One of the key questions in the study of regulation is whether the costs of regulatory compliance fall homogeneously on all businesses or whether certain firms, for instance small ones, are especially penalized. We quantify firms' compliance costs in terms of their labor spending to adhere to...

Summarizes and further develops themes from "Secret Liens and the Financial Crisis of 2008".Secret Liens:This article explains the roots of financial crises in one of the oldest and most fundamental problems of commercial law: hidden leverage. Common law courts wrestled with this problem for...

This is a Powerpoint presentation. The full article is also available on ssrn at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1924831U.S. policymakers often treat market competition as a panacea. However, in the case of mortgage securitization, policymakers' faith in competition is misplaced. Competitive mortgage...

We analyze detailed monthly data on U.S. open market stock repurchases (OMRs) that recently became available following stricter disclosure requirements. We find evidence that OMRs are timed to benefit non-selling shareholders. We present evidence that the profits to companies from timing...

We construct a novel dataset of detailed monthly data on U.S. open market stock repurchases (OMRs) that became available following stricter SEC disclosure requirements in 2004. The data allow us to investigate the timing of OMRs. We find evidence that OMRs are timed to benefit non-selling...

Consumer advocates won a victory with the passage of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009. (Credit Card Act). The Credit Card Act bans certain pricing practices that were confusing to credit card users. Ironically, the seeds of this legislative victory may...

We construct a novel dataset of detailed monthly data on U.S. open market stock repurchases (OMRs) that became available following stricter SEC disclosure requirements in 2004. The data allow us to investigate the timing of OMRs. We find evidence that OMRs are timed to benefit non-selling...

Amicus Brief submitted in the Bankruptcy of Lyondell Chemical Company, analyzing fraudulent transfer issues by applying the techniques developed in "Leveraged Buyout Bankruptcies, the Problem of Hindsight Bias, and the Credit Default Swap Solution" - http://ssrn.com/abstract=1632084