We show that judicial independence can reduce local protectionism and foster cross-regional economic integration. We exploit a judicial independence reform in China with staggered roll-out since 2014. The reform removed local governments' control over local courts' financial and personnel...

We analyze the effects of exposure to industrial robots on labor markets and household behaviors, exploring longitudinal household data from China. We find that a one standard deviation increase in robot exposure led to a decline in labor force participation (-1%), employment (-7.5%), and hourly...

Relative performance evaluation (RPE) intensifies competitive pressure by tying executive compensation to the profits of rivals. We show that these contracts make loan syndication harder by reducing banks' willingness to participate in loans underwritten by banks named in their RPE contracts....

This paper studies banks' investment in risk management practices following the Global Financial Crisis and the advent of stress testing. Banks that experienced greater losses during the Crisis exhibit stronger demand for risk management talents. Banks increase their demand for highly skilled...

Bank branch density, defined as the number of bank branches to total deposits, has significantly declined over the past decade, fueled by a confluence of branch closings and the almost doubling of deposits between 2016 and 2022. During this period, banks with low branch density benefited from...

We test whether measures of potential influence on regulators affect stress test outcomes. The large trading banks - those most plausibly 'Too big to Fail' - face the toughest tests. In contrast, we find no evidence that either political or regulatory connections affect the tests. Stress tests...

Congestion plays a central role in urban and transportation economics. Existing estimates of congestion costs rely on stated or revealed preferences studies. We explore a complementary measure of congestion costs based on self-reported happiness. Exploiting quasi-random variation in daily...

We build a dynamic capital structure model to study the link between firms' systematic risk exposures and their time-varying debt maturity choices, as well as its implications for the term structure of credit spreads. Compared to short-term debt, long-term debt helps reduce rollover risks, but...

How do elites mobilize commoners to participate in a war? How does war mobilization affect elite power after the war? We argue that these two questions are interconnected, as elites mobilize war often because war benefits them. We demonstrate these relationships using the setting of the...

This study investigates how enhanced regulation can promote innovation, focusing on the impacts of a significant regulatory reform in China's pharmaceutical sector implemented in 2015. Inspired by regulatory practices in the U.S., the reform aimed to address application backlogs and reduce...