Ferris (U. of Missouri), John (New York U.), and Makhija (The Ohio State U.) present eight empirical papers that investigate recent issues of corporate governance and financial economics. Topics include the influence of governance on performance in SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies), limits to convergence in international corporate governance practices, the private benefits of control, the relations between the discipline of options and corporate debt and the design of executive compensation, the effect of research and development expenditures on bondholders, the capital market response to financial restatements, and the relative risk of privately-owned banks versus government-owned banks. Distributed in North America by Turpin Distribution. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)