The most widely accepted empirical dividend model is that proposed by Lintner, who argued that firms smooth dividends over time. Many theoretical dividend models, however, either predict that dividends should be highly variable, or at least offer no support for the smoothing hypothesis. We use a...

We examine the impact of government commitment to combating climate change on firm value in relation to a firm's climate risk exposure. We identify major recent regulatory events around climate change that are not fully predicted, including the surprise election of Donald Trump to President of...

A significant portion of CEOs in publicly-listed Chinese state-owned enterprises receive zero pay from the companies for which they work. Instead, they are paid directly by their controlling shareholder, which can be the Chinese government or parent firms that are controlled by the Chinese...

Credit ratings have significant implications for firms, including the cost of future borrowing and immediate impacts on stock and bond valuations. Because of this, managers have incentives to improve or maintain their credit ratings by influencing rating agencies' perception of credit risk. We...

We investigate the potential uncertainty-reducing role of accounting information in the context of contingent Superfund liability valuation. We first develop theoretical arguments for the way reduction of uncertainty regarding these contingent liabilities is expected to affect security prices....

We explore usefulness of a measure based on 10-K disclosures of firm-specific climate risk exposure. We find that our measure is negatively associated with firm value and positively associated with implied cost of capital and beta. Climate risk disclosure tone is significantly associated with...

We provide the first direct analysis of the magnitude of unreliable quantitative information disclosed in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. CSR report reliability is of particular interest to fund managers for investment decisions as well as to policymakers for regulating and...

The amount and timing of a firms' ultimate financial obligation for contingent environmental liabilities is uncertain and subject to the outcome of future events. We decompose uncertainty about Superfund contingent liabilities into two sources: 1) uncertainty regarding extent of site...

We examine the interaction between two forms of hospital regulation and their effect on hospital behavior. Because reimbursement under federal Medicare regulation is a fixed fee per diagnosis, hospitals are encouraged to behave more like cost centers and reduce cost through shorter average...

On October 23, 2000, the SEC implemented a regulation that changed the way corporate managers interact with analysts and investors. Under Reg. FD, managers can no longer give individual guidance to analysts without simultaneously disclosing the information to the public. This paper examines the...