This paper shows that local institutional investors are effective monitors of corporate behavior. Firms with high local ownership have better internal governance and are more profitable. These firms are also less likely to manage their earnings aggressively or backdate options and are less...

This study examines whether mood affects the aggregate state-level macroeconomy through its impact on firm-level decisions. Using sky cloud cover as a proxy for mood, we show that mood affects the economic expectations of small business managers. After relatively sunnier periods, managers have...

This paper examines whether people's mood and optimism affects economic activity. We consider two sets of exogenous proxies for optimism that are unrelated to the economic environment: (i) weather (average temperature and cloud cover) and (ii) sports and political optimism. We show that economic...

Using the economic setting of sell-side equity analysts, we demonstrate that racial/ethnic diversity does not always help minority groups. Race/ethnicity of analysts influences their forecasting style and accuracy, where these accuracy differences primarily reflect the effects of brokerage...

Using machine learning methods, we develop a new measure of aggregate analyst sentiment. We first train analyst-specific neural network (NN) models that capture each analyst's common biases across firms. Using NN model outputs, we decompose the forecast errors of individual analysts into...

This study examines whether diversity among market participants is associated with diverse information environments and better aggregation of information. Using measures of diversity among sell-side equity analysts, we demonstrate that although minority analyst forecasts are less accurate, their...