Female Executives and Corporate Cash Holdings

I find that firms led by female top executives hold more cash, partly due to precautionary motives. To overcome endogeneity concerns, I employ several econometric techniques, including an instrumental variable analysis based on a historical event that resulted in a plausibly exogenous variation in the female workforce participation. Overall, my results are consistent with the view that greater risk-aversion leads female executives to hold more cash

Peer Influence on payout policies

Using a large sample of US public companies, we find robust evidence that firms’ payout policies, i.e., dividends and share repurchases, are significantly influenced by the policies of their industry peers. To overcome endogeneity problems, we employ instrumental variable techniques based on peers’ stock price shocks. Peer influence on payouts is more pronounced among firms that face greater product market competition and operate in better information environments. With regards to dividends, firms, especially smaller and younger firms, are more sensitive to industry peers that are similar to them in size and age. However, mimicking repurchases is concentrated among large and mature firms only. Peer influence on dividends, compared to repurchases, seems more stable across firm and industry conditions. Overall, peer influence on dividends, and, to a less extent, on repurchases, is consistent with a rivalry-based theory of imitation, which posits that firms imitate peers’ actions to maintain their competitive parity

Do Women Managers Keep Firms out of Trouble? Evidence from Corporate Litigation and Policies

We find that firms where women have more power in the top management team, measured by female executives’ plurality and pay slice, face fewer operations-related lawsuits. This effect is robust to several treatments of endogeneity and does not appear to be driven by female executives\u27 greater willingness to settle the cases. Evidence from a simultaneous equations approach suggests that firms where women executives have more power avoid lawsuits partly by avoiding some risky but value-increasing firm policies, such as more aggressive R&D, intensive advertising, and policies inimical to other parties

Local Investors’ Preferences and Capital Structure

We provide evidence that publicly listed firms respond to capital supply conditions shaped by local investing preferences. The local supply of credit is higher and more stable in areas where demographics suggest that local investors prefer safer portfolios. We find that firms headquartered in these areas use more debt financing. The demographics-leverage relation is more pronounced for non-investment-grade and unrated firms that cannot easily tap public markets (about two-thirds of U.S. public companies). Analyses of firms’ financing activities around exogenous shocks to credit supplies – including interstate banking deregulation and the 2008-2009 financial crisis – support the capital supply effect. As demographics change slowly, local investors’ preferences may contribute to the heterogeneity and persistence of public firms’ capital structures

Shareholder litigation rights and stock price crash risk

We study the impact of shareholder-initiated litigation risk on a firm\u27s stock price crash risk. Our empirical analysis takes advantage of the staggered adoption of universal demand laws, which led to an exogenous decline in derivative litigation risk. We find that a decline in the threat of derivative litigation reduces crash risk and that information hoarding associated with earnings management is a channel through which litigation risk affects crash risk. The relationship is also moderated by how exposed firms are to the other primary form of shareholder litigation, namely securities class-action lawsuits

Unintended Consequences of the Dodd–Frank Act on Credit Rating Risk and Corporate Finance

Prior research finds that Dodd–Frank Act’s regulations on credit rating agencies (CRAs) increase rated firms’ risk of rating downgrades, regardless of their credit quality. Our difference-in-difference estimates suggest that after Dodd–Frank, low-rated firms, which face steep costs from a further downgrade, significantly reduce their debt issuance and investments compared to similar unrated firms. Our results are not driven by credit supply or the financial crisis. They reveal an unintended consequence of Dodd–Frank: Greater regulatory pressure on CRAs leads to negative spillover effects on firms concerned about credit ratings, regardless of their credit quality

COVID-19 and the cardiovascular system: a study of pathophysiology and interpopulation variability

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in humans can lead to various degrees of tissue and organ damage, of which cardiovascular system diseases are one of the main manifestations, such as myocarditis, myocardial infarction, and arrhythmia, which threaten the infected population worldwide. These diseases threaten the cardiovascular health of infected populations worldwide. Although the prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has slightly improved with virus mutation and population vaccination, chronic infection, post-infection sequelae, and post-infection severe disease patients still exist, and it is still relevant to study the mechanisms linking COVID-19 to cardiovascular disease (CVD). This article introduces the pathophysiological mechanism of COVID-19-mediated cardiovascular disease and analyzes the mechanism and recent progress of the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the cardiovascular system from the roles of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), cellular and molecular mechanisms, endothelial dysfunction, insulin resistance, iron homeostasis imbalance, and psychosocial factors, respectively. We also discussed the differences and mechanisms involved in cardiovascular system diseases combined with neocoronavirus infection in different populations and provided a theoretical basis for better disease prevention and management

