We examine whether financial analysts understand the effect of unionization on firm earnings in the U.S. by examining a large panel dataset with firm-level unionization, adoptions of right-to-work (RTW) laws, and union certification elections. We find that forecast errors for unionized firms in...

We study how patenting enhances customer capital and creates financial value. We find that firms with more and higher quality patents develop more customer capital as measured by better customer perceptions of product innovativeness and quality. To establish causality, we exploit the exogenous...

We examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) is used to signal product quality and whether CSR affects firm value through its positive effect on product market perception. Using a proprietary database, we find that visible CSR, such as environmental and community involvement,...

Using corporate social responsibility (CSR) scores, we examine the effect of unionization on non-shareholding stakeholders and the value of CSR for unionized firms. Our findings suggest that unionization leads to lower CSR. This negative relation between unionization and CSR is stronger for...

Using exogenous changes in the personal bankruptcy treatment of student loans as well as the level of student debt, we find that student debt has a negative effect on household retirement savings. This negative relation is present for younger and older individuals, and is larger for the latter...

Using a novel data set that links individual investment bankers to the acquisition deals they advise on, we find that individual investment bankers with greater deal experience are associated with higher acquisition returns and post-acquisition operating performance, particularly for acquirers...

Extant theory and empirical evidence indicate that equity-based compensation can align the interests of managers with those of shareholders, but it has a side effect of aggravating bondholder-shareholder conflicts by increasing managers' risk-shifting incentives. Recent evidence confirms that...