For a sample comprised of 36,105 U.S. firm-year observations from 1985 to 2008, we find that firms located in more religious counties enjoy cheaper equity financing costs. This result is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including alternative assumptions and model specifications,...

We examine the impact of auditor choice on debt pricing in firms' early public years when they are lesser known. Our evidence suggests that retaining a Big Six auditor, which can reduce debt monitoring costs by enhancing the credibility of financial statements, enables young firms to lower their...

Using the most recent machine learning-based image-processing techniques, we investigate whether banks factor borrowing firm's chief executive officer (CEO) facial trustworthiness into bank loan contracting. We find that banks tend to grant more favorable loan terms to firms with...