Cohort profile: the British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort (BCC19C)—a dynamic, linked population-based cohort

PurposeThe British Columbia COVID-19 Cohort (BCC19C) was developed from an innovative, dynamic surveillance platform and is accessed/analyzed through a cloud-based environment. The platform integrates recently developed provincial COVID-19 datasets (refreshed daily) with existing administrative holdings and provincial registries (refreshed weekly/monthly). The platform/cohort were established to inform the COVID-19 response in near “real-time” and to answer more in-depth epidemiologic questions.ParticipantsThe surveillance platform facilitates the creation of large, up-to-date analytic cohorts of people accessing COVID-19 related services and their linked medical histories. The program of work focused on creating/analyzing these cohorts is referred to as the BCC19C. The administrative/registry datasets integrated within the platform are not specific to COVID-19 and allow for selection of “control” individuals who have not accessed COVID-19 services.Findings to dateThe platform has vastly broadened the range of COVID-19 analyses possible, and outputs from BCC19C analyses have been used to create dashboards, support routine reporting and contribute to the peer-reviewed literature. Published manuscripts (total of 15 as of July, 2023) have appeared in high-profile publications, generated significant media attention and informed policy and programming. In this paper, we conducted an analysis to identify sociodemographic and health characteristics associated with receiving SARS-CoV-2 laboratory testing, testing positive, and being fully vaccinated. Other published analyses have compared the relative clinical severity of different variants of concern; quantified the high “real-world” effectiveness of vaccines in addition to the higher risk of myocarditis among younger males following a 2nd dose of an mRNA vaccine; developed and validated an algorithm for identifying long-COVID patients in administrative data; identified a higher rate of diabetes and healthcare utilization among people with long-COVID; and measured the impact of the pandemic on mental health, among other analyses.Future plansWhile the global COVID-19 health emergency has ended, our program of work remains robust. We plan to integrate additional datasets into the surveillance platform to further improve and expand covariate measurement and scope of analyses. Our analyses continue to focus on retrospective studies of various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as prospective assessment of post-acute COVID-19 conditions and other impacts of the pandemic

Harnessing neighbourhood walkability’s health potential by providing a supportive pedestrian environment : a comparative analysis across demographic and psychosocial factors

Cities and municipalities have invested a significant amount of their time and budgets in creating walkable neighbourhoods to help their citizens be healthier. However, they have not been able to harness the health potential of neighbourhood walkability fully. This study examines whether neighbourhood walkability’s health potential can be harnessed by providing a supportive pedestrian environment. Specifically, it examines whether there is a synergistic effect of neighbourhood walkability and the pedestrian environment on physical activity in children, teens, and older adults. A synergistic effect, or “synergism,” occurs when two or more processes (or factors) interact so that their collective effect is greater than the sum of their separate effects (Myers, 1989, p. 506). This can also be called a “multiplicative effect.” Cities and municipalities are often constrained by budgetary restrictions and need to make decisions that give the highest return. Understanding the synergy between neighbourhood walkability and the pedestrian environment is essential for planners and policymakers to make investment decisions cost-effective and maximize walkable neighbourhoods' health potential. The synergy between neighbourhood walkability and the pedestrian environment is assessed using a series of interaction models. Interaction models help researchers understand the multiplicative effect of two or more factors on an outcome. This study shows various patterns of interactions between neighbourhood walkability and the pedestrian environment across demographic and psychosocial factors. Planners and policymakers have started to recognize the effects of their decisions on active transport, physical activity, and related health outcomes. However, the century-long land-use and transportation planning approach has created an urban form that requires significant effort to become favourable for walking and physical activity. Making small-scale changes to the pedestrian environment can be an effective approach to fine-tune some of the existing infrastructure created to make neighbourhoods walkable. The evidence provided in this study, though not fully generalizable, is useful for city planning authorities to formulate plans and policies to design better pedestrian environments that can help retrofit the existing urban infrastructure and harness the health potential of neighbourhood walkability.Applied Science, Faculty ofCommunity and Regional Planning (SCARP), School ofGraduat