This paper examines whether agency conflicts during venture capital (VC) fundraising impact investment behavior. Using novel investment-level decisions of VCs in the process of raising new funds, we find that venture capitalists take actions hidden from their investors, i.e. limited partners...

Integrating renewable energy production into the electricity grid is an important policy goal to address climate change. However, such an integration faces economic and technological challenges. As power generation by renewable sources increases, power transmission patterns over the electric...

Free Cash Flow (FCF) agency conflicts exist when managers divert cash flow for private benefits. We identify the impact of unobservable FCF conflicts on firm policy using a structural approach. Measurement equations are constructed based on observable managerial choices: payout policy changes...

We show that a platform-pays mechanism can address ratings inflation and ratings shopping with minimum regulatory oversight. While we focus on ratings industry, the mechanism also applies to a setting where firms seek unbiased reports from external auditors. The mechanism has two necessary and...

We investigate the effects that mutual fund liquidity requirements have on fragility. Starting in 2018, SEC Rule 22e-4 restricted ownership of illiquid securities in funds. As expected, post-rule, funds hold more liquid securities. Firms issuing illiquid securities face higher costs due to a...

We demonstrate that fund investors employ a heuristic benchmark model to estimate alphas and allocate capital. This can result in observational equivalence to CAPM driven investment decisions. The benchmark estimator trades off bias against precision, accommodating finite sample constraints. The...

We analyze how Credit Default Swaps (CDS) affect bank incentives and borrower outcomes in renegotiations after covenant violations. Using a regression-discontinuity design and within lender-borrower variation, we find that CDS firms maintain investment after control rights shift to the creditor,...

In the recent recession and current economic recovery, policymakers have supported asset prices in the U.S. treasury and mortgage markets, expecting that improvement in the balance sheet of banks will lead to more commercial lending. In general, we document that increases in housing prices in a...

We study how technological shocks to the cost of starting new businesses have led the venture capital model to adapt in fundamental ways over the prior decade. We both document and provide a framework to understand the changes in the investment strategy of venture capitalists (VCs) in recent...