Following corporate spinoffs, unit boards are formed from scratch. We find that these “de novo” boards are smaller, more independent, include more outside directors with relevant industry expertise, and derive more industry expertise from outsiders than do industry- and size-matched peers. These differences are observed only when the unit CEO was not the CEO or a director of the pre-spinoff parent firm—that is, when there is a greater need to assess the CEO's ability and match with the firm. We conclude that the need for CEO assessment is an important element of the structure of newly formed boards.

Following corporate spinoffs, unit boards are formed from scratch. We find that these "de novo" boards are smaller, more independent, include more outside directors with relevant industry expertise, and derive more industry expertise from outsiders than do industry- and size-matched peers. These differences are observed only when the unit CEO was not the CEO or a director of the pre-spinoff parent firm—that is, when there is a greater need to assess the CEO's ability and match with the firm. We conclude that the need for CEO assessment is an important element of the structure of newly formed boards.

Prior evidence indicates that proximity increases investments resulting in stronger economic growth. The introduction of a non-stop direct flight between two locations in different countries allows for faster travel and a lower cost of acquiring information, potentially facilitating acquisitions abroad. We examine this channel by considering cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity between China and the U.S. Our results suggest that direct flights matter most in target selection. Direct flights are more important for M&A activity where information asymmetry is greater and for first time acquirers in the market. We demonstrate that endogeneity is unlikely to drive the results.

We use data from classic professional tennis matches to provide an empirical test of the theory of mixed strategy equilibrium. We Þnd that the serve-and-return play of John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras and others is consistent with equilibrium play. The same statistical tests soundly reject the assumption of equilibrium play in experimental data, including the data from Barry ONeills celebrated experiment. ∗We are indebted to many people for helpful comments and discussions, but especially to Robert Aumann, Bruno Broseta, Bill Horrace, Tom Palfrey, Robert Rosenthal, Jason Shachat, and Vernon Smith, and to an anonymous referee for the Review. Ed Agranowitz provided indispensable assis-tance in obtaining data, and Barry ONeill graciously provided us with the data from his experiment.