Working Paper
The Rise and Fall (?) of Shareholder Activism by Hedge Funds
Shareholder activism by hedge funds has over the past few years become a major corporate governance phenomenon. This paper puts the trend into context....
Read moreManagement Insulation and Bank Failures
How does management insulation from shareholder pressure influence banks’ resilience to crises? To address this question, we develop a...
Read moreThe Basic Governance Structure: The Interests of Shareholders as a Class
This paper is the third chapter of the third edition of The Anatomy of Corporate Law: A Comparative and Functional Approach, by Reinier Kraakman, John...
Read moreBusy Directors: Strategic Interaction and Monitoring Synergies
We derive conditions for when having a "busy" director on the board is harmful to shareholders and when it is beneficial. Our model allows directors to...
Read moreShareholder activism in Germany
Shareholder activism by hedge funds has taken hold in Germany in spite of large ownership concentration. This essay uses the example of Stada...
Read moreFree-Riders and Underdogs: Participation in Corporate Voting
Voting outcomes can differ from underlying preferences due to strategic selection into voting. One explanation for such selection effects is lower...
Read moreFor Whom is the Corporation Managed in 2020?: The Debate over Corporate Purpose
A high profile public debate is taking place over one of the oldest questions in corporate law, namely, “For whom is the corporation managed?” In...
Read moreCorporations, Directors’ Duties and the Public/Private Divide
Business history and theory reflect a tension between public and private conceptions of the corporation. This tension and conceptual ambiguity lay...
Read moreThe Choice Between Various Freeze-out Procedures and its Consequences
We develop a model of freeze-out merger and tender offers and test it in an economy where merger and tender regulation are extremely different. Using a...
Read moreCorporate Purpose and Corporate Competition
The large American corporation faces ever-rising pressure to pursue a purpose beyond shareholder profit. This rising pressure interacts with changes...
Read moreThe One Share - One Vote Debate: A Theoretical Perspective
The impact of separating cash flow and votes depends on the ownership structure. In widely held firms, one share - one vote is in general not optimal. While...
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