We examine the dynamics of firms' internal succession methods and find that horse race successions are common among the largest U.S. firms. Although heir and horse race CEO candidates are of similar quality, the consequences of these two succession methods differ significantly. We show that...

We investigate whether social capital influences the use and effectiveness of tournament structure of compensation. We find that pay differentials between the CEO and other executives, or tournament, are lower in U.S. counties with higher social capital. In addition, lower pay differentials are...

Using a stylized construct where analysts wish to minimize their forecasting error, we model forecasted earnings when firm characteristics and prior forecasts are public information but analysts can gain private information by appeasing management via deviating from the consensus. Combining...

The recent popularity of write-offs allows for examination of the role governance plays in the write-off decision. I find that well governed companies are more likely to announce write-offs. Additionally, better governed firms announce smaller write-offs relative to poorly governed firms. The...

This paper investigates how director incentives affect the occurrence of firms' backdating employee stock options. Directors with more wealth tied up in stock options may pursue activities that lead to personal gain, such as option backdating, which potentially increases the option recipient's...