Bo Becker
There are 3 articles for this faculty member.
About Faculty in this Article:
Bo Becker is an assistant professor in the Finance unit at Harvard Business School.
Estimating the Effects of Large Shareholders Using a Geographic Instrument
| Authors: | Bo Becker, Henrik Cronqvist, and Rüdiger Fahlenbrach |
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| Published: | October 29, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | October 2009 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Are large shareholders good monitors of management? A public firm's shareholders have extensive legal control rights in the corporation, but in practice much of this control is delegated to managers. In companies with small, dispersed shareholders, owners may find it costly to coordinate and exercise monitoring and control, leaving management with considerable discretion. Large shareholders, however—by concentrating a block of shares in the hands of a single decision-maker—may play a beneficial role in facilitating effective owner control. Yet large shareholders are not without their costs. HBS professor Bo Becker and coauthors develop and test a framework to quantify the impact of large owners (individual non-managerial blockholders, not mutual funds or other institutions) on several key aspects of firm behavior. They show that such shareholders play an important role for corporate governance in sizable U.S. public firms, and can affect several firm policies.
Why Competition May Not Improve Credit Rating Agencies
| Q&A with: | Bo Becker |
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| Published: | August 31, 2009 |
| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Competition usually creates better products and services. But when competition increased among credit rating agencies, the result was less accurate ratings, according to a study by HBS professor Bo Becker and finance professor Todd Milbourn of Washington University in St Louis. In our Q&A, Becker discusses why users of ratings should exercise a little caution.
Reputation and Competition: Evidence from the Credit Rating Industry
| Authors: | Bo Becker and Todd Milbourn |
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| Published: | July 22, 2009 |
| Paper Release Date: | October 2008 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Credit ratings are a key aspect of the financial system. The quality of these ratings is certainly sustained in part by the reputational concerns of rating agencies, whose paying customers have no inherent interest in the quality of ratings. Competition in this industry has been increasing, and there have been calls for yet more competition. Whether competition will reduce quality or improve it is not yet clear. HBS professor Bo Becker and Washington University in St. Louis professor Todd Milbourn test these conflicting predictions in the ratings industry. Their evidence is more or less consistent with a reduction in credit rating quality as Fitch increased its market presence. Their empirical findings suggest that the system will work better when competition is not too severe. These results have potential policy implications.
