The sensitivity of the rank of the change in bonus compensation to firm performance is compared between CEOs and non-CEOs. Executives are classified into four groups: 1) CEOs, 2) high ranking executives, 3) business unit managers, and 4) low ranking executives. There are no differences in bonus...

We examine the influence of social responsibility ratings on market returns to Arthur Andersen (AA) clients following the Enron audit failure. Chaney and Philipich (2002) found that AA's loss of reputation resulted in negative market returns to AA clients following the Enron audit failure....

As of February 28, 2006, 958 publicly held companies accelerated the vesting of some or all of their employee stock options in advance of adopting SFAS 123 (R). In doing so, these companies, on average, avoided $11.3 (8.4) million in pretax (after tax) expense, which represented 42 percent of...

This paper examines the differential effects of institutional non-blockholders (NONB) and active institutional blockholders (ACTB) on earnings management behavior, as measured by discretional accruals. We propose that NONB stimulates and ACTB mitigates earnings management. We believe that...

We investigate involuntary chief financial officer (CFO) turnover following earnings restatements, the labor market penalties imposed on former restatement-firm CFOs, and whether these disciplinary consequences have increased following the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Our...

As of February 28, 2006, 958 publicly held companies accelerated the vesting of some or all of their employee stock options in advance of adopting SFAS 123 (R). We examine both the market reaction to these accelerations, as well as the determinants of the decision. Investors, in general, react...

This paper tests the ability of 129 accounting students to look up data, perceive and compare data patterns, and detect anomalies when the amount of information in traditional single page three-year comparative income statements is expanded 25-fold by adding semimonthly data to the page in...

This study surveys 200 nonprofit executives to investigate the pressure they experience to manage so-called efficiency ratios. Specifically, we investigate whether managers' perceptions of such pressure depends on the type of contributors and on manager characteristics. We measure pressure in...

For stakeholders, such as investors and lenders, to appropriately assess a company's financial performance, the reported accounting earnings must closely reflect the economic reality of the organization's financial activity throughout the reporting period. The degree to which reported earnings...

We investigate whether credit rating agencies (CRAs) and investors price the extent to which municipal bond ratings are explainable using public information. We use an ordinal logistic regression to estimate the expected and unexpected portions of bond ratings, and find that both CRA fees and...