We show that labor force telework flexibility (LFTF) is a first-order effect in accounting for the variations of asset prices and firm policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, firms in high LFTF industries significantly outperform firms in low LFTF industries in stock returns. The...

We embed a structural model of credit risk inside a dynamic continuous-time consumption-based asset pricing model, which allows us to price equity and corporate debt in a unified framework. Our key economic assumptions are that the first and second moments of earnings and consumption growth...

We build a dynamic model to link two empirical patterns:\ the negative failure probability-return relation (Campbell, Hilscher, and Szilagyi, 2008) and the positive distress risk premium-return relation (Friewald, Wagner, and Zechner, 2014). We show analytically and quantitatively that (i)...