National Bureau of Economic Research / Review of Financial Studies Conference on Corporate Governance

Michael Weisbach and I are co-organizing a conference, jointly sponsored by the corporate governance project of the NBER and The Review of Financial Studies.

Here is the call for papers:

Corporate governance deals with the set of institutions designed to ensure that suppliers of finance recieve a return on their investment.  It is now widely recognized to have a significant role in determining the performance of firms and the economy.  This conference aims to contribute to a better understanding of corporate governance.  The conference organizers encourage the submission of papers relating to all aspects of the field.  Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• The relationship between CEOs, boards, and shareholders.
• The market for executives, their human capital, and factors that lead to executive turnover.
• Executive compensation policy and its effect on the corporation.
• The real effects of legal rules (such as the Sarbanes/Oxley legislation) that attempts to improve governance.
• The role of the legal systems and privately adopted arrangements (in charters, bylaws, or otherwise) on the governance of firms.
• The effect of governance on firms’ ability to access capital markets, and on financial development.
• The manner in which governance is affected by blockholders, activist shareholders, the press, and other external factors.
• The relation between governance, takeover markets, and devices that affect takeover markets such as antitakeover provisions.

Preference will be given to papers whose authors are willing to have their papers considered by the Review of Financial Studies.  Authors willing to have their papers considered by the RFS should so indicate when submitting their paper for the conference.  Papers already submitted to the RFS, and papers presented at earlier meetings of the NBER corporate governance project, can also be submitted to the conference.  Papers whos authors do not wish to be considered by the RFS can also be submitted provided that they have not already been accepted for publication.  Authors whose papers are not accepted for the conference can and are encourage to submit their papers to the RFS through the usual submission process.  If a sufficient number of conference papers is accepted by the RFS after its usual rigorous refereeing process, the papers will be published in an RFS Special Issue.

The absolute deadline for submission is May 1, 2007.  However, authors of papers that are ready for consideration are highly encouraged to submit them as soon as the paper is ready for consideration.  The organizers will seek to provide all authors submitting a paper an indication within several weeks of the submission as to the liklihood of inclusion in the conference.  To submit a paper for consideration, please email a PDF version of the paper to Rob Shannon at the NBER at rshannon [at] nber.org.  Please also send copies to Katie DeAngelo, at kdeangelo [at] law.harvard.edu, and Tricia Cushing, at tricia.cushing [at] yale.edu.  Please put “Submission to NBER/RFS Corporate Governance Conference” in the subject line of each email.

The conference organizers will provide accomodations as well as financial support for travel expenses to authors whose papers are accepted for the conference.