Research &
writing

This paper examines whether laws requiring oil and gas firms to disclose the chemicals used in their fracking operations affect the mortgage lending activity for properties located in nearby areas. I find that the disclosure mandate reduces uncertainty about the value of housing collateral and subsequently increases (1) the probability of obtaining a mortgage by 2.5 percentage points and (2) loan-to-value by 2.2 percentage points. Main analyses exploit variation in the location of properties relative to fracking wells. Cross-sectional tests that exploit heterogeneity in drinking water sources and the content of firm disclosures further substantiate these inferences.

This paper examines the impact of a lag in guidance from prudential regulators when new accounting standards are issued. Using CECL, we find that during the lagged guidance period (2016–2018), banks reduce loan amounts and increase loan spreads for Term Loan As relative to Term Loan Bs. Following 2018 regulatory guidelines, banks relax loan terms. The stricter terms during the lagged guidance period coincide with decreased investments by corporate borrowers dependent exclusively on TLAs, especially frequent borrowers and financially constrained firms.

We study whether mandating hospitals to adopt a patient experience survey (HCAHPS) affects patient mortality. Exploiting the 2003 Maryland pilot and 2007 nationwide adoption, difference-in-difference analyses show increased mortality for mandated hospitals — an effect that appears before hospitals disclose their ratings, suggesting it is attributable to measurement rather than disclosure. Cross-sectional results support the hypothesis that mandated hospitals shifted resources from clinical care toward patient experience.

Using state-of-the-art ML to measure toxic content on Seeking Alpha, we find persistent toxicity in comments, with over 50% of firms experiencing toxicity in recent years. Toxic content displays a feedback loop in platform participation: past toxicity predicts more future toxic contributors. Firms receiving more toxic comments have higher retail trading volume but less informative retail order trades. Toxic content is associated with slower price discovery around earnings announcements, indicating potential broader market efficiency implications.

Using a novel dataset of geographical and project-level CSR spending of Indian firms across districts, and exploiting staggered state elections as a proxy for political influence, we find that districts receive significantly more CSR spending during election years — especially in districts where majority-party candidates win. Majority party districts exhibit greater improvements in health, education, and living conditions, while historically underdeveloped districts do not, suggesting CSR allocation is driven more by political considerations than developmental needs.

Using a novel instrumental variable — state childcare funding in states with a democratic inclination — and EEOC workforce data, we find workforce diversity leads to improved firm innovation and value, even when board diversity is low. Gender-diverse firms incur fewer employee violations and receive better social scores. Using the MeToo movement as an exogenous cultural shock, we show positive effects are more pronounced in firms with a conducive organizational culture.

Under current accounting standards, internally generated intangible assets are excluded from balance sheets, and for acquired intangibles only aggregate values are reported. We contribute to this debate by analyzing Illinois's 1919 "blue sky law," which required firms issuing securities to disclose itemized valuations of all intangible assets — without distinguishing between acquired and internally generated ones. We focus on patents — the only category with measurable future value — to assess whether reported valuations were informative.

Uses India's Business Responsibility Report (BRR) mandate — which integrated ESG disclosures directly into annual financial reports — to disentangle the investment effects of ESG disclosure from actual ESG expenditure. Evidence from this setting allows identification of the real economic consequences of mandatory ESG transparency independent of the underlying spending decisions.

We study how merger decisions between U.S. public firms are affected by the similarity between acquirer and target product markets. The relation between merger likelihood and product market similarity is non-monotonic (inverted U). When markets are very similar, antitrust risk is high — stronger in concentrated markets and high regulatory-intensity years. When markets are closely related, synergies are also lower. Firms therefore prefer targets with medium rather than high product market similarity.