ALI AHMADI
Finance PhD candidate
Schulich School of Business, York University
Email: aahmadi@wlu.ca
I will be joining amazing colleagues at the
Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University,
as Assistant Professor in the Finance Area in July 2026.
JOB MARKET PAPER
The Double-Edged Sword of Executive Personal Liability: Firm Value vs. Social Responsibility
Business for a Better World Dissertation Award, Colorado State University and RRBM (2025)
Best Paper Award, Canadian Sustainable Finance Network Conference (2025)
Best Paper Award in Corporate Finance Semifinalist, Financial Management Association Conference, 2025
Canadian Securities Institute Research Foundation (CSI-RF) PhD Scholarship (2024, two-time recipient)
Abstract: Executive personal liability for corporate social misconduct increases compliance but reduces shareholder value. I demonstrate this tradeoff in a difference-in-differences framework exploiting a landmark Ninth Circuit ruling that strengthened executives’—not directors’—criminal liability for toxic releases into water and air. Firms with 1 s.d. higher share of their water and air emissions in the Ninth Circuit experienced a 0.5% decline in equity value immediately after the ruling, followed by reductions in sales and cash flows levels, and an increase in cash flow volatility. The value reduction reflects compliance costs: water and air releases at Ninth Circuit plants fell by 8%, achieved through lower production volume, higher investment in abatement technology, and the reallocation of pollution to unaffected facilities. Placebo analysis of ground releases and a spatial discontinuity analysis around the Ninth Circuit border support causal interpretation. At the executive level, CEO compensation increased in affected firms.
Selected presentations: EFA Doctoral Tutorial (2025), NFA (2025), FMA (2025), SGF Conference (2026), RCF-ECGI Corporate Finance and Governance Conference (2025), CSFN Conference (2025), B4BW Symposium at Colorado State University (2025), CAFM (2025; schedule conflict)
WORKING PAPER
Does Corporate Production of AI Innovation Create Value?
With: Ambrus Kecskés, Roni Michaely, and Phuong-Anh Nguyen
Best Paper Award, Academy of Finance Conference (2025)
Best Paper Award, Eurasia Business and Economics Society Conference (2025)
Best Paper Award, Vietnam International Conference in Finance (2025)
Best Paper Award, Vietnam Symposium in Climate Transition (2025)
Best Paper Award, Finance Symposium (2024)
Abstract: Yes, by decreasing firm risk, not by increasing profitability, and with investors taking years to recognize the value created. We start, using novel AI patent data, by documenting significant corporate production of AI innovation as early as 1990. Then, we show that a signification motivation for a firm's AI production is the mutually reinforcing effects of the firm's innovation capacity (exogenous R&D stock) and its labor inputs' AI exposure (both the firm's own and its customers'). We use the interaction of these two effects to instrument for AI production. We find that producing AI creates firm value through a large, permanent decrease in risk (cash flow and stock return, systematic and idiosyncratic). Further evidence suggests that AI lowers physical capital intensity and increases bargaining power for producing firms. The initial market reaction to AI patent announcements is economically small, but abnormal stock returns thereafter are significantly positive (about 5% per year) for (only) roughly three years, suggesting initial undervaluation followed by gradual correction. We find no evidence of investor learning, except during the past five years. We empirically distinguish producing AI innovation versus AI adoption, automation, general technology, and other potential confounds.
Selected presentations: AFA (2027, scheculed), SFS Cavalcade North America (2026), EFA (2024), CREDIT International Conference - GRETA (2024), CCA-ESCP Workshop on Financial Institutions and Corporate Finance (2025), FINEST Autumn Workshop (2025), FMA Consortium on Asset Management (2025), RBFC (2024)