We examine how shareholder financial difficulties affect firms’ risk-shifting behavior. Using the 2003 mutual fund scandal as a financial shock to institutions’ risk-shifting incentives, we find that lenders charge higher loan spreads after the scandal. The results are more evident when the...

We investigate the relation between portfolio constraints (tests) that Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) have to pass monthly, CLO managers' loan trading choices and CLO equity returns. We find that stringent portfolio constraints are positively associated with the influence of CLO junior...

This paper examines investment allocations in emerging markets by actively-managed U.S. mutual funds. We analyze both country- and firm-level characteristics and policies that influence these investment allocations. At the country-level, we find that U.S. funds invest more in open emerging...

This paper shows that the new financial regulation introduced in 2007 in the Netherlands, the so-called nieuw Financieel Toetsings Kader (nFTK), has several basic flaws. The nFTK evaluation cannot be trusted. The results are misleading and must not be used for policy decisions. 'Funding...

This paper examines whether portfolio disclosure requirements for actively managed investment funds affect the investment decisions of firms owned by those funds. We argue that mandatory portfolio disclosures reduce fund managers’ incentive to collect and trade on private information, which...

Debates persist among academics, regulators, practitioners, and standard setters regarding the extent to which different asset measurement methods aid investment decisions. Surprisingly, evidence of actual resource providers’ views on this issue is sparse. We survey 528 and interview 13...

We examine whether the previously documented positive association between fund family size and fund performance is affected by significant regulatory changes (i.e., Regulation FD, the Global Settlement (GS), and increased scrutiny as a result of trading scandals) that have occurred in the last...

We study potential fraudulent mismarking of newly purchased odd lot and two classes of round lot positions in structured products. Such mismarking artificially inflates net asset values and overstates cumulative returns. Applied to mutual funds launched after January 2010, a simulation-tested...

The taxation of realized capital gains creates a lock-in effect, increasing an investor's expected holding period. We show that the unrealized capital gains of mutual funds are positively associated with the earnings quality of their portfolio firms. Consistent with tax-induced lock-in, the...

The overall market for derivative securities is often estimated as more than ten times the World's GDP and many decry the complexity of derivatives as a main contributor to the subprime financial crisis. In this paper, we investigate whether and why complexity is used as a proxy for risk when...