Are pandemics systemically important to modern-day financial markets? This study uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment for testing how large-scale pandemics affect the financial markets. Using hand-collected data at the firm level, I find that managers systematically underestimated...

This study tests whether voluntary disclosure affects stock liquidity. I argue that index funds fit the profile of nonstrategic traders who, according to theory, are unambiguously more likely than managers and strategic investors to prefer high stock liquidity and thus high disclosure. This...

We examine the relation between shareholder activism and voluntary disclosure. An important consequence of voluntary disclosure is less adverse selection in the capital markets. One class of traders that finds less adverse selection unprofitable is activist investors who target mispriced firms...

Decentralized finance (DeFi) represents a large capital market where users conduct transactions primarily through digital smart contracts. These contracts are susceptible to cyber-attacks and coding errors that can result in significant financial losses, which has led to the emergence of smart...

This study provides some of the first evidence on gender-based differences in director retention at US public firms. While men hold the bulk of directorships, female directors are less likely than male directors to depart a board in a given year. However, when boards face adversity by way of...