Publications

Read Now

August 2024
Case

Oculii

By: Andy Wu and Lucas Defilippo

It was a bright June day in 2016. Steven Hong, co-founder and COO of Oculii had just signed a letter of intent agreeing to a 51% stake acquisition by Nexteer Automotive, a global steering and driveline supplier company that developed advanced driver assistance systems... View Details

Keywords: Automotive; Autonomous Vehicles; Wireless Communications; Mergers and Acquisitions; Communication Intention and Meaning; Intellectual Property; Growth Management; Negotiation Deal; Supply Chain; Auto Industry; Technology Industry

2022
Book

Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know

By: J.S. Nelson and Lynn A. Stout

An authoritative and practical guide to business ethics, written in an accessible question-and-answer format. In today's turbulent business climate, business ethics are more important than ever. Surveys of employees show that misconduct is on the rise. Cover stories... View Details

Keywords: Business Ethics; Organizational Behavior; Ethics; Governance Controls; Lawfulness

09 Nov 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Securities Litigation Risk for Foreign Companies Listed in the US

Keywords: by Beiting Cheng, Suraj Srinivasan & Gwen Yu

June 2012
Article

Decoding Inside Information

By: Lauren Cohen, Christopher Malloy and Lukasz Pomorski

Using a simple empirical strategy, we decode the information in insider trading. Exploiting the fact that insiders trade for a variety of reasons, we show that there is predictable, identifiable "routine" insider trading that is not informative for the future of firms.... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Financial Markets; Forecasting and Prediction; Law Enforcement; Opportunities; Geographic Location; Business Earnings

SSRN

January 2025
Case

Constitutional Fiction: John Miller & the Legitimacy of Family Constitutions

By: Lauren Cohen, Octavian Graf Pilati and Sophia Pan

John Miller sat reviewing his family’s Constitution, grappling with how best to implement and enforce its provisions. Designed to prevent ambiguity in governance, the Family Constitution set out core values and guidelines to promote harmony and cohesion among family... View Details

November 2010
Case

Esquel Group: Building a Sustainable Partnership with Cotton Farmers in Xinjiang (A)

By: James K. Sebenius and Jason Cheng Qian

Esquel Group, leading manufacturer of quality shirts, sought to negotiate long-term partnerships with often-exploited farmers in Xinjiang (western China) to procure a superior cotton variety. Seeking to secure a large supply of specialty cotton in an ethical and... View Details

Keywords: Contracts; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Leasing; Business and Community Relations; Business and Government Relations; Partners and Partnerships; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Hong Kong; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

2022
Book

Corporate Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions

By: Leo R. Tsao, Daniel S. Kahn and Eugene F. Soltes

Over the past two decades, corporate criminal liability has developed into one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic areas of legal practice. The growth of corporate criminal enforcement has correlated with a broad shift in how the government investigates and... View Details

Keywords: Criminal Investigations; Crime and Corruption; Legal Liability

Research Summary

Dissertation Summary

From a contractual viewpoint, the employment relations observed in the early 1960s in large unionized manufacturing firms in the U.S. and Japan represented two contrasting cases. Employment relations in the U.S. were based largely on explicit, elaborate, and... View Details

Article

The Growing Problem of Patent Trolling

By: Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and Scott Duke Kominers

The last decade has seen a sharp rise in patent litigation in the U.S., with 2015 having one of the highest patent lawsuit counts on record. In theory, this could be a consequence of growth in the commercialization of technology and innovation—patent lawsuits increase... View Details

Keywords: Patent Aggregators; Patent Litigation; Patent Pools; Patent Trolls; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; United States

Article

Renegotiation and the Form of Efficient Contracts

By: Jerry R. Green and J. J. Laffont

Two parties may agree to a mutually binding contract that will govern their behavior after an uncertain event becomes known. As there is no agent who can both observe this uncertain outcome and enforce the contract, contingent agreements are precluded. However, the... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Contracts

Read Now

June 2006 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Creditor Activism in Sovereign Debt: 'Vulture' Tactics or Market Backbone

By: Laura Alfaro and Ingrid Vogel

The role of distressed debt funds, also known as "vulture funds," in sovereign debt restructuring was a hotly debated topic, especially after the success of Elliot Associates in converting an $11 million investment in Peruvian bonds worth $21 million into a $58 million... View Details

Keywords: Vulture Funds; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Sovereign Finance; Government and Politics; Contracts; Business and Government Relations; Peru

Teaching Interest

Overview

Globalization and Emerging Markets (Elective Course) The world order has changed significantly in the last two decades. The influence of western-style varieties of capitalism has been challenged by new forms of capitalism that rely less on private enterprise and on the... View Details

March 2008 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Eliot Spitzer: Pushing Wall Street to Reform

By: Rawi Abdelal, Rafael Di Tella and Jonathan Schlefer

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer faced a decision about how to stop wrongdoing committed by major Wall Street firms during the Internet boom. The equities analysts of Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms were charged with objectively advising retail... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decisions; Financial Institutions; Stocks; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Conflict of Interests; Internet; Financial Services Industry; United States

02 Apr 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, April 2, 2019

forthcoming Review of Accounting Studies The Effect of Enforcement Transparency: Evidence from SEC Comment-Letter Reviews By: Duro, Miguel, Jonas Heese, and Gaizka Ormazabal Abstract—This paper studies the effect of the public disclosure... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

16 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 16, 2008

pronounced in banks, and with higher pre-adoption information asymmetry, consistent with investors expecting net information quality benefits from IFRS adoption. We also find that the reaction is less positive for firms domiciled in code View Details

Working Paper

Covenant-Light Contracts and Creditor Coordination

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

In 2015, 70% of newly issued leveraged loans had weaker enforcement features, called covenant-light or "cov-lite"; this is nearly a three-time increase in cov-lite issuance compared to a previous peak in 2007. We evaluate whether this development can be attributed to... View Details

Keywords: Credit Cycles; Loan Contracts; Debt Covenants; Contracts; Financing and Loans; Credit; Borrowing and Debt