We investigate the relationship between the presence of former member of the U.S. Congress on corporate boards and fraud enforcement. We find that corporate fraud in companies with such members on the board stays undetected longer. When caught, such companies pay lower penalties. The appointment...

Using Consumer Finance Monthly national survey, we demonstrate that credit unions in the US did little to help consumers obtain home equity lines of credit (HELOC) during the recent financial crisis. Our results hold after including a two-stage regression structure using the availability of...

We show that small firms using syndicated loans for their mid- and long-term financial needs have significantly higher leverage than firms that do not borrow in this market. This difference cannot be attributed to firm characteristics like the availability of growth opportunities, asset...