Commentary by faculty and affiliates of the Duke Law Global Financial Markets Center
The past few years have been marked by many tax scandals: LuxLeaks in 2014, SwissLeaks in 2015, Bahamas Leaks and the Panama Papers in 2016, and the Paradise Papers and Malta Files in 2017. Last month, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published the FinCEN Files, and in so doing provided a glimpse into […]
Corporate executives play a central role, perhaps even the central role, in a firm’s decision to undertake a merger or acquisition (M&A). M&A deals are often done at the behest of executives, who also largely run the deal-making process. Senior executives, especially CEOs, play a pivotal role in crafting, negotiating, and closing deals. They are […]
It was four years ago that Wells Fargo admitted creating fake customer accounts to hit sky-high sales goals and almost everyone tied to the bank has paid a price since then. Millions of customers were likely saddled with bogus accounts while investors coughed up billions in would-be profits to pay for the bank’s sins. Thousands […]
Since the 1990s, global investment in private equity has increased from nearly $10 billion to well over $100 billion per year. Concurrently, there has also been a shift away from public markets in major economies like the U.S. and U.K. These two developments are likely connected by the trend of small and mid-sized companies staying […]
The amount of power to grant a CEO is one of the most important decisions corporate boards must make. CEO power has crucial implications for firm behavior. Yet, we still do not fully understand how CEOs become powerful over time. Under the optimal view, corporate boards reward CEOs with power for good firm performance. However, […]
The coronavirus pandemic has caused great damage to the global economy, due to the disease itself and the subsequent local and country-wide lockdowns to contain it. While recent investigations have focused on the short-term impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns, the long-term impact, especially the ways that epidemic experience affects managerial decision making, has received […]
Recent studies show that dual holders—that is, institutions that simultaneously hold equity and debt of the same firm—internalize the shareholder-creditor conflict and lead to incentive alignment between the two parties (Jiang et al., 2010; Chava et al., 2017; Chu, 2018; Anton and Lin, 2020). However, mitigation of the shareholder-creditor conflict comes at the cost of […]
Banks became major participants in U.S. securities markets twice in the past century – during the 1920s and after the mid-1990s. Both times, banks with “universal banking” powers originated risky loans and packaged them into securities that were sold to investors around the world. Both times, universal banks promoted unsustainable credit booms that led to […]
There has been growing attention among policymakers and the general public to the taxation of multinational corporations (MNCs) in recent years. This reflects widespread concern about the capacity of the international tax regime – which originated in the 1920s – to accommodate recent developments such as the growth of digital services across borders. In particular, […]
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated global economic shutdown roiled financial markets around the world during the spring of 2020. The usually placid municipal securities market was not immune from this disruption. Initially, investors flocked to municipal securities to de-risk portfolios in response to the growing pandemic, pushing prices higher and bond yields to record lows. […]