By exploiting the exogenous reductions of analyst coverage due to closures and mergers of brokerage firms, I examine the causal impact of information asymmetry on insider trading. I find that corporate insiders' abnormal returns increase sharply after coverage reductions. This effect is stronger...

This study constructs a novel measure that aims to capture face-to-face private communications between firm managers and sell-side analysts by mapping detailed, large-volume taxi trip records from New York City to the GPS coordinates of companies and brokerages. Consistent with earnings releases...

This study analyzes information production and trading behavior of banks with lending relationships. We combine trade-by-trade supervisory data and credit-registry data to examine banks' proprietary trading in borrower stocks around a large number of corporate events. We find that relationship...

This paper evaluates the impact of the recently passed JOBS Act on IPO outcomes. A significant number of IPO firms use provisions of this act. For firms taking advantage of the JOBS Act, we find that, relative to a matched set of peer firms, (1) IPO underpricing increases, (2) post IPO liquidity...

In this paper, we analyze the conflicts of interest of an informed agent who is responsible for divulging his private information about a company and has a reward function positively dependent on its stock price. We assume that the demand for the stock is subject to shocks that may increase...

We use the presence of a Wikipedia article for initial public offering (IPO) firms to test theories of information asymmetry and investor awareness. While we find limited support for the former, our results provide strong support for theories of investor awareness. Specifically, IPO firms with a...

Certifiers contribute to the sound functioning of markets by reducing asymmetric information. They, however, have been heavily criticized during the 2008-09 financial crisis. This paper investigates on which side of the market a monopolistic profit-maximizing certifier offers his service. If the...

Certifiers contribute to the sound functioning of markets by reducing a symmetric information. They, however, have been heavily criticized during the 2008-09 financial crisis. This paper investigates on which side of the market a monopolistic profit-maximizing certifier offers his service. If...

Sell-side research is a common source of corporate fundamental information, but most of the research is exclusively distributed to paying clients. This paper investigates whether the soft information in analyst reports exacerbates the information asymmetry among investors. I document that the...