Financial frictions have been identified as key factors affecting economic fluctuations and growth. But, can institutional reforms reduce financial frictions? Based on a canonical investment model, we consider two potential channels: (i) financial transaction costs at the firm level; and (ii)...

We investigate the relations among country-specific institutions, financial frictions, and firm-level investment decisions. Imposing structural restrictions, we consider the effects of institutions (such as shareholder and creditor rights) on firm investment through two channels: the cost of...

The stakeholder view of corporate governance, especially when based on incomplete-contracts theory, suggests that stakeholders' relative bargaining powers affect overall firm performance. We investigate this utilizing a natural experiment in the U.S. Specifically, we study the impact of bank...

Between the early-1970s and the mid-1990s, the U.S. banking sector was deregulated and U.S. workers gained more statuary basic protections. The effects of these two reforms on productive activity have largely been studied separately in the finance and labor literatures. Yet they only have...

The US banking sector was deregulated and US workers gained statuary basic protections between the early-1970s and the mid-1990s. The finance and labor literatures have largely studied the effects of these two reforms on productive activity separately. Yet they only have separable impacts under...