This paper investigates whether sell-side equity analysts fully incorporate the future earnings implications of really dirty surplus (RDS) into their earnings forecasts. RDS refers to gains or losses from contingent equity transactions settled at prices other than the fair value. We find that...

Corporate hiring of former audit personnel to fill key financial positions is a practice that has attracted attention from the media, the accounting profession, and regulators. The concern is that the former external auditor who now holds a key position with the client may be able to circumvent...

In 1998, SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt voiced his concerns about earnings management, including understatements of earnings. SEC Chief Accountant Lynn Turner communicated his opposition to "excessive" write-offs of In-Process Research and Development costs (IPRD) in September 1998. We document how...

In-process research and development is the value allocated to incomplete research and development projects in acquisitions treated as purchases, and charged to expense by the acquirer at the acquisition date. Researchers have documented the benefits to acquiring companies from large IPRD...

The Post-Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) anomaly refers to the tendency of stock prices to continue drifting in the same direction as earnings surprises well through the subsequent earnings announcements; ignoring the autocorrelations in extreme earnings surprises across adjacent quarters....

Accounting measures such as levels and changes in residual earnings are widely used for performance evaluation and executive compensation (Healy, JAE (1985)). Quite often, these compensation contracts are of the linear form. Residual earnings are also important for valuation (Ohlson, CAR (1995),...

This paper investigates whether and how the initiation of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) trading affects analyst optimism. First, we document that analyst forecasts become less optimistic after the initiation of CDS trading. Second, we find that the dampening effect of CDS on analyst optimism is...

Information on Order Backlogs (OB) have long been sought after by analysts and practitioners as indicators of future sales, and in turn, of future earnings and stock returns. OB disclosures, though mandatory for annual reports, are voluntary for quarterly reports, and sometimes presented in...

This study explores whether the Management Discussion and Analysis (MDamp;A) section of Form 10-Q and 10-K has incremental information content beyond financial measures such as earnings surprises, accruals and operating cash flows (OCF). It uses a well-established classification scheme of words...

The issue of valuing tax loss-carryforwards (TCLFs) and carrybacks (TLCBs) arises frequently in theory and practice. While there have been a number of empirical papers that have shown TLCFs (TLCBs) are value relevant, there is little guidance on how to actually value these. The few analytical...