The Life Cycle Effects of Corporate Takeover Defenses

We document that the relation between firm value and the use of takeover defenses is positive for young firms but becomes negative as firms age. This value reversal pattern reflects specific changes in the costs and benefits of takeover defenses as firms age and arises because defenses are sticky and rarely removed. Firms can attenuate the value reversal by removing defenses, but do so only when the defenses become very costly and adjustment costs are low. The value reversal explains previous mixed evidence about takeover defenses and implies that firm age proxies for takeover defenses’ heterogeneous impacts on firm value.

The Life Cycle Effects of Corporate Takeover Defenses

We document that the relation between firm value and the use of takeover defenses is positive for young firms but becomes negative as firms age. This value reversal pattern reflects specific changes in the costs and benefits of takeover defenses as firms age and arises because defenses are sticky and rarely removed. Firms can attenuate the value reversal by removing defenses, but do so only when the defenses become very costly and adjustment costs are low. The value reversal explains previous mixed evidence about takeover defenses and implies that firm age proxies for takeover defenses’ heterogeneous impacts on firm value.

The spiritual transformation of giving: Generosity’s constitution of the self and community in post-religious society

How has the ‘benevolent self’s relation to others changed as a result of (first) the liberalization of monotheisms and (then) the uneven transition to post-religious spiritual formations? The apparent (and misleading) effacement of the self in traditional monotheistic generosity has ultimately given way to a ‘liberal’ glorification of the self. In advanced liberalism (typically dubbed ‘neoliberalism’), the glorification intensifies, but paradoxically becomes self-critical. Post-religious spiritualities interact with these advanced liberal dynamics to open up new possibilities for self- and community-formation. Even though the contradictions between self-centeredness and self-criticism are most acutely experienced within American post-religious spirituality, a suggestive discussion of Egypt demonstrates that these trends are not exclusively ‘Western.’ In both contexts, the corporate takeover of spirituality confines alternative forms of generosity.