Since its lethality increases exponentially with age, the early 2020 COVID-19 shock unexpectedly raised the risk of corporate disruption at companies led by older CEOs. While normally unprepared successions might be beneficial by replacing entrenched CEOs, this systemic shock projected a...

When there is uncertainty about a CEO's quality, news about the firm causes rational investors to update their expectation of the firm's value for two reasons: Updates occur because of the direct effect of the news, and also because news leads investors to update their assessment of the CEO's...

This paper studies the role of voluntary disclosure in crowding out independent research about firm value. In the model, when inside firm owners make it easier for outside investors to obtain inexpensive biased information from the manager, then investors rely less on costly unbiased research....

Research into group decision-making suggests that any optimal managerial compensation incentive design should incorporate synergistic interrelationships among top executives within a firm. This paper investigates whether the equity incentive structure of a management team affects firm-level...

This paper studies the role of voluntary disclosure in crowding out independent research about firm value. In the model, when inside firm owners make it easier for outside investors to obtain inexpensive biased information from the manager, investors rely less on costly unbiased research. As a...

This paper examines the implications of CEO overconfidence for firm distress risk and investment-related activities in the unique context of adverse incidents. I use an options‐based proxy for CEO overconfidence and study two types of adverse incidents: negative news reports and hurricanes....

This study examines whether the interaction of corporate managerial attributes and the amount of private information in stock prices exerts significant effects on the sensitivity of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and the performance of acquiring firms. We find the heterogeneity in firms’ M&A...

This paper asked the question of whether the behavior and compensation of interlocked executives and non-independent board of directors are consistent with the hypothesis of governance problem or whether this problem is mitigated by implicit and market incentives. It then analyzes the role of...

Contrary to popular belief, layoff announcements do not always lead to reduced employment. Using hand-collected data on layoff announcements for S&P 500 firms, I show that 32% of layoffs announced do not lead to employment downsizing. While the market, in the short run, does not react...

This paper examines the effect of corporate diversification on firm value during periods of economic downturns. Analysis of diversified firms' valuation during recessionary periods reveals a significant increase in relative value of diversified firms. The observed improvement in the relative...