I examine the short- and long-term impact of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) on cross-listed foreign private issuers. Both short- and long-term test results suggest that the costs of SOX compliance significantly exceed its benefits and reduce the net benefits of cross-listings

This paper examines the role of conditional accounting conservatism in mitigating the cost of equity and debt capital in an international setting. I find that firms domiciled in countries with more conservative financial reporting systems have lower cost of equity and debt capital. I further...

Analysts with above-median risk-adjusted performance in the estimation period persistently outperform those with below-median performance in the subsequent holdout period. The annualized risk-adjusted returns of trading strategies based on performance persistence are statistically and...

The authors examine the legal and business environments, financing channels, and governance mechanisms of various types of firms in India and compare them to those from other countries. Despite its English commonlaw origin, strong legal protection provided by the law, and a democratic...

We provide a comprehensive review of China's financial system, and explore directions of future development. First, the current financial system is dominated by a large banking sector. In recent years banks have made considerable progress in reducing the amount of non-performing loans and...

We examine the role of China's financial system in supporting economic growth, and explore directions of future development. First, the current financial system is dominated by a large but inefficient banking sector. Reducing the amount of non-performing loans among the major banks to normal...

With extensive cross-country datasets and India firm samples, as well as our own surveys of small and medium firms, we examine the legal and business environments, financing channels, and growth patterns of different types of firms in India. Despite the English common-law origin and a...

China is an important counterexample to the findings in the law, institutions, finance, and growth literature: neither its legal nor financial system is well developed by existing standards, yet it has one of the fastest growing economies. We examine 3 sectors of the economy: the State Sector...

Legal and institutional differences shape the ownership and terms of bank loans across the world. With strong creditor protection, we show that loans have concentrated ownership, long maturity and low interest rates. The impact of creditor rights on loans also depends on borrower characteristics...

We examine contracts used in mergers from the announcement of initial definitive agreement to the completion or termination of the deal, and the renegotiation process in between. We build a model that allows for renegotiation following the arrival of new information, and demonstrate that a...