It is an honor to present the Summer 2020 issue of the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance on SSRN! We have partnered with the JACF for over 15 years to include the journal’s uncompromised research in our eLibrary, but this issue is special to us. The introduction by editor Don Chew pays tribute to Michael C. Jensen, Harvard Business School Emeritus, and co-founder of SSRN.
Helping Jensen co-found SSRN, beginning with the Financial Economics Network, is one of my proudest achievements. SSRN expanded significantly when Ron Gilson and Mitch Polinsky started the Legal Scholarship Network on the SSRN platform. Jensen and SSRN changed the way finance, economics, and legal working papers were distributed.
The Summer issue of the JACF is devoted to the subject of “Private Equity and Public Companies”—and, by the way, includes a wonderful article by Ron Gilson and Jeff Gordon that shows public companies how to improve their boards. In addition to the resources provided by SSRN to many academic beneficiaries, Jensen is best known among his finance colleagues as the heir to Adolf Berle in formulating the theory of “agency costs” and as the intellectual father of leveraged buyouts and private equity. If you read Don Chew’s introduction, I think you will understand why.
Enjoy the issue! You can also read other Journal of Applied Corporate Finance papers and, Mike’s “agency costs” and other papers.