The recent financial crisis in 2007-2008 suggests that financial shocks, the aggregate disturbances that originate directly in the financial sector, can play an important role as a source of business cycle fluctuations. In this paper, we explore the impact of aggregate shocks to the cost of...

We provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the link between advertising expenditures, brand capital, and asset returns in the cross-section of U.S. publicly traded firms. Interpreting advertising expenditures as firms' investment in brand capital, we document that: (i) firms with high...

Online appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article

Heterogeneity in the composition of the labor force affects asset prices in the cross section. We combine a model of labor heterogeneity with a neoclassical q-theory model with labor adjustment costs and show that the negative expected return-hiring rate relation documented in previous studies...

We study the role of brand capital -- a primary form of intangible capital -- for firm valuation and risk in the cross section of publicly traded firms. Using a empirical measure of brand capital stock constructed from advertising expenditures accounting data, we show that: (i) firms with low...

Previous studies show that firms with low inventory growth outperform firms with high inventory growth in the cross-section of publicly traded firms. In addition, inventory investment is volatile and procyclical, and inventory-to-sales is persistent and countercyclical. We embed an inventory...

We document that the firm level hiring rate predicts stock returns in the cross-section of US publicly traded firms even after controlling for investment, size, book-to-market and momentum as well as other known predictors of stock returns. The predictability shows up in both Fama-MacBeth cross...

We study the impact of labor market frictions on asset prices in the cross section of US publicly traded firms. On average, firms with low hiring rates have higher future stock returns than firms with high hiring rates, a difference of 5.2% per annum. Interpreting a hiring decision as analogous...

We study the role of brand capital--a primary form of intangible capital--for firm valuation and risk in the cross section of publicly traded firms. Using a novel empirical measure of brand capital stock constructed from advertising expenditures accounting data, we show that: (i) firms with low...

Previous studies show that firms with low inventory growth outperform firms with high inventory growth in the cross-section of publicly traded firms. In addition, inventory investment is volatile and procyclical, and inventory-to-sales is persistent and countercyclical. We embed an inventory...