Debt, and in particular, short-term debt have the potential to discipline managers. We examine the role of the board in making financing decisions that provide this discipline. Specifically, given a firm's characteristics, we predict that stronger boards will force the firm to hold more debt and...

When board gender quotas clash with gender stereotypes prevailing within an organization, do they trigger backlash and lead to worse female labor market outcomes? We examine staggered adoptions of quotas in Europe and document a significant drop in the share of female employment. Applying...

This paper examines two related research questions: (1) Does a firm's innovation strategy affect its going public (vs. staying private) decision? (2) Does the change of ownership associated with going public influence a newly public firm's subsequent innovation strategy? Using a dataset...

We study large discrete decreases in CEO pay and compare them to CEO forced turnover. The determinants are similar, as are the performance improvements after the action. After the pay cut, the CEO pay-for-performance sensitivity is abnormally high, such that the CEO can restore his pay level by...

We examine whether, how, and why acquirer shareholder voting matters. We show that acquirers with low institutional ownership, high deal risk, and high agency costs are more likely to bypass shareholder voting. Such acquirers have lower announcement returns and make higher offers than those who...

We show that firms collect more than 70% of their cash flow in the second half of the fiscal year, and firms that collect more cash by year-end earn a 6% higher per annum risk premium and save more cash. We rationalize these facts in a quantitative investment-based asset pricing model. Immediate...