Michael Weisbach, the Ralph W. Kurtz Chair in Finance, comes to Fisher from the University of Illinois where he served as the Stanley C. and Joan J. Golder Distinguished Chair in Corporate Finance, the academic director of the Stanley C. Golder Center for the Study of Private Equity and a professor of law. Weisbach has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Rochester and the University of Arizona.

He is co-editor of The Review of Financial Studies and an associate editor of five other academic journals. Weisbach’s research and teaching interests include corporate finance, corporate governance and control and the private equity market. He has been published in more than 39 publications and his work has been cited over 13,000 times according to Google Scholar.

Areas of Expertise

• Corporate Finance
• Corporate Governance and Control
• The Market for Private Equity

Education

• PhD, Economics, Massachusetts Institute for Technology
• BS, University of Michigan

Finance 845 - Private Equity: Theory and Practice

Private equity funds are responsible for a large percentage of merger activity both inside
and outsider the U.S., and has been responsible for financing of most of the most
prominent new companies that have gone public in recent years. The organized private
equity market has become a major component of the capital markets.

Syllabus

Finance 922 - Corporate Finance Research - Doctorate Level

This is an advanced course in corporate finance. Its goal is to bring Ph.D. students to the
frontier of knowledge so that they can start doing their own research in this field.

Syllabus

All articles are the sole copyright of the respective publishers. Materials are provided for educational use only.

Publications in Refereed Journals

• "Borrow Cheap, Buy High? The Determinants of Leverage and Pricing in Buyouts" (with Ulf Axelson, Tim Jenkinson, and Per Strömberg), Journal of Finance, forthcoming.
• "What do Boards Really Do? Evidence from Minutes of Board Meetings" (with Miriam Schwartz-Ziv), Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming.
• "Pay for Performance from Future Fund Flows: the Case of Private Equity" (with Ji-Woong Chung, Berk A. Sensoy and Léa H. Stern), Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming. Wharton-WRDS Award for Best Paper on Empirical Finance at the 2011 Western Finance Association Meetings.
• "Did Securitization Affect the Cost of Corporate Debt" (with Taylor D. Nadauld), Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming.
• "Determinants of Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions," (with Isil Erel and Rose C. Liao), The Journal of Finance, Vol. 67, (June 2012).
• "Information Disclosure and Corporate Governance" (with Benjamin E. Hermalin), Journal of Finance, Vol. 67 (February 2012) pp. 195-233.
• "Macroeconomic Conditions and Capital Raising" (with Isil Erel, Brandon Julio, and Woojin Kim), Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 25 (February 2012) pp. 341-376.

