Institutional theory suggests that informal institutions effectively constrain human behavior. Culturally embedded norms and values align corporate governance with socially acceptable outcomes. We argue that active foreign investors can act as agents of change in corporate governance....

At least early in the financial crisis, the high rate of foreclosures seemed to be due more to households' overreaching than to predatory lending. A disproportionate number of those being foreclosed on were well-educated, well-off and relatively young people.

Analyzing syndicated loan and public debt originations by publicly traded U.S. firms between 2004 and 2011, we document a sharp migration from bank borrowing to either no borrowing or public debt issuance in the crisis years. We find evidence for a bank-lending channel; the migration from bank...

Institutional theory suggests that informal institutions effectively constrain human behavior. Culturally embedded norms and values align corporate governance with socially acceptable outcomes. We argue that foreign direct investors can act as agents of change in corporate governance....

We examine the effects of opacity on bank valuation and the synchronicity of bank equity prices over the years 2000-2006 prior to the 2007 financial crisis. Investments in opaque assets are more profitable than transparent assets, and controlling for profitability, have larger valuation...

Opacity fosters price contagion that exacerbates the speculative cycles of bubbles and crashes that create financial instability. We find that banks with larger investments in opaque assets benefitted more from intra-industry revaluations associated with announcements of mergers in the period...