We develop a theory of income and payout smoothing by firms when insiders know more about income than outside shareholders, but property rights ensure that outsiders can enforce a fair payout. Insiders set payout to meet outsiders' expectations and underproduce to manage future expectations...

The use of accounting measures and disclosures in banks' contracts and regulation suggests that the quality of banks' financial reporting is central to the efficacy of market discipline and non-market mechanisms in limiting banks' development of debt and risk overhangs in economic good times and...

We show that wrongful discharge laws - laws that protect employees against unjust dismissal - spur innovation and new firm creation. Wrongful discharge laws, particularly those that prohibit employers from acting in bad faith ex post, limit employers' ability to hold up innovating employees...

We present a model where firms compete for scarce managerial talent ("alpha") and managers are risk-averse. When managers cannot move across firms after being hired, employers learn about their talent, allocate them efficiently to projects and provide insurance to low-quality managers. When...

We argue that when bankruptcy code is creditor friendly, excessive liquidations cause levered firms to shun innovation, whereas by promoting continuation upon failure, a debtor-friendly code induces greater innovation. We provide empirical support for this claim by employing patents as a proxy...

We develop a model of financial intermediation wherein bank managers "reach for yield" - by overinvesting in risky assets and underinvesting in safer assets - provided they do not face much cost from liquidity shortfalls. The managers follow a pecking order in which their first preference is to...

Can banks maintain their advantage as liquidity providers when exposed to a financial crisis? While banks honored their credit lines drawn by firms during the 2007-09 crisis, this provision of liquidity by banks was only possible because of explicit, large support from the government and...

We study the exposure of the US corporate bond returns to liquidity shocks of stocks and Treasury bonds over the period 1973 - 2007 in a regime - switching model. In one regime, liquidity shocks have mostly insignificant effects on bond prices, whereas in another regime, a rise in illiquidity...

There has emerged in the Western economies a strong nexus between the credit risks of financial sectors and their sovereigns. We argue that this phenomenon can be understood in the context of two debt overhang problems: one affecting the financial sector due to its under-capitalization following...

Can banks maintain their advantage as liquidity providers when exposed to a financial crisis? While banks honored their credit lines drawn by firms during the 2007-09 crisis, this provision of liquidity by banks was only possible because of explicit, large support from the government and...