Earnings management has attracted much attention in this globalized economic environment due to large accounting scandals such as Enron and WorldCom. National governments and other market-regulation institutions are taking measures to restrain earnings management in order to ensure the...

This study examines how financial statement management via pension plan assumption choices, a simple mechanism through which management can manipulate financial reports, is related to corporate governance effectiveness. Based on our sample of Taiwanese listed companies, which are characterized...

This paper investigates whether the recent clustering of defined benefit (DB) pension plan freeze announcements is motivated at least in part by accounting concerns due to the Financial Accounting Standards Board's (FASB) pending adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 158...

Prior research finds that mandatory risk factor disclosures are informative in that they increase investors' assessments of the volatility of a firm's cash flows. However, the literature is silent as to whether these disclosures provide information about the level of future cash flows and,...

This paper documents that the earned income of taxpayers claiming the earned income tax credit (EITC) tends to cluster within $800 intervals surrounding the kink points of the EITC benefit distribution. This clustering is especially strong for head of household taxpayers around the kink point of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine, in the context of movement towards a fair-value based pension accounting standard, the value relevance of both recognized and disclosed pension accounting information.Design/Methodology/Approach – Using hand-collected data from Fortune 200...

This study investigates the association between pension accounting information and both firm value and credit ratings. My findings indicate that fair-value-based pension accounting information is not more evaluation relevant (often termed value relevant in prior literature relating specifically...

This study focuses on three broad Finance organization roles: reporting, compliance, and internal control/risk management (RCCR); performance management; and strategic partner. Using data from a global survey of 832 firms, we examine the determinants of the various roles' importance and their...

Supporting stakeholder theory we demonstrate that a firm's major customers and suppliers influence its corporate governance. We document a negative contemporaneous association between corporate governance G-index and the presence of major customers and suppliers. Consistent with the causal link...

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) provides a natural experiment for examining how stock ownership and executive pay structure adapt to a change in regulatory environment. Using annual compensation data of Samp;P 1500 firms in 1994-2005, we examine the impact of SOX on stock ownership and...