Online Research Seminar: Prof Swarnodeep Homroy

We are pleased to host Prof. Swarnodeep Homroy from the University of Groningen for an online research seminar at Trinity Business School on Thursday, 2 April 2026.

The seminar will be held via Zoom between 1 – 2 pm.

Please REGISTER HERE.

Seminar Title: Legal Protection of Civic Liberties and Corporate Innovation

Abstract: This paper shows that stronger protections for free speech causally increase firm-level innovation. I exploit the staggered adoption of state anti–strategic lawsuit against public participation (anti-SLAPP) statutes in the United States as plausibly exogenous shocks to free-speech protection. Firms headquartered in adopting states experience a statistically and economically significant increase in patent applications and new product announcements, relative to firms in non-adopting states. The effects are stronger for firms with higher asset intangibility and environmental risk. Market values of these firms increase even though the average market value of affected companies falls. The increase in innovation leads to a decline in industry dispersion in innovation efficiency. These results provide microfoundations for the effect of free speech on innovation.

Bio: Swarnodeep Homroy is a Professor of Finance at Southampton Business School and University of Groningen (NL). His research interests focus on Corporate Finance - strategy, disclosures, and compliance - and their interaction with political economy, labor markets, and climate systems. His work has attracted third-party funding and has been published in journals including Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Research Policy, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Review of Corporate Finance Studies. He is an editor for Corporate Governance: An International Review and serves on the board of directors for nonprofit organizations.