We quantify the effects of easy-to-read disclosure documents on firm value by analyzing shareholder reports of closed-end investment companies in which the company's value can be estimated separately from the value of the company's underlying assets. Using a copy-editing software application...

This paper investigates the information spillover effect of government bailouts. Analyzing money market funds' dynamic enrollment status in the U.S. Treasury Temporary Guarantee Program in 2008, this paper finds that enrolled funds had overall positive fund flows, implying that the stability...

This paper incorporates two empirically-grounded insights into a dynamic life cycle portfolio choice model: the fact that investors forego the opportunity to accumulate job-specific skills when they spend time managing their own money, and the observation that efficiency in financial decision...

We analyze how bank management sentiment affects liquidity hoarding. Our newly-created sentiment measure derives bank manager sentiment from language in banks' annual reports (10-Ks). We find banks with more negative management sentiment hoard liquidity beyond what is warranted by their own...

Many households display inertia in investment management over their life cycles. Our calibrated dynamic life cycle portfolio choice model can account for such an apparently ‘irrational' outcome, by incorporating the fact that investors must forego acquiring job-specific skills when they spend...

Analyzing the top 100 U.S. property-liability insurers, we find that the cost of equity capital is negatively related to insurers' underwriting performance, but not their investment performance. The difference is attributable to opaque insurer liabilities and investor learning. We also find that...

This paper examines the predictive power of investment managers' sentiment revealed in their letters to shareholders for their future performance, using closed-end funds (CEFs) as a laboratory. We find that pessimistic tone in managers' letters to shareholders predicts superior future...

We conjecture that some individuals are increasingly overwhelmed by the myriad of new ideas proposed to them each year. As a result, even minor obstacles to understanding an innovation causes such innovation to not be adopted. To test this conjecture, we turn to ideas proposed in scientific...

We study how firms with opposing environmental stances can engage in tug of war in environmental lobbying, leading to a deadweight loss from the political competition. We build a theoretical model where firms choose their lobbying level to influence a policymaker's environmental policies,...

This paper incorporates two empirically-grounded insights into a dynamic life cycle portfolio choice model: the fact that investors forego the opportunity to accumulate job-specific skills when they spend time managing their own money, and the observation that efficiency in financial decision...