Abstract Information, which can arrive in multiple forms, is a fundamental component of all
financial transactions and markets. We define hard and soft information and describe the …

Partisan perception affects the actions of professionals in the financial sector. Linking credit
rating analysts to party affiliations from voter records, we show that analysts not affiliated with …

We investigate the effects of opioid abuse on municipal finance. We employ instrumental
variables, border discontinuity difference-in-differences regressions, and coarsened exact …

Banks open more branches and make more lending near their CEOs' childhood hometowns.
The effects are stronger among informationally opaque borrowers and among CEOs who …

We test whether ratings are comparable across asset classes. We examine default rates by
initial rating, accuracy ratios, migration metrics, instantaneous upgrade and downgrade …

Place attachment is an affective bond whereby people interact with and describe themselves
as belonging to specific places. This study investigates the presence of place attachment in …

This study examines drivers of investment probability in equity-based crowdfunding using a
hand-collected and comprehensive data set from a well-established platform. The analysis …

Using a unique hand-collected sample of professional connections between finance
ministers and the top executives of the three largest credit rating agencies (CRAs) for 38 …

Credit ratings of corporations are biased, but the forces driving this bias are unclear. We
argue it would be difficult for rating agencies to issue high grades for a firm's debt when …

We investigate whether the societal-level social capital enjoyed by firms affects the cost of
their bank loans. Employing a measure of societal-level social capital for US counties, we …