I examine whether changes in CEO status affect risk-related business decisions. I use prestigious awards as shocks to CEO status relative to other CEOs. Firms with award-winning CEOs decrease their idiosyncratic volatility, and their industry betas converge towards one. These firms also reduce...

We investigate the effect of CEOs' education on their firms' probability of choosing convertible debt instead of straight debt and equity. Using a security choice framework, we find that CEOs with higher levels of education have a greater likelihood of issuing convertible debt, particularly when...

This study examines whether CEO overconfidence affects banks' mortgage lending decisions in the post-financial crisis period. Despite the improvements in bank regulations and intensified monitoring following the financial crisis of 2007-2009, we find that banks managed by overconfident CEOs are...

We examine the role of award-winning CEOs in corporate innovative activities. We find no significant difference in innovation outputs between firms of media award-winning CEOs and a matched sample of predicted winners. However, firms headed by winners of non-media awards generate significantly...