We investigate the impact of political institutions on corporate risk-taking. We posit that the extent of political constraints on the government affect corporate risk-taking along both direct and indirect mechanisms. Using a large sample of non-financial firms from 77 countries covering the...

Using a new measure of shareholder inattention based on exogenous industry shocks to institutional investor portfolios, we document a positive and significant relation between firms with distracted institutional shareholders and the cost of debt financing. This effect is stronger for firms with...

Event studies are widely used in finance research to investigate the implications of announcements of corporate initiatives, regulatory changes, or macroeconomic shocks on stock prices. These studies are often used in a single country setting (usually the U.S.), but little work has yet been...

We empirically investigate the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on corporate cash holdings using a large sample of international firms. EPU intensifies concerns of investors on managerial self-dealing and political extraction. Consequently, the potential cost of cash holdings (i.e.,...

We study how the heterogeneity between the CEO and independent board directors as a group stemming from cultural diversity affects debt pricing in bad times. Using a novel approach to identify directors’ cultural backgrounds based on their ancestral origins, we find that greater...