Article history: Received 7 August 2014 Received in revised form 20 June 2015 Accepted 29 June 2015 Available online 9 July 2015 This study investigates whether a firm with strong corporate governance (CG) requires political connections (PCs), that is, we examine whether CG and PC substitute for or complement each other. Using 71,069 individual bank loan contracts from Taiwan, we examine how lo...

Using a sample of Australian firms, we document improvements in operating performance following performance shocks. These improvements result in part from turnaround strategies adopted by management. Evidence suggests that changes made to leverage and operating expenses result in a negative contemporaneous effect on performance improvement. The adjustments made to working capital (revenue growt...

We assess the impact of institutions on Chinese firms’ corporate investment in an investment Euler equation framework. We allow the variables measuring institutions to affect the rate at which firm managers discount future investment payoffs. Applying generalized method of moments estimators to large samples of Chinese firms, we estimate the stochastic discount rates derived from actual investm...

Using the high-power setting of newly privatized firms from 64 countries, we examine the relationship between ownership type and firm-level capital allocations as captured by investment sensitivity to stock price. Consistent with our predictions that government and foreign institutional owners are associated with different levels of information asymmetry and agency problems, we find strong and ...

This paper analyzes the interaction between financial leverage and takeover activity. We develop a dynamic model of takeovers in which the financing strategies of bidding firms and the timing and terms of takeovers are jointly determined. In the paper, capital structure plays the role of a commitment device, and determines the outcome of the acquisition contest. We demonstrate that there exists...

This paper discusses the key hypotheses which Joseph Stiglitz proposed, in his wideranging critique of the ‘Washington Consensus’, with regard to transition reforms and economic policies in China and Russia. The primary purpose is to evaluate the Stiglitz perspective in the light of empirical evidence, including the experience of countries outside China and Russia. Although some of the points S...

We analyse the determinants of equity agency costs for the top 500 Australian listed firms. Data are collected over four one-year periods (2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011) and analysed using both pooled OLS regression and two stage least squares regression within a random effects panel data model. Analysis covers the full four-year period, the pre global financial crisis (GFC) sub-period (2004 and 20...

This paper examines the stock market reactions to US biotech firms’ innovation news announcements during 1983-1993. Besides the positive abnormal returns observed during the announcement period, the paper identifies a medium-horizon negative drift in the stock price subsequent to firms’ innovative events. The observed negative drift is robust to the benchmarks and procedures used in calculating...

Do international trade and technological change influence how firms create incentives for human capital? I present a model that incorporates agency problems into a framework with firm heterogeneity and human capital. My model indicates that trade liberalizations and skill-biased technological change alter the way how the largest firms in an economy incentivize their managers. Increases in manag...

I analyze how boards of directors with heterogeneous preferences can affect the information shared with the CEO with the help of a cheap-talk model that allows for large groups of receivers. This paper provides new insights on how heterogeneity of boards can change the way of communication between the board and the CEO, related to different ways of decision making. My model gives some insights ...