We find that the price volatility of renewable assets is significantly greater than that of brown assets. Our causal estimates leverage the response of electricity and credit markets to US state-level renewable portfolio standards that require some utilities to use renewables while exempting...

An influential thesis, dubbed "Doing well by doing good," argues that corporate social responsibility is profitable. But heterogeneity in firm financial constraints can induce a spurious correlation between profits and goodness even if the motives for goodness are non-profit in nature. We use...

We investigate the idea that stock-market participation is influenced by social interaction. We build a simple model in which any given 'social' investor finds it more attractive to invest in the market when the participation rate among his peers is higher. The model predicts higher...

We estimate a model of damage to corporate earnings from COVID-19. An unexpected pandemic lowers current earnings due to costly mitigation and reduces growth rates. Damage depends on the expected arrival of a vaccine that reverts earnings to normal. Using this model, we infer from analysts'...

Theory suggests that, in the presence of local bias, the price of a stock should be decreasing in the ratio of the aggregate book value of firms in its region to the aggregate risk tolerance of investors in its region. We test this proposition using data on U.S. Census regions and states, and...

A mutual-fund manager is more likely to hold (or buy, or sell) a particular stock in any quarter if other managers in the same city are holding (or buying, or selling) that same stock. This pattern shows up even when controlling for the distance between the fund manager and the stock in...

Many US states have set ambitious renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that require utilities to switch from fossil fuels toward renewables. RPS increases the renewables capacity, bond issuance, maturity, and yield spreads of investor-owned utilities compared to municipal producers that are...

Disability Insurance (DI), which provides income support to disabled workers, has been criticized for inducing a large fall in the labor force participation rate of older workers. We study the effects of one policy response designed to address this moral hazard problem: raising the rate at which...

We estimate the return of climate adaptation by modeling the uncertain impact of global warming for extreme weather. Unexpected arrivals elevate extreme-weather risk, which leads households and firms to adapt and thereby lowering the damage of each subsequent arrival. Our approach provides...

Most S&P 500 corporations disclose that their profits depend on non-wage competition for worker talent via workplace amenities like work-life balance. We quantify this dependence using a labor market matching model with endogenous amenities. When productive (unproductive) firms provide the...