We show that corporate governance practices vary predictably across different types of blockholders. Nonfinancial blockholders are six times as likely to self-identify as active shareholders relative to financial blockholders. Textual analysis of regulatory filings reveals that nonfinancial...

Investment spending by US public firms is highly concentrated. The 100 largest spenders account for 60% of total capital expenditures and drive most of the variation in aggregate US investment. This high concentration creates a disconnect between the average public firm and macroeconomic...

Corporate dividends cluster on increments of 5, like 25, 50, and 75. Firms that pay dividends on these `prominent' amounts have lower operating performance and five-factor alphas 60 b.p. per year lower. Consistent with agency frictions that reduce managerial effort and lead to lazy decisions, we...

We quantify the value of social status using market prices for Delaware license plates. Delaware plates are numbered sequentially, are private property, and can be legally bequeathed or traded in a secondary market. License plates offer no direct economic benefit other than authorizing the...

We test whether bank loans change public bond yields. A 10% increase in bank debt raises bond yields by 15bps, reflecting a trade-off between the benefits of bank cross-monitoring and higher bond risk. This effect is smaller for firms with no CDS and junk debt, where bank monitoring is most...

We quantify the value of social status using market prices for Delaware license plates. Delaware plates are numbered sequentially, are private property, and can be legally bequeathed or traded in a secondary market. License plates offer no direct economic benefit other than authorizing the...