How do firms respond to a regulatory induced increase in managerial entrenchment? We use the staggered passage of Universal Demand (UD) laws as a natural experiment with which to answer this question. Universal demand laws insulate managers from derivative litigations, thereby entrenching them...

Stricter enforcement of post-employment restrictions that strengthens trade secrets protection also limits CEOs' alternative employment opportunities. We find that such mobility restrictions, which heightened CEO career concerns can dampen their risk-taking incentives and distort corporate...

We examine whether improved governance helps to channel firms with powerful CEOs towards more value enhancing investment policies. We use the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and NYSE/NASDAQ listing rules as a quasi-exogenous shock and focus on firms that were required to improve governance. We find that,...

Do firms tailor compensation contracts to fit CEOs' individual behavioral traits, and if so, how? We explore this by focusing on CEOs' early life exposure to 'extreme fatality' disasters. Prior literature shows that this can drive agency conflicts of risk aversion. We hypothesize and show that...

We investigate whether external industry tournament incentives influence the design of executive compensation contracts. Using staggered negative mobility shocks as exogenous disruptions to tournament incentives, we show that firms treated by these shocks act to restore their executives’...

One-in-five U.S. high-technology firms are led by CEOs with hands-on innovation experience as inventors. Firms led by “Inventor CEOs” are associated with higher quality innovation, especially when the CEO is a high-impact inventor. During an Inventor CEO's tenure, firms file a greater number...

Banks cut lending to borrowers from regions that experience an increase in abnormal temperature occurrences in the previous year. Banks pursue an active portfolio rebalancing strategy for their farm loan portfolios among counties with high market shares to avoid loan losses from borrowers’...