We study the effect of corporate taxes on mergers using tax stimulus acts that reduce corporate taxes for S corporations. S corporations generally face corporate tax on gains arising from the sale of the S corporation, or of its assets, if it was previously a C corporation. We fail to find...

Prior research suggests that characteristics of audit partners are important drivers of audit quality. However, evidence on whether partner industry expertise improves audit quality is mixed. Using a large dataset of audit partners in India, we employ new partner-level measures of industry...

Economic theory suggests that tax-favored strategies attract investment, and this increased investment demand offsets tax benefits through lower pre-tax returns (i.e., implicit taxes). We propose that aggressive strategies that generate uncertain tax benefits have lower demand due to both the...

We comment on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) proposal to mandate private fund adviser audits, which includes mandatory usage of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). In summary, existing empirical research finds little evidence that voluntary audit and GAAP...

Private equity (PE) funds are increasingly important to the economy and now dominate capital markets (e.g., capital formation). However, lack of understanding of PE funds among accounting academics currently prevents accounting research in this area. In this paper, we first describe the PE fund...

Private equity (PE) funds are growing to dominate capital markets. In conjunction with this growth, secondary markets for PE stakes have also grown. Innovative recent work investigates the valuation discount that sellers of PE stakes incur and attributes this discount entirely to the illiquidity...

We examine variation in the reporting quality of private equity funds, in particular buyout and venture capital funds, relative to external monitoring, third-party service providers, and fund attributes. In contrast to evidence from public markets, we find limited evidence that investors affect...

Beginning in 2012, private equity (PE) fund advisers must register with the SEC and disclose information regarding misconduct committed by the advisers or their affiliates. We find that the disclosure of misconduct reduces PE fund advisers’ ability to raise future funds. Among different types...