Publications

1.  "Pay for Performance from Future Fund Flows: The Case of Private Equity"

The Review of Financial Studies, 25, 3259-3304, 2012, (with Ji-Woong Chung, Berk Sensoy, and Michael Weisbach)

Wharton-WRDS Best Paper Award WFA 2011

Outstanding Paper Award - 6th International Conference on Asia-Pacific Financial Markets

Featured in Finance and Accounting Memos, Issue 2, 2014

2. "Is Corporate Governance Risk Valued? Evidence from Directors’ and Officers’ Insurance"

Journal of Corporate Finance, 18 (2), 2012, (with Martin Boyer)

​Best Paper Bank of Canada Award, NFA 2010

3.  "D&O Insurance and IPO Performance: What Can We Learn from Insurers?" 

Journal of Financial Intermediation, 23 (4), 504-540, 2014, (with Martin Boyer)​​ 

4. " Selecting Directors Using Machine Learning"

 The Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming (with Isil Erel, Chenhan Tan and Michael Weisbach)

 Featured in: Harvard Business Review ; Harvard Law School Forum on Governance and Financial Regulation ; Medium 

​Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance

with Ben Bennett, Isil Erel and Jesse Wang

Featured in:

Forbes

Alex Edmans' "Grow the Pie" Blog 

Conference presentations:  ECWFC at the WFA, the Pacific Northwest Finance Conference, 2020 AFA annual meeting, 2020 EFA annual meeting, 2021 SFS Cavalcade (scheduled) 

Abstract

 We explore how lowering labor market frictions for female workers affects corporate performance. Using the staggered adoption of state-level Paid Family Leave acts, we provide causal evidence on the value created by relieving frictions to accessing female talent, for private and public firms. Reduced turnover and an increase in female leadership are potential mechanisms that contribute to performance gains. Across specifications, our estimates indicate that treated establishments’ productivity increases by about 5% relative to neighbor control establishments. The treatment effect is larger when workers are in less religious counties and in those with more women of childbearing age. 

Learning about Directors

Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA)

 Abstract

This study investigates the importance of corporate boards by exploiting the predictions from a learning model in which capital markets process information and learn about the quality of incoming directors. The estimates suggest that upon the arrival of a new director, uncertainty about governance quality accounts for 9.5% of return volatility. The learning framework is useful to evaluate the importance of governance attributes and the kinds of directors that are more influential in which circumstances. For instance, women on boards are especially important at times when monitoring is necessary.