2. Stealing and speculative attacks
2.1. A simple static model
Consider the following simple model, which is related to LLSV (1999b)
although they assume a different timing for expropriation relative to investment.
As in Jensen and Meckling (1976), the conflict of interest is between insiders
(managers) and outsiders (equity owners in our simple model). The manager
owns share a of the firm and outsiders own share 1-a. Retained earnings are
denoted by I. The manager steals S*0 of retained earnings and obtains utility
of S from them. We use `stealing as shorthand for more general forms of
expropriation by managers.