We summarize and synthesize the results from 73 studies that examine the consequences of
shareholder activism for targeted firms, and draw two primary conclusions. First, activism that …

Abstract Research Question/Issue Over the last decades, research on the relationship
between national institutions, governance mechanisms, and firm outcomes has been …

A growing literature documents that complex financial statements negatively affect the
information environment. In this paper, we examine whether managers use voluntary …

Hedge fund activism has increased almost hyperbolically. Although some view this trend
optimistically as a means for bridging the separation of ownership and control, we review the …

Prior research generally interprets complex language in firms' disclosures as indicative of
managerial obfuscation. However, complex language can also reflect the provision of …

Although recent research documents a positive relation between corporate transparency
and the proportion of independent directors, the direction of causality is unclear. We …

We study shock-based methods for credible causal inference in corporate finance research.
We focus on corporate governance research, survey 13,461 papers published between …

This paper examines the approaches accounting researchers adopt to draw causal
inferences using observational (or nonexperimental) data. The vast majority of accounting …

For the last forty years, the problem of agency costs has dominated the study of corporate
law and governance. 1 Agency costs result from the separation of control and ownership that …

Regulators and governance activists are pressuring firms to abolish CEO duality (the Chief
Executive Officer is also the Chairman of the Board). However, the literature provides mixed …