IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jemstr/v1y1992i1p37-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To the Raider Goes the Surplus? A Reexamination of the Free-Rider Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Holmstrom, Bengt
  • Nalebuff, Barry

Abstract

This paper reexamines Grossman and Hart's (1980) insight into how the free-rider problem excludes an external raider from capturing the increase in value it brings to a firm. The inability of the raider to capture any of the surplus depends critically on the assumption of equal and indivisible shareholdings--the one-share-per-shareholder model. In contrast, we show that once shareholdings are large and potentially unequal, a raider may capture a significant part of the increase in value. Specifically, the free-rider problem does not prevent the takeover process when shareholdings are divisible. Copyright 1992 by MIT Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Holmstrom, Bengt & Nalebuff, Barry, 1992. "To the Raider Goes the Surplus? A Reexamination of the Free-Rider Problem," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 37-62, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:1:y:1992:i:1:p:37-62
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1430-9134.1992.00037.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    2. Chamberlain, Gary & Rothschild, Michael, 1981. "A note on the probability of casting a decisive vote," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 152-162, August.
    3. Bebchuk, Lucian Arye, 1989. "Takeover Bids below the Expected Value of Minority Shares," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 171-184, June.
    4. Sanford J. Grossman & Oliver D. Hart, 1980. "Takeover Bids, the Free-Rider Problem, and the Theory of the Corporation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 42-64, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesca Cornelli & David D. Li, 2002. "Risk Arbitrage in Takeovers," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 837-868.
    2. Liebler, Robert J., 1997. "Tender offers to influential shareholders," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 529-540, April.
    3. Lucian Arye Bebchuk, 1994. "Efficient and Inefficient Sales of Corporate Control," NBER Working Papers 4788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ann B. Gillette & Thomas H. Noe, 2000. "If at first you don't succeed: an experimental investigation of the impact of repetition options on corporate takeovers," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2000-9, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    5. Lucian Bebchuk & Oliver Hart, 2001. "Takeover bids vs. Proxy Fights in Contests for Corporate Control," NBER Working Papers 8633, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Armo Gomes, 2001. "Takeovers, Freezeouts, and Risk Arbitrage," Penn CARESS Working Papers c4679b705ea88aebda985c6da, Penn Economics Department.
    7. Broere, Mark & Christmann, Robin, 2021. "Takeovers, shareholder litigation, and the free-riding problem," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Molin, Johan, 1996. "Optimal deterrence and inducement of takeovers: An analysis of poison pills and dilution," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 102, Stockholm School of Economics.
    9. Hart, Oliver & Bebchuk, Lucian Arye, 2001. "Takeover Bids versus Proxy Fights in Contests for Corporate Control," CEPR Discussion Papers 3073, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Sang Cheol Lee & Mooweon Rhee & Jongchul Yoon, 2018. "Foreign Monitoring and Audit Quality: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, September.
    11. Young Mok Choi & Kunsu Park, 2019. "Foreign Ownership, Agency Costs, and Long-Term Firm Growth: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-17, March.
    12. Goergen, Marc & Manjon, Miguel C. & Renneboog, Luc, 2008. "Recent developments in German corporate governance," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 175-193, September.
    13. Li, Zhan, 2017. "Shareholder Activism Externalities," MPRA Paper 91635, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 21 Jan 2019.
    14. Sergey Stepanov, 2012. "Takeovers under Asymmetric Information: Block Trades and Tender Offers in Equilibrium," Working Papers w0185, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    15. Matthias Kiefer & Edward Jones & Andrew Adams, 2016. "Principals, Agents and Incomplete Contracts: Are Surrender of Control and Renegotiation the Solution?," CFI Discussion Papers 1603, Centre for Finance and Investment, Heriot Watt University.
    16. Rajan, Raghuram G. & Wulf, Julie, 2006. "Are perks purely managerial excess?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 1-33, January.
    17. Sercu, Piet & Van Hulle, Cynthia, 1995. "Financing instruments, security design, and the efficiency of takeovers: A note," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 373-393, December.
    18. Henrik Cronqvist & Fredrik Heyman & Mattias Nilsson & Helena Svaleryd & Jonas Vlachos, 2009. "Do Entrenched Managers Pay Their Workers More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 309-339, February.
    19. At, Christian & Morand, Pierre-Henri, 2008. "Jump bidding in ascending auctions: The case of takeover contests," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 458-460, June.
    20. Deman, S., 2000. "The real estate takeover: Application of Grossman and Hart theory," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 175-195.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:1:y:1992:i:1:p:37-62. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/journals/JEMS/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.