We study initial and subsequent effects of credit ratings on acquisition activity. Our findings suggest that access to bond markets, i.e. overcoming bank lending constraints, in order to conduct large and high quality acquisitions is an important motive for becoming rated. This initial...

We study investors’ preferences for corporate political connections in the U.S. using a novel measure; shareholder votes given to individual directors. We find that, after fully accounting for all firm-year specific information and a wide range of director characteristics, that politically...