We develop a simple measure of international ownership linkages and show that this measure is of similar importance as the traditional effects coming from country and industry fundamentals. International ownership linkages are not explained by omitted country/industry variations, wealth effects...

We examine whether “rating shopping” or “rating catering” is a more accurate characterization of rating agency interactions regarding collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) prior to the credit crisis. Although investors paid a premium for dual-ratings, AAA CDO tranches rated by both...

We show how a stock return model can be described by measures of distance between stocks along the country, industry, and ownership dimensions. This ownership return dimension is shown to be a continuous summary measure of institutional investor habitat. Empirically, we find that the ownership...

This paper investigates whether Tether, a digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar, influenced Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices during the 2017 boom. Using algorithms to analyze blockchain data, we find that purchases with Tether are timed following market downturns and result in...

Pandemic fraud facilitated by FinTech lenders exhibited significant geographic concentration, which makes it a unique setting to examine the effects of excess local stimulus cashflow on local purchases and prices. We first examine effects on a highly immovable local good — housing. At the...

Commercial loan valuations crucially depend on accurate loan income, but underwritten income on CMBS loans is commonly overstated when compared to actual property income. Consistent with these differences being purposeful, income overstatement in 2013 to 2019 CMBS deals varies widely and...

In the distribution of the Paycheck Protection Program’s (PPP) $780 billion in funds, FinTech lenders began minimally but ramped up their market share to over 70% of originated loans by April 2021. We examine metrics related to potential misreporting including non-registered businesses,...