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This study examines whether individualistic national culture is associated with stock price crash risk ('crash risk') for a sample of firms from 36 countries over the period of 1990-2015. We find robust evidence that firms in more individualistic cultural settings exhibit higher future crash risk. Digging deeper, we find that earnings management, excessive managerial risk-taking, and investors' difference of opinion and overconfidence are all possible explanations for the positive effect of individualism on crash risk.Overall, our findings suggest that individualism, as a key cultural dimension, has an important impact on investor welfare, manifested through crash risk. K E Y W O R D S earnings management, excessive managerial risk-taking, individualism, national culture, stock price crash risk J E L C L A S S I F I C A T I O N G12, G15

We examine the impact of the media on firms' leverage adjustments. Using a comprehensive sample of global news across 33 countries, we find that greater news coverage and more positive news sentiment are associated with greater leverage adjustment speeds. This finding is consistent with the argument that media coverage and content help lower the cost of firms' adjustment toward target leverage. We further find evidence supporting two mechanisms through which the news media affects leverage adjustments: information dissemination and monitoring. Overall, our results are consistent with the dynamic trade-off theory of capital structure.

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