Hundreds of anomalies, factors, or characteristic portfolios have been discovered whose risk-return spread is not explained by benchmark empirical factor models. Each of these is a potential candidate as a factor in such models. Efforts to narrow down this plethora of candidates to a...

We exploit the quasi-natural experiment created by the roll-out of the EDGAR system to study the causal impact of the additional flow of stock-specific information on firms. We find that this information flow to investors resulted in statistically significant and economically essential changes...