We investigate the determinants of firms' implicit insurance to employees, using a difference-indifference approach: we rely on differences between family and non-family firms to identify the supply of insurance, and exploit variation in unemployment insurance across and within countries to...

The recent financial crisis has led to a major debate about fair-value accounting. Many critics have argued that fair-value accounting, often also called mark-to-market accounting, has significantly contributed to the financial crisis or, at least, exacerbated its severity. In this paper, we...

We show that the presence of high frequency trading (HFT) has significantly mitigated the frequency and severity of end-of-day price dislocation, counter to recent concerns expressed in the media. The effect of HFT is more pronounced on days when end of day price dislocation is more likely to be...

We examine the impact of stock exchange trading rules and surveillance on the frequency and severity of suspected insider trading cases in 22 stock exchanges around the world over the period January 2003 through June 2011. Using new indices for market manipulation, insider trading, and...

This short essay, prepared as the text of a talk for a conference on shareholders' agreements, examines what I consider one of the most puzzling and overlooked issues of US corporate law and securities regulation. The issue is why agreements among shareholders are not often used as control...

The real dynamics of U.S. regulatory competition in corporate law are often misunderstood. As convincingly demonstrated by some authors (Kahan and Kamar), most States are not actively engaged in the market for charters, and Delaware's position is substantially unchallenged. From this starting...

Lawmakers from all over the world are increasingly looking at new ways to foster socially and environmentally responsible conduct on the part of corporations and other for-profit enterprises. Among the available tools are organizational forms that aim at pursuing social missions while...

We consider whether traders are more likely to commit securities violations when trading at home, a new form of working induced by the Covid pandemic. We examine data pre- and post-Covid, during which some traders were unexpectedly forced to work at home. The data indicate the presence of both a...