We study the determinants of vertical integration in a new dataset of over 750,000 firms from 93 countries. Existing evidence suggests the presence of large cross-country differences in the organization of firms, which may be related to differences in financial development, contracting costs or...

Speculative behavior plays a key role in numerous markets, but little is known about its causes. We test for neighborhood effects on speculative behavior using daily lottery sales data from 20 states in the U.S. In a sample of 160,000 retailers, lottery sales in a census block increase by $0.26,...

Reporting the economic significance of findings in empirical corporate finance has become increasingly common, but a review of the literature from 2000 to 2018 reveals problems with standard practice that make it difficult to judge the importance of reported results. Common problems include...

We study the determinants of vertical integration in a new dataset of over 750,000 firms from 93 countries. Existing evidence suggests the presence of large cross-country differences in the organization of firms, which may be related to differences in financial development, contracting costs or...

I study the relation between corporate diversification and labor productivity in a sample of over 600,000 firms from 89 countries. Across the entire sample, greater diversification is associated with significantly lower labor productivity. Contrary to theories emphasizing the inefficient use of...