This paper examines the effect of active attention from sophisticated market participants on managerial bad news hoarding. Using EDGAR search volume (ESV) as a direct measure, we find that, due to the increased cost of bad news disclosure, firms under greater active attention from sophisticated...

We study the magnitude and nature of racial disparities in the U.S. small business credit market. Exploiting a unique dataset containing rich loan contract information, including firm and lender characteristics, we document sizable racial differentials in small business lending, measured by loan...

We examine whether mandatory research and development (R&D) investments disclosure matters to analyst forecast accuracy. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we document a significant decrease in forecast errors for firms that previously chose not to disclose R&D investments but...

Building on two sources of exogenous shocks to analyst coverage – broker closures and mergers, we explore the causal effects of analyst coverage on mitigating managerial expropriation of outside shareholders. We find that as a firm experiences an exogenous decrease in analyst coverage,...

By exploiting the staggered change of legal competition environment in 58 non-US countries, we find that firms tend to inflate their earnings when domicile countries adopt stricter competition laws, which supports the pressure effect of legal competition threats. This result is robust to...

We test for the causal impact of analyst coverage on corporate risk-taking in the property and casualty insurance sector, using the exogenous change in analyst coverage introduced by broker closures and mergers. We find that a decrease in analyst coverage promotes an increase in insurers’...

Using variations in local real estate prices as exogenous shocks to corporate financing capacity, we investigate the causal effects of financial flexibility on cash policies of US firms. Building on this natural experiment, we find strong evidence that increases in real estate values lead to...

In this study, we examine the effect of bank deregulation on corporate environmental performance. We use a unique dataset that contains rich information on firms' toxic emissions and exploit bank branching deregulation in China. We find that compared with firms with lower exposure, firms more...