This paper shows that shocks to social benefits have local multiplier effects that are borne primarily by economically fragile households. Using a large welfare reform in the UK, we document that recipients not only lose benefits income, but also experience a lower relative likelihood of...

After remaining close to 30% for four years, the FCA's market cleanliness statistic for takeovers decreased to about 15% between 2010 and 2013. This paper investigates the possible explanations for the fall in the statistic. We find evidence to exclude methodological bias, information leaking...

We exploit enforcement actions for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in non-OECD countries to study the effect of anti-bribery enforcement on unpunished firms. Firms in the same country-industry as the violator experience significant increases in revenue (+6.4%) and asset...

I document a beneficial effect of the government's participation in product markets. Exploiting the 2008-09 financial crisis as a natural experiment, I show that federal procurement contracts insulate government contractors' performance from the crisis. By 2009, government contractors had 19%...

We study how the allocation of federal contracts influences the sustainability of corporate policies. We find that a firm’s poor record of environmental and social (E&S) incidents is associated with losing government contracts and facing worse contract terms. ‘Punished’ contractors improve...