A recently much debated issue is why observed investment and growth rates in poor countries are lower than traditional theory predicts. Empirical evidence suggests that social and political instability is a major reason for the divergence between poor and rich countries. However, there is still the unsolved puzzle that the relationship between development and investment rates is not monotonic b...

This thesis studies a range of topics in empirical corporate finance, and consists of three essays. The first essay is sole-authored and is titled ‘The Value of Social Networks during Periods of Distress.’ The second essay ‘The Role of Investment Banker Directors in M&A: Can Experts Help?’ is a joint work with Feng Jiang, Erik Lie, and Ke Yang. The third essay is titled ‘Acquisitions of Financi...

Sperm number and male accessory gland compounds are often important determinants of male mating success but have been little studied in social insects. This is because mating in social insects is often difficult to manipulate experimentally, and first evidence for an explicit influence of accessory gland secretions on male mating success in social insects was obtained only recently. Here we per...

in this commentary, we endorse concerns about the health impact of the trans-pacific partnership (tpp), paying particular attention to its mechanisms for investor state dispute settlement. we then describe the different, judgeled approach being advocated by the european commission team negotiating the trans-atlantic trade and investment partnership, arguing that, while not perfect, it offers si...

This study investigates whether personal taxes are related to asset valuations. The effective tax rate of investment income fluctuated considerably since federal income taxes were introduced. The main result of the paper demonstrates that there is an economically and statistically significant relationship between asset valuations and personal tax rates. Stock valuations tend to be higher when t...

Investing in radical innovation requires specific forms of investment, which have to deal with knightian uncertainty. This paper focuses on the links developed by venture capitalists between them, through co-investment operation, and studies their relationship through social network analysis. We analyze the influence of different proximities (essentially spatial, political and industrial) on th...

Online participation and content contribution are pillars of the Internet revolution and are core activities for younger generations online. This study investigated participation patterns, users' contributions and gratification mechanisms, as well as the gender differences of Israeli learners in the Scratch online community. The findings showed that: (1) Participation patterns reveal two distin...

We conduct a field experiment to explore the effect of social distance on the choice of economic opportunities in a virtual world community. We design trust games with partner selection, in which potential responders vary in social distance from the proposer, and the investment multiplier increases with social distance. The proposer can choose between the two trust games with the two different ...