On the capital market consequences of alternative data: Evidence from outer space (with Zsolt Katona, Panos Patatoukas, and Jean Zeng) 2023, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, forthcoming

Summary: Satellite imagery is informative of future stock prices. This creates opportunities for sophisticated investors, who can afford the costs of acquiring and processing satellite imagery data, to formulate profitable trading strategies at the expense of individual investors, who tend to be on the other side of the trade. The increased asymmetric information harms liquidity.

The Value of Differing Points of View: Evidence from Financial Analysts' Geographic Diversity (with Will Gerken) 2022, Review of Financial Studies, 36 (2), 2023, 409-449

• • Lead article, Editor's Choice

Summary: Sell side analysts incorporate geographically dispersed information about firms into forecasts. Limited analyst geographic diversity adversely affects consensus forecasts and firm liquidity. The market recognizes the value of geographic diversity.

Unmasking Partisanship: Polarization Undermines Public Response to Collective Risk (with Maria Milosh, Konstantin Sonin, David Van Djicke, and Austin Wright) 2021, Journal of Public Economics 204, 104538

Summary: Partisanship is the single most important predictor of local face mask use. 

Political Beliefs affect Compliance with Government Mandates (with Tian Qiu) 2021, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 185, 688-701

Summary: Residents in Republican counties are less likely to socially distance after a state stay-at-home order has been implemented relative to those in Democratic counties. Democrats comply less when a mandate is issued by a Republican Governor.

An inconvenient cost: The effects of climate change on municipal bonds 2020, Journal of Financial Economics 135 (2), 468-482

• • GARP Oustanding Paper in Risk Management Award (2018)

  • Cited in the Economic Report of the President (March, 2023)

Summary: Counties more likely to be affected by climate change pay significantly more in underwriting fees and initial yields to issue long-term municipal bonds compared to counties that are unlikely to be affected by climate change.  

Firm Statements, Consumer Political Beliefs, and the Limits of Stakeholder Capitalism

• FMA Best Paper in Corporate Finance Award (2021)

Summary: Walmart's decision to ban open carry in stores and encourage Congress to strengthen gun control laws led to store visit decreases in highly Republican counties and increases in highly Democratic counties, highlighting the challenges of stakeholder capitalism amidst an increasingly polarized political landscape. 

The complexity yield puzzle: A textual analysis of municipal bond disclosures (with Mike Farrell, Dermot Murphy, and Guangli Zhang)

Summary: Primary market disclosures for municipal bonds have become increasingly complex, even though bonds with more complex statements cost more to issue. We analyze the reasons for writing complex disclosures in the muni space, including clientele effects, regulatory burden, and risk-based channels.