Fueling the gender gap? Oil and women's labor and marriage market outcomes

This paper analyzes the effect of resource-based economic specialization on women's labor market outcomes. Using information on the location and discovery of major oil fields in the Southern United States coupled with a county-level panel derived from US Census data for 1900-1940, we specifically test the hypothesis that the presence of mineral resources can induce changes in the sectoral composition of the local economy that are detrimental to women's labor market outcomes. We find evidence that the discovery of oil at the county level may constitute a substantial male biased demand shock to local labor markets, as it is associated with a higher gender pay gap. However, we find no evidence that oil wealth lowers female labor force participation or has any impact on local marriage and fertility patterns. While our results are consistent with oil shocks limiting female labor market opportunities in some sectors (mainly manufacturing), this effect tends to be compensated by the higher availability of service sector jobs for women who are therefore not driven out of the labor market

Essays on Corporate Finance and Governance /

This dissertation consists of three chapters that lie at the intersection where corporate finance meets law and economics. The first chapter (co-authored with Frank Partnoy) is a study on the relationship between shareholder litigation risk and the tactics that firms use for disclosing negative news. The empirical approach uses a natural experiment that arose from a Supreme Court decision that changed the policies used by the lower courts in certain jurisdictions. The main findings are that firms that were differentially impacted by the policy change were more likely to change their disclosure tactics. This result shows that firms respond to the litigation-risk environment in choosing their disclosure strategies. Although the court's policy decision was meant to protect firms from frivolous litigation, our evidence indicates that many firms responded by releasing information in a less timely and less transparent manner. The second chapter, which uses a unique dataset of out-of- court restructurings of Japanese firms, examines CEO turnover during the distress-resolution process. Taking into account the selection process behind CEO turnover, the empirical evidence indicates that all else equal, replacing the CEO during a restructuring leads to worse operating performance. This result suggests that in Japan's thin market for experienced executives, firing the CEO can have negative consequences for the firm's future performance. However, there is evidence that equity funds- --which have become a more significant force in Japan in recent years---are better at recruiting skilled managers than other types of restructuring leaders. The third chapter presents an empirically-motivated theoretical model that explores bankruptcy law in the context of distress externalities. The model describes industries in which one firm's liquidation can have negative effects on other firms that use similar assets as collateral in their own financing. The main result of the model is that courts can produce efficiency gains by using debtor-friendly bankruptcy laws that may violate the usual priority of claims on a distressed fir

Data_Sheet_1_Bayesian network analysis of panomic biological big data identifies the importance of triglyceride-rich LDL in atherosclerosis development.docx

IntroductionWe sought to explore biomarkers of coronary atherosclerosis in an unbiased fashion.MethodsWe analyzed 665 patients (mean ± SD age, 56 ± 11 years; 47% male) from the GLOBAL clinical study (NCT01738828). Cases were defined by the presence of any discernable atherosclerotic plaque based on comprehensive cardiac computed tomography (CT). De novo Bayesian networks built out of 37,000 molecular measurements and 99 conventional biomarkers per patient examined the potential causality of specific biomarkers.ResultsMost highly ranked biomarkers by gradient boosting were interleukin-6, symmetric dimethylarginine, LDL-triglycerides [LDL-TG], apolipoprotein B48, palmitoleic acid, small dense LDL, alkaline phosphatase, and asymmetric dimethylarginine. In Bayesian analysis, LDL-TG was directly linked to atherosclerosis in over 95% of the ensembles. Genetic variants in the genomic region encoding hepatic lipase (LIPC) were associated with LIPC gene expression, LDL-TG levels and with atherosclerosis.DiscussionTriglyceride-rich LDL particles, which can now be routinely measured with a direct homogenous assay, may play an important role in atherosclerosis development.Clinical trial registrationGLOBAL clinical study (Genetic Loci and the Burden of Atherosclerotic Lesions); [https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01738828?term=NCT01738828&rank=1], identifier [NCT01738828].</p