Publications

We discuss Feng et al. (2024), which studies a dynamic model of delegated investment. The paper provides novel insights into the optimal contract between a principal and an agent who obtains private information about both the timing and…

The publication of the 2023 Merger Guidelines (MG) by the DOJ and FTC marked a significant event in the expanding influence of economics on public guidance in antitrust. The economic frameworks that are outlined in the MG are not limited to…

A growing body of research has documented the negative impact narcissistic leaders can have on the organizations they lead. Studies have shown that when in positions of authority, grandiose narcissists often have subordinates who are frustrated,…

Although investor attention is fundamental to the efficient functioning of capital markets, it is also an elusive construct that researchers struggle to measure. In recent years, the search volume index (SVI) of ticker searches on Google has…

Nuanced portrayals of stigmatized groups in media have been shown to reduce prejudice. In an online experiment (N = 749), we tested whether a feature film depicting incarcerated peoples’ experiences in the criminal justice system can increase a)…

India’s evolving digital health strategy leverages innovative technologies to enhance access to healthcare services. This paper explores the key components of India’s digital health transformation, including the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (…

We analyze the effects of veto players when the set of available policies isn’t exogenously fixed, but rather determined by policy developers who work to craft new high-quality proposals. If veto players are moderate, there is active competition…

Innovations bring many benefits to society, but they can also bring harm. We study the problem of a regulator deciding whether to approve an innovation where information about the impact of the innovation is held within the firms that are…

In this Closer Look, we take a deep dive into a sample of companies that failed their say-on-pay votes and the changes they implemented the subsequent year. We find many failed votes are in response to large, one-time special awards.…

In summer 2024, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Hoover Institution Working Group on Corporate Governance, and the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University hired Prolific to conduct a nationwide…

In this paper, I share a few insights on our remarkable field to explore what creates a beautiful life. I conceptualize that the idea of a “beautiful life” is defined not by transient moments of happiness, but by a profound sense of meaning and…

In recent years, U.S. public companies have increasingly begun to voluntarily disclose official workforce diversity data (i.e., EEO-1 reports), which they previously only confidentially filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission…

Algorithms frequently assist, rather than replace, human decision-makers. However, the design and analysis of algorithms often focus on predicting outcomes and do not explicitly model their effect on human decisions. This discrepancy between the…

We develop a model of the global financial cycle with one key ingredient: the international demand for safe dollar assets. The model matches patterns of dollar borrowing and currency mismatch, the U.S. external balance sheet, exorbitant privilege…

We provide the first large-sample evidence on third-party verification of firms’ environmental and social metrics in ESG reports (ESG assurance) in the United States. Focusing on the S&P 500 from 2010–2020, we document a striking increase in…

We combine newly collected election data with records of public denials of the results of the 2020 election to estimate the degree to which election-denying Republican candidates for senator, governor, secretary of state, and attorney general…

Eleven large language models (LLMs) were assessed using 40 bespoke false-belief tasks, considered a gold standard in testing theory of mind (ToM) in humans. Each task included a false-belief scenario, three closely matched true-belief control…

There are a number of available methods for selecting whom to prioritize for treatment, including ones based on treatment effect estimation, risk scoring, and hand-crafted rules. We propose rank-weighted average treatment effect (RATE) metrics as…

Cognitive differences can catalyze social learning through the process of one-to-one social influence. Yet the learning benefits of exposure to the ideas of cognitively dissimilar others often fail to materialize. Why do cognitive differences…

Carefully standardized facial images of 591 participants were taken in the laboratory while controlling for self-presentation, facial expression, head orientation, and image properties. They were presented to human raters and a facial recognition…