This paper examines the general-attention-grabbing effect of daily price limits in China's stock market. We show that stocks with large exposure to daily price limits attract more investor attention and have lower future returns. The exposure is measured empirically through the absolute beta with respect to the daily proportion of stocks that hit price limits. The general-attention-grabbing effect is not solely caused by stocks that recently hit price limits, is not subsumed by market volatility exposure, and does not reflect other stock market characteristics. Moreover, the effect is stronger among stocks that are heavily invested in by retail investors.

Abstract Relative performance evaluation (RPE) is widely used to filter out common shocks, but it is prone to collusion. We study the performance of RPE when agents are differentially productive (or evaluated in a biased manner). While such diversity is always costly in a static setting, it can be useful in repeated interactions, because it makes it harder for agents to collude. We identify conditions under which the principal prefers independent or joint performance evaluation if agents are identical but prefers RPE if they are diverse. In low-skill industries, the principal should offer asymmetric contracts even to homogeneous agents—a form of favoritism—as the cheapest way to combat collusion. Our results generate novel empirical predictions and contribute to the recent literature linking accounting and labor economics.

ABSTRACT This study examines the spillover effect of bank financial misconduct on the uninsured deposits of peer banks within local markets. We first validate that misconduct banks experience an increase in deposit spreads and a corresponding outflow of deposits following the misconduct. We then show local peer banks exhibit divergent deposit responses, contingent on how misconduct is perceived by information recipients in different economic contexts. During normal periods, depositors receiving a negative signal about bank misconduct reallocate their funds from misconduct banks to local peers, a local reallocation effect that decreases deposit spreads and increases deposit inflows for peer banks. Cross‐sectional analysis further reveals that this local reallocation effect is more pronounced for financially sophisticated depositors, amplified when peer banks have strong fundamentals, but attenuated when misconduct banks are financially sound. During financial crisis periods, however, bank misconduct leads to withdrawals from both misconduct banks and their peer banks, a local contagion effect whereby local peer banks face increased deposit spreads and deposit outflows following the misconduct.

ABSTRACT We study the effects of disclosure in a dynamic market with imperfect competition. The supply of an asset is determined by a large shareholder with price impact, who trades slowly to diversify away from concentrated ownership. Small investors provide capital and thus risk-bearing capacity to the market. Although it is well known that disclosure impedes risk sharing by shifting risk before future trading opportunities, we show that disclosure, at the same time, can enhance risk sharing by promoting more trades. Resolving this tradeoff, an interior level of disclosure quality maximizes the small investors’ surplus as well as the total surplus, but minimizes the large shareholder’s surplus. Further, efficient disclosure policies feature increasing quality over time. JEL Classifications: D80; E21; G12; L13; M41.

ABSTRACT We study a corporate board tasked with monitoring a firm's CEO and providing incrementally decision-relevant information. The board has both compensation and non-pecuniary incentives—we label the latter board bias. Friendly boards have muted information gathering incentives, but can more effectively engage in cheap talk communication with management. As a result, the direction of the optimal board bias is determined by the CEO's initial information advantage: the board should be weakly friendly if the CEO is endowed with precise information, and weakly antagonistic (to the CEO) otherwise. Aside from assembling a friendly board, another way for shareholders to foster CEO/board communication is by granting the CEO more equity. In general, we find board friendliness and CEO equity grants to be positively associated, in equilibrium. This provides an optimal contracting rationale for an empirical regularity often interpreted as friendly boards facilitating rent extraction.