The study examines how stock market prices the stocks of socially ambiguous “Grey” firms, who are socially responsible in certain corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions while being socially irresponsible in other dimensions. Using firm data from 1992 to 2011, we find that the...

We test whether policy risk is systematically priced in equity returns across 49 countries from 1995 to 2013. We construct two global policy risk factors based on the ratings from international country risk guide. They capture the policy risk from government instability (GOVLMH) and the quality...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are hybrid organisations with the dual mission of financial sustainability and social purpose. However, there is little empirical evidence on how the two missions may affect each other intertemporally. In this study, we test the lead-lag reciprocal relation...

Akerlof (2007) proposes that the norms of decision makers can bridge the gap between New Classical economic theories and conflicting empirical evidence. We apply his framework to cross-country capital structure decision making and propose a norm theory of capital structure. Consistent with its...

The developing Chinese economy has gone through significant market reforms in recent decades by taking a deliberate path of trail-and-error policymaking. We hand-collect a sample of 59 policy reversals related to market liberalization from 1999 to 2017. Using a general equilibrium term structure...

We examine how policy instability is priced in interest rates. Policy instability refers to the likelihood that the current policy will be changed in the future in the absence of political power shifts. Chinese government's experimental policymaking approach provides an ideal set of frequent...