We examine the effect of algorithmic trading (AT) on directors’ learning from stock prices. We find that the sensitivity of forced CEO turnover to stock returns decreases with AT. We mitigate correlated omitted variable bias by using the 2016 Tick Size Pilot Program as an exogenous shock to...

We examine the effect of news media consolidation on local business news dissemination and its consequences for local investors and capital markets. We use acquisitions of television stations by Sinclair Inc. as plausibly exogenous shocks to local news coverage since Sinclair is alleged to...

This study examines whether antitrust risk affects firms’ disclosure of mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Due to regulatory exemptions, deals that fall below a size threshold escape formal antitrust scrutiny at the time of the merger. These “non-reported” deals can have important...

Institutional investors’ common blockholdings within an industry produce an information advantage, allowing them to differentiate between the industry-wide and firm-specific nature of bad news released by peer firms and avoiding selling on false spillover signals (i.e., “panic exit”),...

Prior research documents that asset growth is negatively associated with future firm performance. In contrast, we show that growth financed by product market stakeholders (i.e., “operating growth”) is positively associated with future firm performance. Investors and security analysts...

We examine the empirical associations between online information acquisition and several aspects of investors' trading activities. We find that trading volume and buy-sell imbalance between small and large traders are positively associated with abnormal ticker search on Google. These positive...

In a single information transfer setting, we detect both under- and overreactions of stock prices to corporate earnings news. We find that the stock prices of a firm's blockholder underreact to the firm's earnings news but the stock prices of the firm overreact to its blockholder's earnings...

We study CEO successions to investigate the factors that lead a firm to select an individual with CFO experience for their CEO and whether appointing a former CFO leads to systematic changes in financial reporting, disclosure, and tax policies relative to other CEO appointments. Consistent with...

Bayesian theory predicts an increase in market participants' reliance on reported current earnings to revise their expectations of future earnings when the uncertainty in future earnings is higher. Prior studies focus on price reactions and find negative associations between measures of earnings...

Economic theory suggests that the industry-wide component of firm performance is more persistent than the firm-specific component. This paper provides evidence on this assertion and tests whether investors misprice these components of earnings. Consistent with predictions, we find greater...