Can freedom of speech make financial markets more efficient? The findings are compelling.

Congratulations to the winners of the WRDS Best Paper Award at the Eastern Finance Association Annual Conference.

When Speaking Freely Pays: Anti-SLAPP Laws and Firms' Cost of Equity
Scott Guernsey | Matthew Serfling | Cheng Yan

Their research uses the staggered adoption of anti-SLAPP laws — legal protections that shield critics and whistleblowers from retaliatory lawsuits — as a natural experiment to explore how freedom of expression shapes corporate financial outcomes.

Their findings: when people are free to speak critically about firms without fear of litigation, markets become more transparent, information flows more efficiently, and investors demand less of a risk premium to hold those firms' stock.

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