This paper presents the first empirical analysis of the choice of firms regarding whether or not to release private information (“prepare the market”) in advance of a possible dividend cut, and the consequences of such market preparation. We use a hand-collected data set of dividend cutting...

Prior studies examine real firm behavior and show that high debt makes a firm vulnerable in the product market. In this study, we assess the economic magnitude of competitive effects of debt by examining stock returns. For identification, we use a double-layer of contrasts by conditioning our...

Using the Great Recession of 2007-2009 as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that CEOs' work experience is significantly related to firm stock performance while their endowed traits play a limited role in the recession. No CEO characteristics matter during the pre-recession period. CEOs who...

The increasing crypto-stock comovement has spurred concerns over digital assets’ ripple effects and systemic risks. We closely examine this comovement and report two findings. First, the crypto-stock correlation hovered around zero before March 2020 but increased strikingly after. This shift...

Using investor bidding data from 175 Chinese IPOs, we examine the effects of underwriters' rent-seeking incentives. We find that Chinese IPO underwriters, with no discretion to allocate more shares to favored investors, instead favor mutual funds paying them greater brokerage commissions by...