"Disclosure and lawsuits ahead of IPOs"

Co-authored with Burcu Esmer and N. Bugra Ozel

We examine reducing non-shareholder litigation risk as a specific and quantifiable benefit of reduced disclosure during the IPO period. We show that firms that publicly submit their registration with the SEC experience a 25% increase in non-shareholder lawsuits during the pre-IPO period, but firms that utilize the confidential filing provision of the JOBS Act do not experience such an increase.

"Corporate Political Activism and Information Transfers"

Co-authored with Dane M. Christensen, Hengda Jin, and Laura A. Wellman

We examine whether there are externalities to the processing of political information by politically active firms and find evidence of stronger intra-industry information transfers from politically active firms to their industry peers.

"Non-GAAP disclosures and investor uncertainty"

Co-authored with Lindsey A. Gallo, Karen Ton, and Teri L. Yohn

We study the role of information intermediaries in the non-GAAP disclosure environment and find that investor uncertainty is increasing in the amount of I/B/E/S's non-GAAP adjustments but not in managers' non-GAAP adjustments. These results expand our understanding of the influence of I/B/E/S on capital markets.

"Equity Book-to-Market Ratios Above One and Macroeconomic Risk"

Co-authored with Mary E. Barth and Doron Israeli

Equity book-to-market ratios (BTM) should not exceed one if a firm’s return on equity exceeds its cost of capital or it employs conservative accounting. Yet, BTM is above one for many firms. We find that this occurs because BTM above one reflects macroeconomic risk. We find that hedge returns for BTM above one are concentrated in recession years. We also find that BTM above one reflects potentially overstated equity book values, but only in non-recession years. Our study calls into question using HML as a return prediction factor for BTM above one and using BTM as a generic measure of conservative accounting or as the key indicator of overstated asset book values.

"Does CSR Engender Trust? Evidence From Investor Reactions to Corporate Disclosures

Co-authored with Jonathan Berkovitch, Doron Israeli, and Atanu Rakshit

Motivated by the observation that investor trust facilitates greater informational price efficiency, we find that firms with more CSR enjoy faster incorporation of earnings news into stock prices, lower investor uncertainty around earnings announcements, and higher earnings response coefficients. Using a regression discontinuity design, we identify the causal effect of CSR on the speed with which stock prices reflect earnings news.