• "Corporate Financial and Investment Policies when Future Financing is not Frictionless," (with Heitor Almeida and Murillo Campello), Journal of Corporate Finance, Vol. 17 (June 2011), pp. 675-693.
• "The State of Corporate Governance Research" (with Lucian A. Bebchuk). Review of Financial Studies, Vol. 23, (March 2010), pp. 939-961.
• "The Role of Boards of Directors in Corporate Governance: A Conceptual Framework & Survey" (with Renée Adams and Benjamin E. Hermalin), Journal of Economic Literature, Vol 48, (March 2010), pp. 58-107.
• "Why are Buyouts Levered? The Financial Structure of Private Equity Firms" (with Ulf Axelson and Per Strömberg), The Journal of Finance, Vol. 64 (August 2009), pp. 1549-1582. Brattle Group Prize for Best Paper in Corporate Finance, First Prize 2009.
• "Motivations for Public Equity Offers: An International Perspective" (with Woojin Kim), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 87, (February 2008), pp. 281-307.
• "Optimal Executive Compensation vs. Managerial Power: A Review of Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried's Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XLV (June 2007), pp. 420-429.
• "World Markets for Raising New Capital" (with Brian J. Henderson and Narasimhan Jegadeesh), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 82, (October 2006) pp. 63-101.
• "Horses and Rabbits? Trade-Off Theory and Optimal Capital Structure" (with Nengjiu Ju, Robert Parrino and Allen M. Poteshman), Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 40, (June 2005), pp. 259-281. Web-only Appendices: Appendix A. Appendix B. Appendix C.
• "Measuring Investment Distortions When Risk-Averse Managers Decide Whether to Undertake Risky Projects" (with Robert Parrino and Allen M. Poteshman), Financial Management, Vol. 34, Issue 1 (Spring 2005) pp. 21-60.
• "Governance, Performance Objectives and Organizational Form: Evidence from Hospitals" (with Leslie Eldenburg, Benjamin E. Hermalin, and Marta Wosinska), Journal of Corporate Finance, Vol. 10, (September 2004) pp. 527-548.
• "The Cash Flow Sensitivity of Cash" (with Heitor Almeida and Murillo Campello), The Journal of Finance, Vol. 59, (August 2004), pp. 1777-1804. Brattle Prize nominee for 2004.
• "Private Benefits and Cross-Listings in the United States" (with Evangelos Benos), Emerging Markets Review, Vol. 5 (June 2004), pp. 217-240.
• "The Economics of Has-Beens" (with Glenn MacDonald), Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 112, (February 2004), pp. S289-S310.
• "Boards of Directors as an Endogenously Determined Institution: A Survey of the Economic Literature" (with Benjamin E. Hermalin), Economic Policy Review, Vol. 9, Number 1,(April 2003) pp. 7-26. Reprinted in IJMR, The Icfaian Journal of Management Research, Vol. 3, Number 5 (May 2004) pp. 39-68.
• "Protection of Minority Shareholder Interests, Cross-Listings in the United States, and Subsequent Equity Offerings" (with William A. Reese, Jr.), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 66 (October, 2002), pp. 65-104. Reprinted in Governance: An International Perspective, edited by Diane Denis and John McConnell, Edward Elgar publishing, 2005.
• "Financial Flexibility and The Choice Between Dividends and Stock Repurchases" (with Murali Jagannathan and Clifford P. Stephens), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 57 (September 2000), pp. 355-384. Reprinted in Recent Developments in Corporate Finance, edited by Jay Ritter, Edward Elgar publishing, 2005.
• "Discussion of Gompers and Lerner's 'Corporate Venture Capital, Complementarities, and Success'," in Concentrated Ownership, edited by Randall Morck, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, 2000.
• "Measuring Investment Distortions Arising from Stockholder-Bondholder Conflicts," (with Robert Parrino), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 53 (July, 1999), pp. 3-42.
• "The Influence of Institutions on Corporate Governance through Private Negotiations: Evidence from TIAA-CREF" (with Willard T. Carleton and James M. Nelson), The Journal of Finance, Vol. 53 (August, 1998), pp. 1335-1362. Featured in The Economist, June 21, 1997.
• "Open-End Mutual Funds and Capital Gains Taxes" (with Michael J. Barclay and Neil D. Pearson), Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 49 (July, 1998), pp. 3-43.
• "Endogenously Chosen Boards of Directors and Their Monitoring of the CEO" (with Benjamin E. Hermalin), American Economic Review, Vol. 88 (March, 1998), pp. 96-118. Reprinted in Governance, Directors and Boards, edited by Mahmoud Ezzamel, Edward Elgar Publishing: United Kingdom, 2005.
• "Actual Share Reacquisitions in Open-Market Repurchase Programs" (with Clifford P. Stephens), The Journal of Finance, Vol. 53 (February, 1998), pp. 313-334. Featured in Bloomberg Business News, June 26, 1996 and Forbes, April 21, 1997.
• "Securities Fraud Lawsuits: A Descriptive Study" (with Willard T. Carleton and Elliott J. Weiss), Arizona Law Review, Vol. 38 (Summer, 1996), pp. 491-511.
• "Institutional Investors and the Governance of Canadian Corporations: An American Perspective," in Corporate Decision Making in Canada, ed. by R. Daniels and R. Morck, University of Calgary Press: Calgary, Alberta, 1995.
• "CEO Turnover and the Firm's Investment Decisions," Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 37 (February, 1995) pp. 159-188. Featured in The Wall Street Journal, April 20, 1993 and Dec. 2, 1993.
• "Accounting Information and Internal Performance Evaluation: Evidence from Texas Banks" (with David W. Blackwell and James A. Brickley), Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 17 (May, 1994), pp. 331-358.
• "Corporate Governance and Hostile Takeovers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 16 (January/April/July, 1993), pp. 199-208.
• "The Success of Acquisitions: Evidence from Divestitures" (with Steven N. Kaplan), The Journal of Finance, Vol. 47 (March, 1992), pp. 107-138: Smith-Breeden prize nominee for 1992.
• "The Effects of Board Composition and Direct Incentives on Firm Performance" (with Benjamin E. Hermalin), Financial Management, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 101-112.
• "The Economic Effects of Franchise Termination Laws" (with James A. Brickley and Frederick H. Dark), The Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 34 (April, 1991), pp. 101-132. Reprinted in Franchise Contracting and Organization, edited by Francine Lafontaine, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005.
• "An Agency Perspective on Franchising" (with James A. Brickley and Frederick H. Dark), Financial Management, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 27-35.
• "Reversions of Excess Pension Assets After Takeovers" (with Jeffrey Pontiff and Andrei Shleifer), The RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1990), pp. 600-613.
• "The Determinants of Board Composition" (with Benjamin E. Hermalin), The RAND Journal of Economics, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Winter, 1988), pp. 589-606. Reprinted in Corporate Governance in the New Global Economy, edited by Kevin Keasey, Steve Thompson and Mike Wright, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005.
• "Outside Directors and CEO Turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Vol. 20, Nos. 1/2 (January/March, 1988), pp. 431-460. Reprinted in The Economics of Executive Compensation, edited by K. Hallock and K. Murphy, Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999, pp. 347-376.

• "Equity-Holding Institutional Lenders: Do They Receive Better Terms?" (with Jongha Lim and Bernadette A. Minton).
• "Financing-Motivated Acquisitions" (with Isil Erel and Yeejin Jang).