Misappropriation has become the accepted explanation for the refinancing behavior of Chinese listed companies, although the evidence in support of such an explanation is worthy of further discussion. We argue that if a planned refinancing exercise does not become a reality, post-refinancing...

This paper examines the disciplinary role of corporate pension deficits in the market for corporate control. We find that companies with larger pension deficits are less likely to engage in diversifying mergers, experience higher merger announcement returns, pay lower premiums to targets, and...

We show that credit default swap (CDS) trading on a firm's debt positively influences its technological innovation output measured by patents and patent citations. This positive effect is more pronounced in firms relying more on debt financing or being more subject to continuous monitoring by...

We show that stock liquidity negatively affects firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings. To identify the causal effect, we use the decimalization of stock trading as an exogenous shock to liquidity. The negative CSR effect of liquidity is more pronounced for firms where short-term...

We explore the relation between a country's patents and its economic and productivity growth. Consistent with patents reflecting important innovations, a one standard deviation increase in patent stock leads to a 1.58% (1.52%) elevation in GDP (TFP) growth. Patent stock has a stronger impact on...

This paper examines the impact of corporate taxes on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR), by exploiting the staggered changes in corporate taxes across U.S. states as a quasi-natural experiment. Firms enhance CSR performance significantly following tax cuts, but they do not reduce CSR...

We provide empirical evidence on the positive effect of non-executive employee stock options on corporate innovation. The positive effect is more pronounced when employees are more important for innovation, when free-riding among employees is weaker, when options are granted broadly to most...

We examine the impact of financial reporting on corporate innovation. We find that firms that exhibit more conservative financial reporting generate fewer patents. Their patents also result in fewer citations and lower economic benefits. These effects of conservative financial reporting on...