payment to current … employees. The outsider handicap, and so the likelihood that an insider will be chosen, depends positively on the number of …

This paper reviews the literature on corporate governance and firm performance in economies with relatively dispersed …. Section 2 deals with the relation between firm performance and inside ownership. Section 3 pertains to the relation between … firm performance and monitoring by large shareholders, monitoring by boards, and shareholder rights regarding takeover of …