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Working Papers

The Downstream Channel of Financial Constraints and the Amplification of Aggregate Downturns (with G. Cortes)
Runner-Up, Best Paper in Banking/Corporate Finance, FMCG 2023

Semi-Finalist, Best Paper in Corporate Finance, FMA 2021
Presentations (*scheduled):  FMCG 2023Eastern Finance Association 2022, AFA 2022 (Poster Session), Australasian Finance & Banking Conference 2021, FMA 2021, Vietnam Symposium in Banking and Finance 2021, Latin American Meeting of the Econometric Society  2021, Monash University, UIUC.

We identify a novel channel through which financial constraints propagate in the production chain. Exploiting recent developments on production network data of US-listed firms, we show that firms experience greater valuation losses during industry downturns when their suppliers are financially constrained. Importantly, our empirical approach allows us to disentangle and quantify the contribution of both horizontal and vertical relations on firms' exposure to  aggregate shocks. Our baseline downstream amplification effect corresponds to roughly 60% of the horizontal amplification  documented in the literature. We find stronger impacts of downturns when: (i) suppliers are more constrained; (ii) firms depend more on specific inputs; and (iii) suppliers are more concentrated. The effects are attenuated or muted at high levels of downstream firms' accounts payable and upstream firms' accounts receivable, suggesting trade credit as a mechanism through which the downstream channel operates. Our findings uncover two network implications of financing constraints: a more severe contagion of negative shocks through supplier-customer links and an amplification of downstream industries' aggregate valuation losses. Our results lend support to policies that facilitate trade credit in upstream segments during crises.

Predatory Stock Price Manipulation (with R. Matta and P. Vaz)
Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Corporate Finance

Presentations (**By coauthor, *scheduled): FMA Asia/Pacific 2022, Vietnam Symposium in Banking and Finance 2022, Latin American Meeting of the Econometric Society 2019, Brazilian Meeting of the Econometric Society 2019**, UFPE**, UIUC.

We develop a model where feedback effects from equity markets to firms' access to  finance allow uninformed traders to profit by short selling a firm's stock while going long on its product market competitor. Because this strategy distorts the investment incentives of the firm targeted by short selling to the benefit of its rival, we label it predatory stock price manipulation. While predatory manipulation undermines the stock market's capacity of improving allocation, efficiency losses are attenuated by gains from predation. Our analysis unveils firms' competitive interactions as a channel through which speculators can increase manipulation profits and effectiveness while hedging against product market shocks, providing new insights into equity markets and short sales regulation.

Trade Networks and Diffusion of Regulatory Standards (with P. Thakur)
Presentations (** By coauthor): MEA 2021, North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association 2020, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association 2019**, UIUC.

We study network effects in the diffusion of regulatory standards through international trade. Employing spatial econometric techniques to trade networks, we show that countries are more likely to domestically adopt regulations that they comply with while exporting. We find evidence of such diffusion primarily in regulations concerning attributes of the final product rather than production processes. Consistent with a network effect, we show that countries more open to international trade are the drivers of regulatory diffusion.  In an analysis of diffusion in individual features within labelling regulations—the most prevalent regulations in our data—we find that labelling requirements ensuring the safety of use propagate the most, and countries tend to domestically adopt features similar to those imposed by their importing partners. Overall, our results support the argument that economic integration can facilitate the strengthening of regulatory standards.

Short Selling and Product Market Competition (with R. Matta and P. Vaz)
Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Banking and Finance
Presentations (** By coauthor):  IFMB 2023, Latin American Meeting of the Econometric Society 2019, Brazilian Meeting of the 
Econometric Society
 2019**, UFPE** , UIUC.

We empirically investigate how short selling affects firms' product market performance via a managerial monitoring channel. Using both historical data and the Reg SHO, we find that higher short interest leads to lower market shares, especially in large firms. Our Reg SHO results are also stronger in concentrated industries and industries where firms compete in strategic substitutes. Further tests show that these effects are driven by low stock price informativeness. The evidence suggests that the interaction between market power and price opacity generates incentives for overproduction, which is attenuated by short selling threats. Our results lend support to policies that facilitate price discovery in the presence of market power. 

Work in Progress

Product Market Decisions under Financial Distress (with D. Bernhardt and G. Cortes)

We will study the impact of retailers' entry and exit decisions on local markets. We explore synergies between stores at nearby localities to gauge economies of agglomeration and estimate the local propagation of shocks related to entry/exit decisions of retailers. We will investigate whether financially sound firms are better able to exploit investment opportunities during local market shocks. We combine data from multiple sources to build a comprehensive sample of U.S retailers. We use these data to compute local stores connectedness in a novel way to capture how financial fragility shapes the  responses of stores to local shocks.  We believe this project will broaden our understanding of the financial aspects of the "retail apocalypse" phenomenon.

Matching Regulations Within and Across Commodities: Evidence from Technical Barriers to Trade (with P. Thakur)
 

International trade can foster policy coordination among countries by facilitating regulatory diffusion from regulation-imposing importers to their exporting partners. Moreover, the ease of adoption of a regulation depends on the value added from adoption, which can vary by type of commodity, and the proximity of the commodity to another for which the regulation has already been implemented. In this project, we expand our analysis in Rocha and Thakur (2021) to assess indirect propagation across commodities and product characteristics driving regulatory diffusion. We use an extensive dataset of multiple regulations imposed on imported goods by countries over the years for several traded commodities. Expanding usual spatial econometric techniques to panels of high dimensionality, we intend to quantify and contrast the direct within-commodity and indirect cross-commodity channels of diffusion. By combining our data with information on product complexity, hazardousness, and end-use, we will be able to determine product characteristics that are more strongly associated with diffusion due to pressure from importers.

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