A recent trend in the reporting of empirical results in the finance literature has been to focus on the economic significance of the results, rather than simply stating the statistical significance of the documented effects. This is a welcome development that will help convey the importance of the empirical findings in our field. But what is the best way to measure economic significance? Should the effects be reported as a… Read More »Paper Spotlight: Economic Significance in Corporate Finance

2023 RCFS Winter Conference February 18-19, 2023 Royal Sonesta San Juan, Puerto Rico Call for Papers Submission Deadline: November 10, 2022 Call for Proposals on “Corporate Market Power: Drivers and Financial Consequences” Submission Deadline: November 30, 2022

“Firm Finances and the Spread of COVID-19: Evidence from Nursing Homes” by Taylor A. Begley and Daniel Weagley

Empirical research typically builds on the findings of prior studies. New tests rely on previously identified determinants of the outcome variable studied as controls. Authors of a forthcoming RCFS paper, “Disregarding the Shoulders of Giants: Inferences from Innovation Research,” David Reeb and Wanli Zhao observe this process is often ad hoc. Using past research on corporate innovation as a platform, authors show that only a small subset of proposed determinants… Read More »Paper Spotlight: Disregarding the Shoulders of Giants: Inferences from Innovation Research

“Firm listing status, firm size, and the financing of investment” by Mathias Lé and Frederic Vinas

            Agency problems between managers and shareholders affect both investment and capital structure decisions at firms. In “Agency Conflicts and Investment: Evidence from a Structural Estimation,” Redouane Elkamhi, Daniel Kim, Chanik Jo, and Marco Salerno develop and structurally estimate a dynamic model to understand the real and financial implications of such agency problems. The manager in the model is pulled into two different directions. On… Read More »Paper Spotlight: Agency Conflicts and Investment: Evidence from a Structural Estimation