Research
Published Papers
Elective Stock and Scrip Dividends (with Isabel Feito-Ruiz and Luc Renneboog), Journal of Corporate Finance, 2020, 64, 1016-60. (link)
We find that firms pay scrip dividends, which give investors the choice between receiving new shares or the equivalent value as a cash dividend, for cash preservation purposes.
Selected conference presentations and awards: Best Paper Award at the Spanish Finance Forum Conference (2019)
Cross-Border Acquisitions and Employment Policies (with Hao Liang and Luc Renneboog), Journal of Corporate Finance, 2020, 62, 1015-75. (link)
Shareholders react more positively to M&A announcements by acquirers providing generous employee incentives when the deal is domestic, but negatively when the deal is cross-border, reflecting higher costs associated with managing employee policies across borders and lack of opportunities for eliminating work duplication in cross-border deals.
Selected conference presentations and awards: ECGI Global Corporate Governance Colloquia (2017), Best Paper in Corporate Finance Award at Indonesian FMA Conference (2019)
Failure and Success in Mergers and Acquisitions (with Luc Renneboog), Journal of Corporate Finance, 2019, 58, 650-699. (link)
We provide an overview of the academic literature on the market for corporate control, focusing specifically on firms' performance around and after a takeover. We identify the areas of research for which short-run returns predict (or fail to predict) long-run performance.
Creditor Rights, Claims Enforcement, and Bond Returns in Mergers and Acquisitions (with Peter Szilagyi and Luc Renneboog), Journal of International Business Studies, 2017, 48(2), 174-194. (link)
We find that bondholders of bidding firms respond more positively to cross-border deals that expose their firm to a jurisdiction with stronger creditor rights and more efficient claims enforcement through courts.
Covered by Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.
Leveraged Buyouts: Motives and Sources of Value (with Luc Renneboog), Annals of Corporate Governance, 2017, 2(4), 291-389. (link)
We provides an exhaustive literature review of the motives for public-to-private LBO transactions. We develop a theoretical framework for the potential sources of value creation from going private and summarize whether and how these theories have been empirically verified in the four different strands of literature in LBO research: Intent (of a buyout), Impact (of the LBO on the various stakeholders), Process (of restructuring after the leveraged buyout) and Duration (of retaining the private status).
Covered by Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.
Working Papers
Can Charitable Giving Predict Investment Decisions? Establishment-Level Evidence from M&As (.pdf), Revise & Resubmit at Journal of Finance
Based on an establishment-level analysis of public and private M&As, I show that social capital-building through the provision of charitable donations by an acquirer reflects its takeover activity, and that donating to charities in an establishment’s local community can predict its takeover likelihood.
Selected conference presentations and awards: Drexel Corporate Governance Conference (2024), Best Paper Award at FIRN Women Conference (2023).
Disaster Relief, Inc.: When is Corporate Philanthropy Good or Bad for Shareholders? (with Hao Liang), Revise & Resubmit at Review of Finance. (.pdf)
We test the relative importance and conditions under which agency incentives and strategic benefits of corporate philanthropy dominate in the context of disaster relief donations. Although, on average, relief giving decreases returns, the strategic benefits of donating around salient and attention-grabbing events can mitigate these negative effects.
Selected conference presentations: ASSA 2023
Covered by the Australian Financial Review (link).
Investor Demand for Diversity (with Hao Liang) - New version coming soon.
Based on a board gender diversity campaign by the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, we show that investor demand for gender diversity can affect institutional capital allocation and firm value, driven by increases in demand by socially responsible investment funds and a reduction in firms’ cost of capital.
Buying Local Favor? Establishment-Level Evidence on the Strategic Interactions between Corporate Philanthropy and Political Connections (with Emdad Islam and Lubna Rahman) (.pdf)
We find evidence of a substitution effect between social capital-building via corporate philanthropy and political connections as insurance mechanisms against regulatory noncompliance costs. This effect is stronger for more financially constrained firms and is attenuated for firms that hedge political connection losses.
Selected conference presentations: Conference for Empirical and Legal Studies (2023).
Informed Acquirers and M&A Outcomes (.pdf)
I show that two-stage deals, in which an acquirer engages in a pre-takeover partnership with the target, increases an acquirers’ access to inside target information, but also increases the takeover price resulting from an increase in the target’s share price after the first-stage engagement.
Selected conference presentations and awards: Best PhD Student Paper at the ECGI Workshop on Governance and Control (2018), Best Paper at FIRN Women Conference (2019)
Work-in-Progress
Indirect Influence: Philanthropy along the Supply Chain (with Huu Nhan Duong, Emdad Islam, and Lubna Rahman)
Credible Environmental Disclosure and Externalities (with Leo Liu, Elvira Sojli, and Wing Wah Tham)
Book Chapters
Public-to-private leveraged buyouts (with Luc Renneboog), 2018, The Routledge Companion to Management Buyouts, Ed: M. Wright, D. Siegel, K. Amess, N. Bacon. New York, NY: Routledge.
Mergers and Acquisitions: Long-Run Performance and Success Factors (with Luc Renneboog), 2020, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance.