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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 129 No. 1 2018

The effects of media slant on firm behavior

Vishal P. Baloria1; Jonas Heese2

1 Boston College · 2 Harvard University

open access

Abstract

The media can impose reputational costs on firms because of its important role as an information intermediary and its ability to negatively slant coverage. We exploit a quasi-natural experiment that holds constant the information event across firms but varies the availability of a major news outlet in local markets. We find that firms subject to the threat of slanted coverage suppress the release of negative information before the event and release it subsequently. Our results are consistent with theory on the active role firms can play in managing their reputational capital through anticipatory actions to avoid negative media coverage.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2018.04.004
Volume
129
Issue
1
Pages
184-202
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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