Corporate governance and communication in financial markets

Takeover announcements - in particular the intangibles talk - can provide important information regarding the quality of deals.

Investors prefer clear talk by CEOs. Managerial tone predicts the future, and investors and analysts respond accordingly.

I am the chairman of the Value Reporting Rating for the Annual Reports of Swiss companies. Firms with better value reporting quality deliver better future operating performance and obtain greater economic value added.

Can a one-line “front-page test” reduce corporate misconduct (not just bad strategy)? We ran two large experiments  on average, these prompts didn’t change behavior. Worse — for some people they backfired, nudging more rule-bending. Companion study providing descriptive evidence here .

This theoretical paper shows under which conditions proxy advisors improve corporate decisions. Supplementary Appendix with additional results and proofs.