Thought leadership in academic finance is more unequal than in other fields. Using data on the top 2% of scientists across all fields from Ioannidis et al. (2019, 2020), we show that the set of top scientists in finance is less diverse in terms of gender and geography than in economics and other...

As scientists, we are conditioned to constantly look for new methods to advance our knowledge. But, sometimes we can achieve our goals more easily by using old methods better. This commentary lists some ABCs of empirical work that I think are useful to remember. The term “ABCs” is...

Moralistic trust arises when people believe others share their moral values. I examine whether trust in the finance industry has a moral foundation by comparing values and attitudes of finance professionals with those of the general population in two data sets: a unique data set on values of...

We develop a theory of optimal bank leverage in which the benefit of debt in inducing loan monitoring is balanced against the benefit of equity in attenuating risk-shifting. However, faced with socially-costly correlated bank failures, regulators bail out creditors. Anticipation of this...

We develop a theory of optimal bank leverage in which the benefit of debt in inducing loan monitoring is balanced against the benefit of equity in attenuating risk-shifting. However, faced with socially-costly correlated bank failures, regulators bail out creditors. Anticipation of this...

This paper studies the connection between risk taking and executive compensation in financial institutions. A theoretical model of shareholders, debtholders, depositors, and an executive suggests that 1) in principle, excessive risk taking (in the form of risk shifting) may be addressed by...

Regulators and markets can find the balance sheets of large financial institutions difficult to penetrate, and they are mindful of how undercapitalization can create incentives to take on excessive risk. This study proposes a novel framework for capital regulation that addresses banks'...