Top sportsmen often refer to competition against other top sportsmen as a motivation to exert more effort. We examine whether a similar pattern exists among another group of top professionals – star analysts. Our evidence suggests that star analysts concentrate their efforts and generate...

We develop a novel measure of target shareholders’ average purchase price (TAPP). In a sample of all U.S. public firm merger offers from 1990 to 2019, we find that: (1) the offer premium is positively correlated with the ratio of TAPP to the target’s pre-offer stock price; (2) TAPP dominates...

We show that the intensity of "keeping up with the Joneses" behavior is largely determined by the extent to which a community is socially connected. Using a unique dataset on car purchases in Southern California, we find that social influence intensifies in suburban communities in which...

Using hand-collected data on activist-initiated divestitures, we compare the long- term effects of hedge fund activists on their targets with that of other shareholder activists. We show that the distinguishing features of hedge funds are associated with substantial improvements in target-firm...

This study investigates the effect of underlying risk preferences on analysts' work-related decisions. Specifically, we examine whether facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), an innate personal characteristic that has been linked to financial risk tolerance, affects analysts' stock coverage...