This paper studies the role of shareholder activism on corporate leases. We find that the presence of shareholder activists is associated with large increases in leasing. This association is stronger in periods of high real estate prices and for firms with larger amounts of real estate assets....

We examine the effect of individual wealth taxes on dividend policy. Using a comprehensive sample of European public firms from 26 countries, we document that wealth taxes paired with substantial increases in stock prices are associated with significantly larger dividend payouts. This pattern is...

This paper studies firm-level factors shaping the enforcement of financial reporting regulation on private firms and proposes bank lending as a particularly important one. Our tests are based on a rare combination of data sets, which allows us to construct unique measures of misreporting,...

This paper examines the role of financial frictions on the trading of emission allowances. Based on a wide international sample of firms and data from the European Union Emission Trading System (the most liquid and developed in the world) we document that firms with liquidity needs are...

This paper studies the economic consequences of certification of corporate governance practices. For identification, we exploit a recent cross-country initiative by a coalition of key institutions in Southeast Asia; the periodic publication of a “Top List” of companies in the region selected...