This paper examines the effectiveness of Japan's Emergency Credit Guarantee (ECG) Program set up during the financial turmoil following the failure of Lehman Brothers, in increasing credit availability and improving the ex-post performance of small businesses. In particular, using a unique...

We investigate the disclosures of material weaknesses in internal control mandated for Japanese firms under the 2006 Financial Instruments and Exchange Law. We find that the presence of a material weakness is more likely for firms that are younger, have better growth prospects, have a volatile...

Using stock price data drawn from the 1990s in Japan, this paper empirically shows that bank risk is negatively associated with discretionary accruals, indicating that investors misinterpreted high reported earnings as favorable information about bank financial health. We also show that the...

We investigate the significant effects of the September 11 attacks on the Japanese stock market, one of the largest markets in the world. Although several studies have examined the impact of the attacks on the domestic U.S. stock market, few studies have analyzed their impact on the foreign...

In this paper, we investigate whether a natural selection mechanism works for firm exit. By using data of firms after a devastating earthquake, the Greeat Tohoku Earthquake, we examine the impact of firm efficiency on firm exit both inside and outside the earthquake-affected areas. We find...

This paper examines the ex-post performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that obtained small business credit scoring (SBCS) loans by using a unique Japanese firm-bank matched dataset. The ex-post probability of default after the SBCS loan was provided significantly increased for SMEs...