China's markets gained 3.86% around December 4, 2012, when the Party announced anti-corruption reforms. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) with higher past entertainment and travel costs (ETC) gained more. NonSOEs gained in more liberalized provinces, especially those with high past ETC,...

Chinese share prices rose sharply on the Politburo's Dec. 4th, 2012, announcement of its Eight-point Regulation, an uncharacteristically detailed and concrete Party policy, initiating an extensive anti-corruption campaign and announced surprisingly soon after a change in leadership. The reaction...

We assess how the African slave trade—which had enduring effects on social cohesion—continues to influence financial systems. After showing that the intensity with which people were enslaved and exported from Africa during the 1400 – 1900 period helps account for overall financial...

We summarize the major findings of empirical studies that examine the effect of banking development on innovation and highlight their relative contributions to our understanding of the various roles the banking sector plays in determining innovation. We reassess the effect of banking development...

We study the role of state controlling shareholders in corporate payout policy. We exploit as an exogenous event the State Capital Operation Program in China under which parent central state-owned enterprises (parent CSOEs) are required to partially contribute their income to a fiscal fund. We...

This paper examines how managerial overconfidence affects covenant usage. We find that creditors significantly use more covenants, increase covenant intensity, and use different types of covenants such as performance-based covenants and capital-based covenants to curb the default risk emanating...