We document that the quality of earnings reported by politically connected firms is significantly poorer than that of similar non-connected companies. Moreover, we find that earnings quality has no predictive power for the likelihood of establishing connections. Hence, we rule out that our...

Recent studies have documented systematic exchanges of favors between politicians and firms, and that connected firms, on average gain from political ties. Since these ties are often to a top manager or large shareholder, agency problems are likely more severe for politically connected firms....

Analysis of a world-wide sample of sudden deaths of politicians reveals a market adjusted 1.7% decline in the value of companies headquartered in the politician’s home town. The decline in value is followed by a drop in the rate of growth in sales and access to credit. Our results are...

Recent studies have documented systematic exchanges of favors between politicians and firms, and that connected firms, on average gain from political ties. Since these ties are often to a top manager or large shareholder, agency problems are likely more severe for politically connected firms....

Analysis of a world-wide sample of sudden deaths of politicians reveals a market adjusted 1.7% decline in the value of companies headquartered in the politician’s home town. The decline in value is followed by a drop in the rate of growth in sales and access to credit. Our results are...

We document that the quality of earnings reported by politically connected firms is significantly poorer than that of similar non-connected companies. Moreover, we find that earnings quality has no predictive power for the likelihood of establishing connections. Hence, we rule out that our...

Many firms voluntarily incur the costs of attempting to influence politicians. However, estimates of the value of political connections have been made in only a few cases. We propose a new approach to valuing political ties that builds on these previous studies. We consider connected to a...

We use nearly 500 shifts in statutory corporate and personal income tax rates as natural experiments to assess the effect of corporate and personal taxes on capital structure. We find both corporate and personal income taxes to be significant determinants of capital structure. Based on ex-post...

We investigate the employment consequences of private equity buyouts. We find that, on average, buyouts by politically connected private equity firms are associated with higher job creation at the establishments operated by their target firms than buyouts by non-connected private equity firms....

An important and growing literature in finance points to existence of considerable benefits to being a controlling shareholder, especially when legal protection of minority shareholders is weak, and when separation of ownership from control is high. At the same time, the substantial and well...