Using the exogenous shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, we study how informed market participants evaluate fiscal space. Short-selling activity shifted upon the onset of the pandemic towards companies with low financial flexibility only in countries with limited fiscal space. Among these companies,...

We exploit the merger between BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors to study how changes in expected ownership concentration affect the investment behavior of funds and the cross-section of stocks worldwide. We find that funds with open-end structures and a large exposure to commonly-held...

Using the BJZZ (2021) subpenny transaction price algorithm, we identify a broad swath of marketable retail investor orders in the U.S. market between January 2020 and June 2021. During the pandemic period, the retail trading volume we identify increases from 10% of total market volume to about...

The eurozone has a single short-term nominal interest rate, but monetary policy conditions measured by either real short-term interest rates or Taylor rule residuals varied substantially across countries in the period from 2003-2010. We use this cross-country variation in the (local) tightness...

The eurozone has a single short-term nominal interest rate, but monetary policy conditions measured by real short-term interest rates varied substantially across countries in the period 2003 - 2010. We use this cross-country variation in the (local) tightness of monetary policy to examine its...

We examine how supply chain activity reflects into credit risk during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on CDS spreads and US-China supply chain links. We find considerable effects on credit risk propagation. CDS spreads for firms with China supply chain partners increase...

This paper studies short sellers' trading behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Short sellers targeted less liquid companies headquartered in countries with a low credit rating. This trading pattern suggests that short sellers traded on the fiscal capacity of governments, which is crucial for...

Fixed-income markets were disrupted at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. As whole industries temporarily shut down, businesses and households ran down their savings or needed credit to survive income losses. As volatility increased, portfolio managers sold securities to manage their...

We examine the microstructure of liquidity provision in the COVID-19 corporate bond liquidity crisis. During the two weeks leading to Fed interventions, transaction costs soared, trade-size pricing inverted, and dealers, in particular non-primary dealers, shifted from buying to selling, causing...

This study evaluates the effect of the Capital Purchase Program during the 2008-2009 financial crisis on the cost of equity of 170 publicly listed banks in the United States that received funding. We document robust evidence that the liquidity provided by the government bailout reduced the cost...