I am an Associate Professor in Finance at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. My research mainly focuses on the effect of governance related regulations, the board of directors, firm disclosure and financial misconduct on shareholder value. My recent work examines the composition of the boards of directors and uses new and novel data that enhances our understanding of how board members interact with each other.

My research papers have been presented at many academic conferences and seminar series around the world. My research has also been recognized with various research grants and awards, including the Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance in the 2014 FMA Asia Meetings for my co-authored paper on director skills. My work has appeared in leading academic journals, such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

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Interests
  • Corporate finance
  • Corporate governance
  • Corporate disclosure
  • Textual analysis
Education

  • PhD in Finance, 2007

    University of Alabama

  • BA in Business Administration, 2001

    Koç University

Working Papers

Do Long-Term Institutional Investors Prefer Future-Focused CEOs?
We report that institutional investors hold more stock in firms with past-focused CEOs.
Ali C. Akyol and Atefeh Maghzi
Analyst Experience and Accrual Anomaly: How Do Experienced Analysts Improve Price Efficiency?
We document that the accrual anomaly is substantially mitigated for firms followed by more experienced analysts.
Ali C. Akyol, Yiming Qian, and Frank Yu
Corporate Gender Culture
We construct the first systematic measures of ‘corporate gender culture’—firms’ practices pertaining to the treatment of women across several dimensions and examine which dimension best predicts women’s representation in corporate leadership.
Renee B. Adams, Ali C. Akyol, and Pauline Grosjean
How Does the Market React When Shareholders Lose Power?
This study shows that the market reacts positively when sharehholders …
Ali C. Akyol
Director Skill Networks
We investigate how firms select directors from other company boards. Our results indicate that firms select directors that fit into the current pool of directors.
Renee B. Adams, Ali C. Akyol and André Gygax
Location, Managerial Entrenchment, and Short-Term Pressure
We show that remote firms are more likely to leave anti-takeover provisions in place and provide evidence that being out of sight could benefit firms by mitigating short-term pressure from Wall Street
Ali C. Akyol, Rex Wang Renjie, and Patrick Verwijmeren

Publications

Corporate Governance and Fraud
This chapter examines the relationship between corporate governance and corporate fraud with a focus on internal and external governance characteristics and how they affect the likelihood of fraud. The chapter also examines the evidence on governance-related changes in firms affected by fraud.
Ali C. Akyol
Corporate Governance and Fraud
Director Skill Sets
We examine director skills and report that the main dimension along which boards vary is in the diversity of skills of their directors. We find that firm performance increases when director skill sets exhibit more commonality.
Renée Adams, Ali C. Akyol and Patrick Verwijmeren
Director Skill Sets
The Elimination of Broker Voting in Director Elections
In 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reformed shareholder voting by eliminating uninstructed broker voting in director elections. We use this reform as a quasi-natural experiment to assess the value of shareholder empowerment. Using different control groups and various cross-sectional tests, we find that the reform did not increase average equity values.
Ali C. Akyol, Konrad Raff and Patrick Verwijmeren
The Elimination of Broker Voting in Director Elections
Do Regulatory Changes Affect the Underpricing of European IPOs?
We examine how the adoptions of corporate governance codes by Member States of the European Union (EU) have affected IPO underpricing on Member State-regulated market. We find that, on average, IPO underpricing declined on Member State-regulated markets after Member States adopted corporate governance codes containing SOX-like provisions.
Ali C. Akyol, Tommy Cooper, Michele Meoli and Silvio Vismara
Do Regulatory Changes Affect the Underpricing of European IPOs?
The Causes and Consequences of Accelerated Stock Repurchases
We examine share repurchases and report that we find that firms that use accelerated share repurchases (ASRs) have lower market-to-book ratios, less cash, but greater managerial entrenchment. Prior to repurchase, ASR firms are subject to significantly more takeover rumors than OMR firms are, and this, along with entrenchment and undervaluation, affects the choice to use ASRs.
Ali C. Akyol, Jin San Kim and Chander Shekhar
The Causes and Consequences of Accelerated Stock Repurchases
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