Efficiency of financial markets is one of the most studied subjects in theoretical finance. Formalization of this idea is realised by the random walk model. Numerous tests have been developed to validate the hypothesis of identically and independently distributed innovations. But the results of...

We investigate the link between employee ownership and price levels of stocks. Using a comprehensive sample of firms in the Société des Bourses Françaises (SBF) 120 Index from 2000 to 2007, we document a negative correlation between share price levels and employee ownership. This suggests...

In the theoretical framework of corporate governance this article studies the efficiency of the control exerted by the ownership structure and the board of directors on managers. The confrontation of entrenchment theory and agency theory allows to determine the necessary conditions of the...

Controlled firms are in a framework where private benefits create a buffer between public earnings and economic profitability. We focus on debt leverage in the type II agency conflict between the controlling shareholder and outside investors. We use a simple discrete model comparing the capital...

The study reported here focused on determining what methods financial analysts use for the valuation of Initial Public Offerings. The conclusion is that practices have moved with the times and that “real” considerations are more and more often used to obtain the market value of the firm. The...

We test one of the main predictions of the financial flexibility paradigm that expectations about future firm-specific shocks affect the firm's leverage. We extract the expectations of small and large future shocks from the market prices of equity options. We find that expectations for future...

The paper analyzes internal factors which influence the use of equity - and mezzanine-based financing instruments in German privately held family firms. Based on a sample of 195 surveys of family firms, we investigate the impact of family specific goals and corporate governance structures on the...

Objectives: We examine decision factors of family firm owners for hiring a non-family Chief Financial Officer (CFO). We explore the perceptions of family firm owners towards external managers by analyzing how their family-specific and company-specific goals relate to the employment of a...