I investigate a pricing kernel in which coskewness and the market volatility risk factors are endogenously determined. I show that the price of coskewness and market volatility risk are restricted by investor risk aversion and skewness preference. The risk aversion is estimated to be between two...

In public-policy discussions about corporate disclosure, more is typically judged to be better than less. In particular, better disclosure is seen as a way to reduce the agency problems that plague firms. We show that this view is incomplete. In particular, our theoretical analysis shows that...

This paper, which introduces the special issue on corporate governance co-sponsored by the Review of Financial Studies and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), reviews and comments on the state of corporate governance research. The special issue features seven papers on corporate...

Mortgage counseling is regarded as an integral tool in ensuring appropriate choices by prospective home buyers. We use micro-level data from an urban voluntary counseling program aimed at disadvantaged households to assess its effectiveness. We find substantially lower ex-post delinquency rates...

We study empirically how financial contracts evolve and are renegotiated as venture capital (VC)-backed companies secure new rounds of financing. Because VC contract designs vary considerably between companies according to their economic circumstances, it is plausible to expect that the...

Using a large, new database of contractual provisions governing the allocation of cash flow rights

Working with a sizeable (greater than $15 billion in assets) anonymous money manager, we exogenously shift the supply of lendable shares for certain stocks by randomly making available for lending 2/3 of the stocks in the manager's portfolio and withholding 1/3 of the stocks from the loan...