Behavioral finance studies the application of psychology to finance, with a focus on
individual-level cognitive biases. I describe here the sources of judgment and decision …

Despite the long-standing research interest in the pre-deal phase of mergers and
acquisitions, many important questions remain unanswered. We review and synthesize the …

This paper provides an overview of the academic literature on the market for corporate
control, and focuses specifically on firms' performance around and after a takeover. Despite …

Previous empirical work on adverse consequences of CEO overconfidence raises the
question of why firms hire overconfident managers. Theoretical research suggests a reason …

We show that measurable managerial characteristics have significant explanatory power for
corporate financing decisions. First, managers who believe that their firm is undervalued …

The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are
imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to …

M&A deals create more value for acquiring firm shareholders post-2009 than ever before.
Public acquisitions fuel positive and statistically significant abnormal returns for acquirers …

Gender diversity in the C-suite and the boardroom have taken on greater importance in
recent years. We establish a gender-based behavioral dimension to corporate debt maturity …

We study the effects on M&A outcomes of CEO network centrality, which measures the
extent and strength of a CEO׳ s personal connections. High network centrality can allow …

We propose a measure of managerial ability, based on managers' efficiency in generating
revenues, which is available for a large sample of firms and outperforms existing ability …