We examine the influence of common ownership on commonalities in the information environment. Specifically, we study commonalities in financial statements and in the actions of key agents such as financial analysts and firm managers who contribute and respond to the information environment....

Prior research has shown that trust has a positive effect on the economic welfare of nations. We investigate this result by analyzing the effect of endowed trust on agency problems within organizations. We find that firms located in U.S. counties where trust is more prevalent suffer less from...

We ask whether firms hedge optimally by analyzing the impact the NYSE/NASDAQ listing rule changes have had, which exogenously imposed board composition changes on a subset of firms, on financial risk management. Using new proxies for the extent of financial risk management in non-financial firms...

We examine the relation between managers' personal income tax rates and their corporate investment decisions. Using plausibly exogenous variation in federal and state tax rates, we find a positive relation between managers' personal tax rates and their corporate risk-taking. Moreover — and...

In 2020, the average total director compensation in U.S. listed companies stood at $450,680, 6.67 times the median household income. Company pairs with shared directors have more similar pay than can be explained by size, industry, and performance. Following a landmark Delaware court ruling that...

In 2020, the average total director compensation in U.S. listed companies stood at $450,680, 6.67 times the median household income. Company pairs with shared directors have more similar pay than can be explained by size, industry, and performance. Following a landmark Delaware court ruling that...