Acquirers do not benefit from hiring the CEOs of firms they buy, either in terms of merger announcement returns or long-run operating performance. This is especially true when the retained CEOs exhibit inferior quality (as proxied by target firm industrial efficiency or the target CEO's...

We examine the causal effects of uncertainty on corporate innovation by exploiting terrorism events. During the five-year window after terrorist attacks, firms near the strikes experience meaningful declines in R&D spending, patenting, citations, patent originality, and innovation value. These...

We study the impact of regulation on acquisition investment, using a novel firm-level measure of exposure to all federal regulations. Highly regulated companies issue more acquisition bids, invest more in those transactions, and earn higher M&A announcement returns. Moreover, highly regulated...

Firms with excellent environmental scores donate more to climate-obstructionist politicians. Ownership by “brown” institutional investors who regularly endorse anti-climate politicians is a channel underlying this result. Green firms with more donations to obstructionists experience stock...