Investment Committee,Corporate Cash Holdings and Corporate Life Cycle

We investigate the association between voluntary formation of board investment committee (IC) and corporate cash holdings of nonfinancial firms over the corporate life cycle stages for a large sample of Gulf Cooperation Council firms during 2005–2016. We find that IC increases corporate cash holdings in growth and maturity stages of firm, compared to introduction, shake‐out, and decline stages. These results have important implications for investors, policy makers, and regulators. Our findings are robust to various econometrics specifications.     

Big Data: An Institutional Perspective on Opportunities and Challenges

The data revolution is already reshaping how knowledge is produced, business conducted, humanitarian assistance handled, public officials elected, and governance enacted. Economists rely on data to describe, interpret, and forecast economic activity. Despite the rich tradition of using large datasets, institutional economics have shied away from big data. This article describes, reviews, and reflects on big data, with a particular focus on economic development. It illustrates the vast opportunities and challenges for big data as an important tool for the benefit of the public. It suggests that big data and data analytics, if used properly, can provide real-time actionable information that can be used to identify problems and needs, offer services, and provide feedback on the effectiveness of policy action.     

US National Security and Foreign Direct Investment

This article examines US foreign investment policy in the historical and current security contexts and provides an analytical discussion on the trends in foreign investment review on national security grounds. It finds that the concept of national security has been gradually broadened to include economic security, critical infrastructure, and homeland security as components of national security. This has allowed the foreign investment review process to become highly politicized. The article concludes that national security is far too important to be mixed with domestic political debates on economic and social concerns from foreign takeovers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.