This paper studies the costs and benefits of information acquisition and its influence on a firm's financial policies. Acquiring additional information improves learning about investment opportunities, thereby mitigating underinvestment, increasing borrowing, and encouraging higher payout....

Using the introduction of high-speed rail (HSR) as an exogenous shock to costs of information acquisition, we show that reductions in information-acquisition costs lead to (i) a significant increase in information production, evidenced by a higher frequency of analysts visiting portfolio firms,...

We study how stock price informativeness changes with the presence of highfrequency trading (HFT). Our estimate is based on the staggered start of HFT participation in a panel of international exchanges. With HFT presence market prices are a less reliable predictor of future cash ows and...

We study how the informativeness of stock prices changes with the presence of high-frequency trading (HFT). Our estimate is based on the staggered start of HFT participation in a panel of international exchanges. With HFT presence, market prices are a less reliable predictor of future cash flows...