Papers & Opinions

Empirics | Financial markets | Political institutions

Financial Market Exposure Increases Generalized Trust, Particularly Among the Politically Polarized

Paper

Posted on 19 April 2024

By Saumitra Jha

How can we build trust, especially in polarized societies? We propose that exposure to broad financial markets—where individuals place their assets in the hands of large groups of unfamiliar agents...
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Empirics | Financial markets | Media

Corporate Response to the Black Lives Matter Movement

Paper

Posted on 30 June 2022

By AJ Chen

We investigate determinants that encourage companies to speak out via twitter or their websites in support of Black Lives Matter (BLM) after the death of George Floyd on May 25,...
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Banking | Electoral politics | Empirics | Political institutions

The Costs of Political Misalignment: Forest Fires and Bank Loans in Turkey

Opinion

Posted on 16 September 2021

By Orkun Saka

Recent wildfires in Turkey have not only destroyed more than 95,000 hectares of its coastal forestland but also divided the country further into its political colors. This piece discusses the...
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Empirics | Political institutions | Special interest politics

Why We Don’t Write More Papers on Political Finance

Opinion

Posted on 17 August 2021

By Orkun Saka

Despite the commonly held views of economists on regulatory capture, our profession has been much more hesitant in recognising similar conflicts of interests that may exist in economics research. This...
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Empirics | Financial markets

Partisan Return Gap

Paper

Posted on 19 July 2021

By Jinfei Sheng

We document sharp differences in stock price responses to COVID-19-related news between public firms headquartered in blue counties (dominated by Democratic voters) and those in red counties (dominated by Republican...
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Corporate finance | Empirics

Polarized Corporate Boards

Paper

Posted on 16 July 2021

By Phong Ngo

We show that political polarization between directors and the CEO negatively impacts the effectiveness of corporate boards. At the director level, polarization increases directors’ incentive to monitor the CEO but...
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Corporate finance | Empirics

The Political Polarization of U.S. Firms

Paper

Posted on 3 July 2021

By Elisabeth Kempf

Executive teams in U.S. firms are becoming increasingly politically polarized. We establish this new fact using political affiliations from voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between...
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