Espen Eckbo

Professor B. Espen Eckbo holds the Tuck Centennial Chair of Finance. He is also Faculty Director of Tuck's Lindenauer Forum for Governance Research, which he founded in 1999. He teaches advanced MBA courses in the areas of corporate finance, corporate takeovers and international corporate governance.

Professor Eckbo, who received a PhD in financial economics from the University of Rochester in 1981, has published extensively in the top finance journals in the areas of corporate finance, investment banking, and the market for corporate control. He is a recipient of an honorary doctoral degree from the Norwegian School of Economics, the prestigious Batterymarch Fellowship, as well as several outstanding-paper awards. He is a research Associate of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI), and a frequent keynote and invited seminar speaker. He was called in 2009 by the U.S. Congress to testify on issues concerning the government’s large equity ownership positions in companies rescued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

In 2005, Professor Eckbo assisted the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global, the world's largest institutional shareholder in global equity markets (with assets of $760 billion in 2013), with developing much of its corporate governance principles and strategy. This fund has since been partnering with Tuck’s Lindenauer Forum for Governance Research on a large-scale project investigating cross-border impediments to shareholder voting.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Academic positions

• Tuck School of Business, 1998–present
• Adjunct Professor, Norwegian School of Economics, 1990–present
• Visiting Professor, MIT, 2001
• Gösta Olson Professor of Finance, Stockholm School of Economics, 1996–98
• Finn Øyen Professor of Finance, Norwegian School of Management, 1993–94
• Visiting Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1985–86
• Professor of Finance, University of British Columbia, 1981–96

Board memberships

• Academic Director, Financial Management Association, 2007–2010
• IndexSpar, 2000–05; Center for Leadership in Government, America’s Health Insurance Plans, 2006–present
• Investment Committee, UNIFOR, 1997–98
• Norwegian National Research Council, 1996–2001

Editorial positions

• Series Editor, Handbooks of Economics, for the series on Corporate Finance, 2020-present
• Advisory Editor, Handbooks in Finance, 2007–present
• Associate Editor, Finance Research Letters, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Review of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, 1998–2002
• Guest Co-Editor, Journal of Financial Economics, 69(1)
• Founding Co-Editor, European Finance Review (since renamed Review of
• Finance)1997–2003

DEGREE

• PhD, University of Rochester, 1981; MSc, University of Rochester, 1980; MSc, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, 1977; BSc, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, 1975

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Finance, economics, industrial organization, governance

CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS

• Investment banking
• Takeovers
• Bankruptcy
• Corporate governance
• Liquidity risk

AWARDS

• 2021 Review of Finance Distinguished Referee Award
• Three All Star publications in the Journal of Financial Economics (published in 1983, 1986 and 2000)
• Honorary Doctoral Degree (Docteur Honoris Causa), Norwegian School of Economics, 2011
• Best paper, Journal of Corporate Finance, 2009
• Barclays Global Investors/Michael Brennan Prize for best paper, Review of Financial Studies, 2001.
• Nominee, Smith-Breeden Prize for best paper, Journal of Finance, 1998
• Harry Johnson Prize for best paper, Canadian Journal of Economics, 1987
• Batterymarch Fellowship (awarded in a worldwide competition to young, untenured finance scholars), 1987

WORKING PAPERS

• With M. Lithell, “Merger-Driven Listing Dynamics”, 2021
• With E. De Bodt and R. Roll, “Competition Shocks, Rival Reactions, and Return Comovement,” 2021
• With X. Su and K. Thorburn, “Bank Compensation for Penalty-Free Loan Prepayment: Theory and Tests,” 2021
• With K. Li and W.Wang, “Rent Extraction by Super-Priority Lenders,” 2021
• With O. Dessaint and A. Golubov, “Bidder-Specific Synergies and the Evolution of Acquirer Returns,” 2021
• With B. Ødegaard, “Board Gender-Balancing and Insider Trading Performance,” 2021

