We provide evidence on how responsibility-shifting through delegation occurred in China's implementation of the one-child policy. We show that trust in local governments was reduced when they were the primary enforcer of the policy (1979-1990), while trust in neighbors was reduced when civilians...

Directors' and Officers' (D&O) legal liability insurance is a common component of CEO compensation packages. We expect managers are more willing to engage in opportunistic behaviors when their personal assets are protected from litigation risk. Therefore, information about D&O policy details is...

Directors' and officers' (D&O) legal liability insurance is commonly provided to corporate executives and directors. Prior literature suggests managers are more willing to engage in opportunistic behaviors when their personal assets are more protected from litigation risk. Therefore, information...

On November 15, 2007, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated the requirement that foreign private issuers reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) include a reconciliation to U.S. GAAP in their 20-F filing. To the extent that the reconciliations...

Recent research suggests that geographic distance is associated with information asymmetry and performance, but it is not clear why this is so. In this study, we examine the effects of geographic distance on monitoring quality in the context of the U.S. audit market. Auditors operate under...

We examine analysts' incentive to avoid negative earnings surprises by testing the effect of investment banking relationships on analysts' tendency to issue EPS forecasts that management ultimately can meet or beat. Using 19,014 sample firm-quarters for the 1991-2002 period, we find that firms...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) amended its rules on executive compensation disclosure in 2006 to provide more transparent disclosures to investors regarding stealth compensation items (e.g., executive perks and pensions). In order to shed additional light on the mixed results from...

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157 (FAS 157), Fair Value Measurements, prioritizes the source of information used in fair value measurements into three levels: (1) Level 1 (observable inputs from quoted prices in active markets), (2) Level 2 (indirectly observable inputs from...