We test whether fund managers have stock-picking skill by comparing their holdings and trades prior to earnings announcements with the returns realized at those events. This approach largely avoids the joint-hypothesis problem with long-horizon studies of fund performance. Consistent with...

We analyze the link between creditor rights and firms' investment policies, proposing that stronger creditor rights in bankruptcy reduce corporate risk-taking. In cross-country analysis, we find that stronger creditor rights induce greater propensity of firms to engage in diversifying...

We apply the theoretical framework of Llorente, Michaely, Saar, and Wang(2002) to analyze the relation between daily volume and first-order return autocorrelationfor individual stocks in emerging markets. We find strong evidence of return continuation following high volume days, suggesting the...

We study how the investor protection environment affects corporate managers incentives to take value-enhancing risks. In our model, the manager chooses higher perk consumption when investor protection is low. Since perks represent a priority claim held by the manager, lower investor protection...

We propose that stronger creditor rights in bankruptcy affect corporate investment choice by reducing corporate risk-taking. In cross-country analysis, we find that stronger creditor rights induce greater propensity of firms to engage in diversifying acquisitions that are value-reducing, to...

We measure the stock-picking skill of mutual fund managers based on the returns realized around the subsequent earnings announcements of the stocks that they hold and trade. Relative to standard methodologies, this approach exploits the most informative segments of the returns data and...

Using a novel hand-collected data set we investigate price and trading behavior aroundseveral well-known stock market and commodity corners which occurred between 1863 and 1980. We find strong evidence that large investors and corporate insiders possess market power that allowed them to...

We test whether fund managers have stock-picking skill by comparing their holdings and trades prior to earnings announcements with the returns realized at those events. This approach largely avoids the joint-hypothesis problem with long-horizon studies of fund performance. Consistent with...

We document the emergence of the lead independent director (LID) board role in a sample of U.S. firms in 1999-2015. We find that firms that adopt a LID board role are larger and have more independent boards, higher institutional investor holdings, and an NYSE listing. Firms with greater...

A large fraction of acquisition deals for private firm and subsidiary targets include an escrow contract giving the bidder the opportunity to lay claim on escrow account funds if subsequent to the acquisition the seller fails to meet specific acquisition agreement terms. The likelihood of using...