This paper revisits the proposal to use options in corporate bankruptcy that was put forward in Bebchuk (1988). According to the proposed procedure, corporate bankruptcy should be implemented through the distribution to participants of appropriately designed options. The paper starts by...

While prior empirical work and much public attention have focused on the opportunistic timing of executives' grants, we provide in this paper evidence that outside directors' option grants have also been favorably timed to an extent that cannot be fully explained by sheer luck. Examining events...

The analysis of this paper was subsequently combined with that of our companion paper ldquo;Lucky CEOs,rdquo; lt;a href=quot;http://ssrn.com/abstract=945392quot; target=quot;_blankquot;gt;http://ssrn.com/abstract=945392lt;/agt;. The combined paper, titled ldquo;Lucky CEOs and Lucky...

The analysis of this paper was subsequently combined with that of our companion paper ldquo;Lucky Directors,rdquo; lt;a href=quot;http://ssrn.com/abstract=952239quot; target=quot;_blankquot;gt;http://ssrn.com/abstract=952239lt;/agt;. The combined paper, titled ldquo;Lucky CEOs and Lucky...

This paper examines both empirically and theoretically the growth of US executive pay during the period 1993-2003. During this period, pay has grown much beyond the increase that could be explained by changes in firm size, performance, and industry classification. Had the relationship of...

This paper develops a model of the competition among states in providing corporate law rules. The analysis provides a full characterization of the equilibrium in this market. Competition among states is shown to produce optimal rules with respect to issues that do not have a substantial effect...

Staggered boards, which a majority of public companies now have, provide a powerful antitakeover defense, stronger than is commonly recognized. They provide antitakeover protection both by (i) forcing any hostile bidder, no matter when it emerges, to wait at least one year to gain control of the...

This paper develops an account of the role and significance of rent extraction in executive compensation. Under the optimal contracting view of executive compensation, which has dominated academic research on the subject, pay arrangements are set by a board of directors that aims to maximize...

This paper evaluates the primary mechanisms for changing management or obtaining control in publicly traded corporations with dispersed ownership. Specifically, we analyze and compare three mechanisms: (1) proxy fights (voting only); (2) takeover bids (buying shares only); and (3) a combination...

In many business bankruptcies in which the firm is to be preserved as a going concern, one of the most difficult and important problems is that of valuing the assets that serve as collateral for secured creditors. Valuing a secured creditor's collateral is needed to determine the amount of the...