We examine how local political corruption affects firm innovation in the United States. We find that firms located in highly corrupt areas are less innovative as measured by their patenting activities. The results are robust to the inclusion of a broad set of regional characteristics,...

We examine how banks respond to large natural disasters when corporate borrowers are located in the neighborhood of the disaster area. We find robust evidence that banks charge significantly higher loan spreads for firms located in the neighborhood of the disaster area than for remote firms. The...

This paper examines the impact of the local opioid epidemic on corporate innovation. Using a large sample of U.S. public firms from 2003 to 2017, we find that firms located in counties with higher death rates caused by opioid overdoses are significantly less innovative as measured by their...

We study the impact of bonus depreciation, an increasingly popular fiscal policy that effectively lowers corporate tax rates, on firms’ M&A activities. In contrast to the literature, which documents that other tax reduction policies increase the quantity and quality of firms’ acquisition...