Prior theoretical work generates conflicting predictions with respect to how CEO age impacts risk-taking behavior. Consistent with the prediction that risk-taking behavior decreases as CEOs become older, I document a negative relation between CEO age and stock return volatility. Further analyses...

We exploit the adoption of U.S. state-level labor protection laws to study the effect of employment protection on corporate investment and growth. We find that, following the adoption of these laws, capital expenditures decrease, resulting in firms growing sales at a slower rate. Our findings...

We show that firms located in states where property crime is more prevalent have more uncertain earnings and higher financing costs. Specifically, firms located in states with higher property crime rates have more volatile and less persistent earnings as well as lower quality analysts' earnings...

Firms strategically choose more conservative capital structures when they face greater competitive threats stemming from the potential loss of their trade secrets to rivals. Following the recognition of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine by U.S. state courts, which exogenously increases the...

Events that disrupt customer-supplier relationships pose a source of risk for suppliers that depend on a customer for a large portion of their revenues. We identify the replacement of a customer's CEO as a disruptive event that results in suppliers losing substantial sales to the customer...

Using a novel dataset of establishment-level management practices from the U.S. Census Bureau, we show that firms with more specific, formal, frequent, or explicit (i.e., “structured”) management practices tend to acquire establishments with less structured management practices, and...

A firm with less redeployable assets, which are assets that have fewer alternative uses outside the firm, is more likely to borrow from banks than issue public debt. These findings are consistent with firms with less redeployable assets valuing the ability to renegotiate bank debt contracts...