Ninety-two percent of the 1,348 North American executives we survey believe that improving culture would increase firm value. A striking 84% believe they need to improve their culture. But how can that be achieved? Our paper provides some guidance. First, we directly link culture to financial...

We conduct in-depth interviews of senior executives representing over 20% of the market capitalization of the U.S. equity market to understand: (i) the importance, antecedents and consequences of corporate culture; (ii) the mechanisms that underlie the creation and effectiveness of corporate...

Local Asian and international capital markets have been branded as culprits in the recent Asian financial crisis. Unfortunately, much of our understanding of the crisis stems from macro level analysis. We provide a micro level approach to understanding the Asian financial crisis that focuses on...

Local Asian and international capital markets have been branded as culprits in the recent Asian financial crisis. Unfortunately, much of our understanding of the crisis stems from macro level analysis. We provide a micro level approach to understanding the Asian financial crisis that focuses on...

In almost every area of empirical finance, researchers are confronted with multiple tests. One high profile example is the identification of investment managers that outperform. Many beat their benchmarks purely by luck. Multiple testing methods are designed to control for luck. Factor selection...

We use a unique dataset to show how firms in Europe used credit lines during the financial crisis. We find that firms with restricted access to credit (small, private, non-investment grade, and unprofitable) draw more funds from their credit lines during the crisis than their large, public,...

We analyze the history of the equity risk premium from surveys of U.S. Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) conducted every quarter from June 2000 to June 2010. The risk premium is the expected 10-year S&P 500 return relative to a 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield. While the risk premium sharply...

We analyze the history of the equity risk premium from surveys of U.S. Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) conducted every quarter from June 2000 to December 2012. The risk premium is the expected 10-year S&P 500 return relative to a 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield. While the risk premium sharply...

Measuring the impact of political risk on investment projects is one of the most vexing issues in international business. One popular approach is to assume that the sovereign yield spread captures political risk and to augment the project discount rate by this spread. We show that this approach...

This paper uses a unique dataset to study how firms managed liquidity during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Our analysis provides new insights on interactions between internal liquidity, external funds, and real corporate decisions, such as investment and employment. We first describe how...