This study investigates the impact of board diversity on disaster preparation by firms. The Covid-19 crisis showed the importance of firms’ disaster preparedness as the pandemic disrupted global economic activity. Using financial flexibility as a proxy for disaster preparation, we find that...

Around the world, policy makers are mandating gender quotas for boards of publicly-traded firms. Since the benefits and costs of these quotas accrue to shareholders, it is important to see how they react to the appointment of female directors. Using data on mandatory announcements of new...

About 37% of Chinese listed firms have medical expertise, as measured by the existence of senior executives with a medical degree or medical-industry experience. Using the COVID-19 outbreak in China as a natural experiment, we find that stock returns of firms with medical expertise, excluding...

Scrutiny of CEO pay increases during times of economic stress, when it is not clear how much pay CEOs should receive when corporate profitability suffers due to an unforeseen decline in the operating environment. On the one hand, the board might want to preserve incentives, recognizing that a...