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• With K. Nygaard and K. Thorburn, “Valuation Effects of Norway’s Board Gender-Quota Revisited,” Management Science, forthcoming, 2021
• With M. Kisser, "The Leverage-Profitability Puzzle Resurrected”, Review of Finance, 25, 2021.
• With M. Kisser, “Tradeoff Theory and Leverage Dynamics of High-Frequency Debt Issuers”, Review of Finance, 25, 2021
• With A. Malenko and K. Thorburn, “Strategic Decisions in Takeover Auctions”, Annual Review of Financial Economics, 12, 2020
• With T. Makaew and K. Thorburn, "Are Stock-Financed Takeovers Opportunistic?", Journal of Financial Economics, 128, 2018
• With K. Thorburn and W. Wang, "How Costly is Corporate Bankruptcy for the CEO?” Journal of Financial Economics, 121, 2016
• “Corporate Takeovers and Economic Efficiency,” Annual Review of Financial Economics, 6, 2014
• With S. Betton, R. Thompson, and K. Thorburn, “Merger Negotiations with Stock Market Feedback,” Journal of Finance, 69, 2014
• With K. Thorburn, "Corporate Restructuring," Foundations and Trends in Finance, 7, 2013
• “Banking System Bailout – Scandinavian Style,” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 22, 2010
• With K. Thorburn, “Bankruptcy as an Auction Process: Lessons from Sweden”, with Karin S. Thorburn, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 21, 2009
• “Bidding Strategies and Takeover Premiums: A Review,” Journal of Corporate Finance, 15, 2009
• With K. Thorburn, "Creditor Financing and Overbidding in Bankruptcy Auctions: Theory and Tests," Journal of Corporate Finance, 15, 2009
• With S. Betton and K. Thorburn, "Merger Negotiations and the Toehold Puzzle," Journal of Financial Economics, 91, 2009
• “Equity Issues and the Disappearing Rights Offer Phenomenon”, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 20, 2008
• With K. Thorburn, "Automatic Bankruptcy Auctions and Fire-Sales," Journal of Financial Economics, 89, 2008
• With Ø. Norli, "Liquidity Risk, Leverage, and Long-Run IPO Returns," Journal of Corporate Finance, 11, 2005
• With K. Thorburn, "Control Benefits and CEO Discipline in Automatic Bankruptcy Auctions," Journal of Financial Economics, 69, 2003
• With K. Thorburn, "Gains to Bidder Firms Revisited: Domestic and Foreign Acquisitions in Canada," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 35, 2000
• With S. Betton, "Toeholds, Bid-Jumps, and Expected Payoffs in Takeovers," Review of Financial Studies, 13, 2000
• With R. Masulis and Ø. Norli, "Seasoned Public Offerings: Resolution of the ‘New Issues Puzzle’," Journal of Financial Economics, 56, 2000
• With D. Smith, "The Conditional Performance of Insider Trades," Journal of Finance, 53, 1998
• With O. Bohren and D. Michalsen, “Why Underwrite Rights Offers? Some New Evidence,” Journal of Financial Economics 46, 1997
• With S. Verma, "Managerial Shareownership, Voting Power, and Corporate Dividends," Journal of Corporate Finance, 1, 1994
• With J. Liu, "Temporary Components of Stock Prices: New Univariate Results," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 28, 1993
• "Mergers and the Value of Antitrust Deterrence," Journal of Finance, 47, 1992
• With R. Masulis, "Adverse Selection and the Rights Offer Paradox," Journal of Financial Economics, 32, 1992
• "Valuation Effects of Greenmail Prohibitions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 25, 1990
• With R. Giammarino and R. Heinkel, “Asymmetric Information and the Medium of Exchange in Takeovers: Theory and Tests,” Review of Financial Studies, 3, 1990
• With V. Maksimovic and J. Williams, “Consistent Estimation of Cross-Sectional Models in Event Studies,” Review of Financial Studies, 3, 1990
• With H. Langohr, “Information Disclosure, Means of Payment, and Takeover Premiums: Public and Private Tender Offers in France,” Journal of Financial Economics, 24, 1989
• “Valuation Effects of Corporate Debt Offerings,” Journal of Financial Economics, 15, 1986
• “Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control: The Canadian Evidence,” Canadian Journal of Economics, 19, 1986
• "Mergers and the Market Concentration Doctrine: Evidence from the Capital Market," Journal of Business, 58, 1985
• With P. Wier, "Antimerger Policy under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act: A Re-Examination of the Market Power Hypothesis," Journal of Law and Economics, 28, 1985
• “Horizontal Mergers, Collusion and Stockholder Wealth,” Journal of Financial Economics, 11, 1983