Using comprehensive timestamp data on earnings announcements collected from newswires, we show that earnings news announced within trading hours results in approximately 50% smaller immediate reaction compared to similar earnings announced outside trading hours. Negative news tends to be...

While knowledge production is central to economic growth, little is known about how differences in research environments across universities contribute to the differences in productivity of their faculty. We analyze the productivity of researchers employed at the top-20 (top-tier) research...

We study the effect of a firm's dividend policy on the relation between the levels of institutional ownership and stock return volatility. We find that the sign of the correlation between institutional ownership and volatility depends on the firm's dividend policy: institutional ownership is...

In recent years firms have greatly increased the amount of resources allocated to activities classified as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While an increase in CSR expenditure may be consistent with firm value maximization if it is a response to changes in stakeholders' preferences, we...

We evaluate the effect of index option initiation on a stock market in which short sales are prohibited. Our focus is the effect on the price volatility of the underlying asset. In a very simple dynamic model with successive generations of single-period investors, we show that volatility can...

We recognize a conflict that is largely neglected in the corporate finance literature. Shareholders want to maximize their portfolio value while capital budgeting rules direct managers to choose projects that maximize firm (equity) value. Managerial stock options can reduce this conflict between...

We analyze the relative advantage of option grants compared to stock compensation when shareholders are diversified. Our analysis recognizes a conflict that is largely neglected in the corporate finance literature. Shareholders want to maximize their portfolio value while capital budgeting rules...

We examine the link between the liquidity of a firm's stock and its ownership structure, specifically, how much of the firm's stock is owned by insiders and institutions, and how concentrated is their ownership. We find that the liquidity-ownership relation is mostly driven by institutional...

We evaluate the effect of index option initiation on a stock market in which short sales are prohibited. Our focus is the effect on the price volatility of the underlying asset. In a very simple dynamic model with successive generations of single-period investors, we show that volatility can...

Research on human biases stemming from the use of decision aids has predominantly dealt with human tendencies to reduce cognitive effort. In this research we examine a bias that results from the human tendency for exploratory behavior. We frame our analysis within a natural experiment setting...