Research

The effect of inflation depends on both aggregate conditions and firm characteristics. I examine how firms’ production cost structures shape their exposure to inflation. Contrary to conventional intuition, fixed-cost-sorted portfolios exhibit a negative inflation beta, whereas variable-cost-sorted portfolios exhibit a positive beta. Fixed costs are dominated by and dynamically negatively correlated with variable costs, suggesting that variable costs primarily drive production-cost-related inflation exposure. This exposure varies over time, remaining significantly positive during periods of high inflation volatility but becoming insignificant or negative during low-volatility periods. International evidence reveals a similar pattern. Sensitivity analyses indicate that these differences are not driven by cash flows but are associated with greater margin expansion and lower costs of capital among high-variable-cost firms, consistent with a discount-rate channel. I develop a parsimonious model linking inflation exposure to firms’ production cost structures.

We examine the causal impact of workforce gender diversity on firm performance and the moderating role of organizational culture. Using firm-level EEOC workforce disclosures, we construct gender diversity measures and exploit state-level childcare funding in Democratic-leaning states and the local presence of female role models as sources of exogenous variation. We find that greater gender diversity increases R&D investment, improves innovation quality, and enhances firm value, even among firms with low board-level gender representation. Two mechanisms emerge: higher employee productivity, consistent with collaborative problem-solving, and fewer employee violations. Finally, using textual measures of organizational culture and the #MeToo movement as an exogenous cultural shock, we show that diversity's positive effects are stronger in firms with more supportive and inclusive cultures and become more pronounced after #MeToo among firms with weaker preexisting cultures. Overall, workforce gender diversity enhances innovation and firm value, but its benefits depend on organizational culture.

This paper examines how judges’ financial holdings relate to legal outcomes. Using novel data on judicial financial disclosures and public-firm civil cases across U.S. district courts from 2000 to 2021, we document instances in which judges fail to recuse themselves despite holding stock in a litigating party. Judges rule more favorably in conflicted cases, and investors respond positively to these outcomes. The 2017 electronic disclosure reform increases recusals and reduces investor surprise. Our findings provide the first large-scale evidence linking judges’ financial holdings to case outcomes.

We find that transportation risk carries a negative risk premium. The high minus low quintile portfolio formed based on exposure to transportation shock carries an annualized CAPM alpha of -3.7 % and an FF3 alpha of -5.0%. We rule out other potential explanations, including industry centrality, upstreamness, and industry competitiveness. Firms with higher exposure to transportation shocks experience negative gross profit growth in response to aggregate profitability shocks. These high transportation exposure companies also incur higher transportation costs, which suppress their gross margins. Additionally, their CEOs exhibit greater concern regarding supply chain shocks, as evidenced by conference call transcripts. To address endogeneity, we conduct event studies that mitigate potential biases. Our approach differs from existing literature by focusing on firm-level risk and overall transportation shock exposure, rather than solely on international trade.

We examine firms’ participation and performance under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an international carbon offset program. Contrary to concerns that weak monitoring leads to excess credit issuance, we find that firms underdeliver projected emission reductions by 25% on average. We attribute this shortfall to heterogeneity in participant quality: while some firms can meet emission targets, others appear motivated by positive stock market reactions to green projects and relaxed financial constraints, despite limited energy-sector experience. These firms underdeliver emission reductions and perform poorly post-approval. Effective monitoring by local governments and shareholders improves project selection, firm performance, and realized emission reductions. Our findings highlight the roles of managerial behavioral biases and monitoring in shaping the effectiveness of international carbon offset programs.

We examine how gender diversity among employees and retail customers affects firm risk. Using monthly NielsenIQ purchase data and annual Bloomberg workforce data, we find that long-short portfolios sorted on workforce and customer gender diversity earn negative annualized risk premiums of approximately -6% and -10%, respectively, particularly during periods of high uncertainty. Cross-sectional analyses show that workforce diversity is associated with better operating leverage management, while customer diversity reduces revenue volatility under adverse conditions. We attribute these effects to greater female wage sensitivity to economic shocks and stronger brand loyalty and less uncertainty-sensitive spending among female consumers. We also find that shifts in household headship from male to female are associated with increased spending at firms with greater workforce gender diversity.

This paper surveys archival accounting and finance research using Indian institutional settings published in leading journals, organizing the literature into four domains: corporate governance, capital markets and disclosure, banking regulation and creditor rights, and environmental and social issues. It synthesizes key findings, reviews major Indian data repositories, and identifies promising opportunities for future research and causal inference.