Prior research establishes that boards of directors can encourage risk-averse managers to take risky actions by providing stock options and severance pay. We demonstrate that the ability of these incentives to encourage risk-taking hinges on the level of uncertainty facing the manager, and that...

We investigate how firm cost structure influences the information environment by studying the relation between the degree of operating leverage, earnings properties, and the usefulness of earnings to shareholders. Because the degree of operating leverage increases the impact of the incremental...

Economic theory predicts that insiders reveal private information when they trade equity in their firm. However, insider purchases to meet equity holding requirements or sales to satisfy liquidity needs do not reveal private information. We predict that contract terms stipulating CEO equity...

Theory predicts that in concentrated industries with high product similarity, horizontal acquisitions can effectively increase incumbent firms’ market power. Using a novel measure for industry product similarity, we show that in such industries firms’ propensity to make horizontal...

Firms strategically choose more conservative capital structures when they face greater competitive threats stemming from the potential loss of their trade secrets to rivals. Following the recognition of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine by U.S. state courts, which exogenously increases the...