We analyze an entrepreneur/manager's choice between private and public ownership. The manager needs decision-making autonomy to optimally manage the firm and thus has an endogenized control preference that is traded off against the higher cost of capital accompanying greater managerial autonomy....

We document insider opportunism in an insolvency regime that is characterized by weak creditor rights and uses an accounting rule to determine bankruptcy eligibility. Using a unique dataset of bankrupt firms from India, we show insiders manage earnings downward before filing for bankruptcy via...

Using data on over 57,000 low-income tax filers, we estimate the effect of Medicaid access on the propensity of households to save or repay debt from their tax refunds. We instrument for Medicaid access using variation in state eligibility rules. We find substantial heterogeneity across...

As opposed to the public debt market, the ultimate users of bank loan ratings, lenders, may prefer inflated ratings to reduce their risk-weighted assets. By exploiting variation in borrower information asymmetry, and thus rating agencies' ability to acquiesce to lender demands, we provide...

Using hand collected data on division manager (DM) pay contracts, we document that DM pay is related to the performance of both her division and the other divisions in the firm. There is substantial heterogeneity in DM pay-for-performance. DM pay for her division's performance is lower in...

We study the balance sheet of liquidity: the relation between the liquidity of the firm's assets and the liquidity of financial claims on the assets, thereby linking corporate finance decisions to stock liquidity. Our model highlights an ambiguous relationship. While greater asset liquidity...

Sell-side analysts play an important role in propagating corporate capital structure choices across firms. Using exogenous characteristics of analyst network peers as well as the “friends-of-friends” approach from the network effects literature to identify peer effects, we find that...

We evaluate the effect of house prices on U.S. military servicemember pension choices. In our setting the wealth channel – an increase in house prices increases household wealth and both current and future consumption – and the collateral channel – an increase in house prices enables the...

How do changes to stock price informativeness affect the mix of long-term and short-term pay? We answer this question using two exogenous shocks to price informativeness: the reduction in analyst coverage due to closure of brokerage houses and mutual-fund flow driven price pressure. Using the...

We document the distortionary effects of accounting-based regulation on reported earnings. In India only firms with negative book value of equity (networth) can seek bankruptcy protection. Using a novel dataset of bankrupt firms from India, we show that firms manage earnings downward to seek...