Exploiting the staggered enactment of country-level mergers and acquisitions (M&A) law as an exogenous increase in corporate takeover threat, this paper examines how a disciplinary market for corporate control affects accounting conservatism. Following M&A law adoption, we find increased...

We show that banks with high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings issue fewer mortgages in poor neighborhoods—in quantity and dollar amount—than banks with low ESG ratings. This lending disparity is observed at both the county and census tract level and worsens in disaster...

We examine the long-run performance of over 17,000 debt renegotiations. We find that, compared with non-renegotiating firms matched on size, book-to-market, profitability, and investment, renegotiating firms, on average, deliver 11 (19) percent higher stock returns over the three (five) years...