Three Essays on Corporate Governance and Institutional Investors


Book Description

This dissertation analyzes the role of institutional investors in corporate governance. The first essay studies the effect of potential proxy contests on corporate policies. I find that when the likelihood of a proxy contest increases, companies exhibit increases in leverage, dividends, and CEO turnover. In addition, companies decrease R&D, capital expenditures, stock repurchases, and executive compensation. Following these changes, there is an improvement in profitability. The second essay investigates the optimal contract with an informed money manager. Motivated by simple structure of portfolio managers' compensation and complex risk structure of returns, I show that it may be optimal for the principal to stay unaware about the true risk structure of returns. The third essay analyzes the biases related to self-reporting in the hedge funds databases by matching the quarterly equity holdings of a complete list of 13F-filing hedge fund companies to the union of five major commercial databases of self-reporting hedge funds between 1980 and 2008.










Global Governance in Accounting


Book Description

This book focuses on the recent transformations of national accounting systems. It extends comparative accounting literature using a new comprehensive framework, which embeds a governance perspective throughout the financial reporting process. The authors track transformations in standard setting, enforcement and disclosure regulation over time in three typical OECD countries. Modes and degrees of convergence illustrate where "global governance" in accounting has already been achieved and where national regulators still dominate the accounting agenda.




The Essays of Warren Buffett


Book Description

In the third edition of this international best seller, Lawrence Cunningham brings you the latest wisdom from Warren Buffett’s annual letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. New material addresses: the financial crisis and its continuing implications for investors, managers and society; the housing bubble at the bottom of that crisis; the debt and derivatives excesses that fueled the crisis and how to deal with them; controlling risk and protecting reputation in corporate governance; Berkshire’s acquisition and operation of Burlington Northern Santa Fe; the role of oversight in heavily regulated industries; investment possibilities today; and weaknesses of popular option valuation models. Some other material has been rearranged to deepen the themes and lessons that the collection has always produced: Buffett’s “owner-related business principles” are in the prologue as a separate subject and valuation and accounting topics are spread over four instead of two sections and reordered to sharpen their payoff. Media coverage is available at the following links: Interviews/Podcasts: Motley Fool, click here. Money, Riches and Wealth, click here. Manual of Ideas, click here. Corporate Counsel, click here. Reviews: William J. Taylor, ABA Banking Journal, click here. Bob Morris, Blogging on Business, click here. Pamela Holmes, Saturday Evening Post, click here. Kevin M. LaCroix, D&O Diary, click here. Blog Posts: On Finance issues (Columbia University), click here. On Berkshire post-Buffett (Manual of Ideas), click here. On Publishing the book (Value Walk), click here. On Governance issues (Harvard University blog), click here. Featured Stories/Recommended Reading: Motley Fool, click here. Stock Market Blog, click here. Motley Fool Interviews with LAC at Berkshire's 2013 Annual Meeting Berkshire Businesses: Vastly Different, Same DNA, click here. Is Berkshire's Fat Wallet an Enemy to Its Success?, click here. Post-Buffett Berkshire: Same Question, Same Answer, click here. How a Disciplined Value Approach Works Across the Decades, click here. Through the Years: Constant Themes in Buffett's Letters, click here. Buffett's Single Greatest Accomplishment, click here. Where Buffett Is Finding Moats These Days, click here. How Buffett Has Changed Through the Years, click here. Speculating on Buffett's Next Acquisition, click here. Buffett Says “Chief Risk Officers” Are a Terrible Mistake, click here. Berkshire Without Buffett, click here.