I examine whether changes in CEO status affect risk-related business decisions. I use prestigious awards as shocks to CEO status relative to other CEOs. Firms with award-winning CEOs decrease their idiosyncratic volatility, and their industry betas converge towards one. These firms also reduce...

Using hand-collected data on activist-initiated divestitures, we compare the long- term effects of hedge fund activists on their targets with that of other shareholder activists. We show that the distinguishing features of hedge funds are associated with substantial improvements in target-firm...

This study investigates the effect of underlying risk preferences on analysts' work-related decisions. Specifically, we examine whether facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), an innate personal characteristic that has been linked to financial risk tolerance, affects analysts' stock coverage...

We develop a novel measure of target shareholders’ average purchase price (TAPP). In a sample of all U.S. public firm merger offers from 1990 to 2019, we find that: (1) the offer premium is positively correlated with the ratio of TAPP to the target’s pre-offer stock price; (2) TAPP dominates...

We document substantial increases in corporate security offerings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the rise in SEOs is attributable to shifts in macroeconomic conditions, convertible and straight bond offering increases cannot be explained by standard security choice determinants...

We document substantial increases in corporate security offerings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the rise in SEOs is attributable to shifts in macroeconomic conditions, convertible and straight bond offering increases cannot be explained by standard security choice determinants...

We show that the intensity of "keeping up with the Joneses" behavior is largely determined by the extent to which a community is socially connected. Using a unique dataset on car purchases in Southern California, we find that social influence intensifies in suburban communities in which...

Crowdfunding markets enable entrepreneurs to communicate material information even when it is nonstandard or more difficult to quantify or verify. Using a large crowdsourced survey that asks participants to rate live Kickstarter campaigns, we show that human raters outperform machines in...

We document substantial increases in corporate security offerings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the rise in seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) is attributable to shifts in macroeconomic conditions, convertible and straight bond offering increases cannot be explained by standard...