This study examines the challenge of implicit communication -- qualitative statements, tone, and non-verbal cues -- to the effectiveness of enforcing corporate disclosure regulation. We use a Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) setting, given that the SEC adopted the regulation recognizing that...

We examine the effect of voting requirements in M&A transactions on managerial disclosure, information asymmetries, and voting outcomes. We find that voting requirements lead firms to provide more disclosure and in a timelier manner, including disclosure of the merger agreement, information on...

While mutual funds are required to vote on directors in every portfolio firm every year, many funds satisfy this requirement by following the recommendations of proxy advisory service companies such as ISS. However, companies complain that ISS employs one-size-fits-all policies, which do not...

We study the potential negative externalities of mandatory environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure. Our analysis exploits a unique regulatory change in China that requires a subset of firms to report their contributions to poverty alleviation—on top of reporting general ESG...

We find that similarity of political views between the CEO and independent directors (“political homophily”) encourages the CEO to share adverse information with the board. Firms with higher political homophily have lower stock price crash risk, and are more likely to divest previously...

We propose a strategic theory of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Shareholder maximizers commit to a mission statement that extends beyond firm value maximization. This commitment leads firms (either product market competitors or complementors along the value chain) to change their actions...

This paper exploits the 2003 mutual fund trading scandal to investigate firms’ seemingly myopic investment behavior following negative stock price shocks. Firms affected by the scandal are more likely to meet or marginally beat earnings targets by cutting research and development and other...

We examine insider trading profitability and common identity between insiders and top executives. In particular, we argue that common gender and the resultant social connections it creates influence access to private information, where insiders benefit from greater information sharing with top...

Are firms' financial disclosure decisions affected by executive compensation at other firms? We find that a CEO's pay gap relative to the highest CEO pay among industry peers, defined as industry tournament incentives, can lead to distortions in corporate financial disclosures. Our analyses show...

We find that newspapers connected to firms through common business group affiliation display a more positive reporting tone than unconnected newspapers. This result is robust to both a DiD approach and controlling for newspaper-firm pair fixed effects. Further, the association between connected...