Research on the determinants of tax avoidance have relied on tests using GAAP and cash effective tax rates (ETRs) and total and permanent book-tax differences (BTDs). Two new proxies have emerged that overcome documented limitations of these proxies: one, developed by Henry and Sansing (2018),...

We examine whether “rating shopping” or “rating catering” is a more accurate characterization of rating agency interactions regarding collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) prior to the credit crisis. Although investors paid a premium for dual-ratings, AAA CDO tranches rated by both...

Using a structural model, I examine the distortionary effects of frictions in the CEO labor market. Firms experience productivity shocks over time and either outgrow or underutilize their incumbent CEO's talent, but keep their manager to avoid a switching cost. The decision to replace a manager...

We study the consequences of a firm engaging in corporate social responsibility within the firm's operations, rather than doing so outside the firm through charitable donations. After April 2018 protests, Starbucks enacted policies that anybody could sit in their stores and use the bathroom...

This paper studies the effects of financial distress on workers' productivity. We use detailed data from the public school system in Texas, which allow us to exploit within-teacher variation and to control for a student's economic environment. We show that student performance decreases by 6.5%...

This paper studies the role of workplace peers in the transmission of information pertinent to an important household financial decision: the mortgage refinancing choice. Exploiting commonalities in teaching schedules of school teachers in Texas to identify peer groups, we find that refinancing...

Since 1977, U.S. states have passed laws steadily raising the age for which a child must ride in a car safety seat. These laws significantly raise the cost of having a third child, as many regular-sized cars cannot fit three child seats in the back. Using census data and state-year variation in...

This paper shows that the introduction of the "gig-economy" changes the way employees respond to job loss. Using administrative data on unemployment insurance (UI) claims matched with the credit profiles of individuals in the U.S., we show that laid-off employees with access to Uber are less...

We infer Moody's preference for accurate versus biased ratings using hand-collected data on the internal labor market outcomes of its analysts. We find that accurate analysts are more likely to be promoted and less likely to depart. The opposite is true for analysts who downgrade more...