Experimenting with Career Concerns

Marina Halac; Ilan Kremer

doi:10.1257/mic.20170411

Experimenting with Career Concerns

American Economic Journal Microeconomics ◽

10.1257/mic.20170411 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 260-288 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Marina Halac ◽

Ilan Kremer

Keyword(s):

Imperfect Information ◽

Banking Industry ◽

Public Information ◽

Career Concerns ◽

Bad News ◽

Good News ◽

Project Quality ◽

Bad Loans ◽

Over Time

A manager who learns privately about a project over time may want to delay quitting it if recognizing failure/lack of success hurts his reputation. In the banking industry, managers may want to roll over bad loans. How do distortions depend on expected project quality? What are the effects of releasing public information about quality? A key feature of banks is that managers learn about project quality from bad news, i.e., a default. We show that in such an environment, distortions tend to increase with expected quality and imperfect information about quality. Results differ if managers instead learn from good news. (JEL D82, D83, G21)

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Restrictions on Managers' Outside Employment Opportunities and Asymmetric Disclosure of Bad versus Good News

The Accounting Review ◽

10.2308/accr-52314 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 94 (5) ◽

pp. 1-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Ashiq Ali ◽

Ningzhong Li ◽

Weining Zhang

Keyword(s):

Opposite Effect ◽

Career Concerns ◽

Bad News ◽

Good News ◽

Corporate Disclosure ◽

Employment Opportunities ◽

Disclosure Policy ◽

The U.S ◽

Jel Classifications

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of restrictions on managers' outside employment opportunities on voluntary corporate disclosure. The recognition of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD) by courts in the U.S. states in which the firms are headquartered places greater restrictions on their managers from joining or forming a rival company. We find that, on average, the IDD adoption increases the asymmetric withholding of bad news. We further show that the IDD adoption increases the asymmetric withholding of bad news relative to good news for firms whose managers are mainly concerned about losing their current job. However, an opposite effect is observed for firms whose managers are mainly interested in seeking promotion elsewhere. Furthermore, these effects are less pronounced for firms subject to greater monitoring of their disclosure policy. These results suggest that managers' career concerns affect corporate disclosure policy, and the effect varies with the type of career concerns. JEL Classifications: D82; M4.

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Good News and Bad News in Two Highly Industrialized Puget Sound, Washington (u.s.a.) Embayments

The Journal of Foraminiferal Research ◽

10.2113/gsjfr.47.4.372 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 372-388

Author(s):

Ruth A. Martin ◽

Elizabeth A. Nesbitt

Keyword(s):

Aromatic Hydrocarbons ◽

Environmental Remediation ◽

Puget Sound ◽

Washington State ◽

Bad News ◽

Good News ◽

Metal Pollutants ◽

Polycyclic Aromatic ◽

Washington State Department ◽

Over Time

Abstract In this study, an offshoot of studies undertaken by the Washington State Department of Ecology (WDOE), the density and diversity of foraminiferal assemblages in Commencement and Elliott bays, two heavily industrialized embayments in Puget Sound, Washington (U.S.A) were compared and correlated with concentrations of metal pollutants and total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Samples used in this study were collected by the WDOE between 1998 and 2014, allowing comparison over a temporal range encompassing the beginnings of environmental remediation in both bays. The composition of the foraminiferal assemblages is typical of polluted estuaries globally, with the major taxa being Elphidiella hannai, Cribroelphidium excavatum, Bucella frigida and Eggerella advena. Foraminiferal density and diversity showed negative correlations with pollutants, however, these correlations were significant for only a few pollutants, and trends could not be attributed to any single one. Both embayments showed increasing diversity over time, and both had high proportions of calcareous tests that displayed signs of dissolution, indicating corrosive conditions in the water. In Elliott Bay the percentage of partially dissolved tests increased over time, suggesting remediation efforts have not been successful in all areas.

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