Information asymmetry in financial markets relates to the idea that one party to a transaction has better information than the other. Since financial reporting involves the transmission of value relevant enterprise information, we investigate whether the quality of reported earnings can...

The short interest data reported in the United States aggregate valuation shorts (motivated by a pessimistic opinion on firm value) and arbitrage shorts (motivated by various arbitrage or hedging strategies). However, the information content of these two sources of short interest is different...

We study the behavior of short sellers around earnings restatements. We find that short sellers accumulate positions in restating firms several months in advance of the restatement and subsequently unwind these positions after the drop in share price induced by the restatement. The increase in...

Prompted by concerns that high frequency traders (HFTs) reap unfair advantages over other traders by using faster trading technologies, regulators are contemplating measures to slow down equity markets. Currently, HFTs account for a significant fraction of the total market volume. Although...

This study presents empirical evidence on the pattern of returns and investor trades around and shortly after Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition filings. Consistent with prior research, we find that share prices plunge before and at the bankruptcy filing date. Beginning in the 1990's, however, firms...

Prior research finds an association between short selling volume and aggressive non-GAAPearnings disclosures but does not explore whether increased short selling pressure actuallyconstrains aggressive non-GAAP reporting. Attribution of causality is problematic in this setting,due to multiple...

In recent years, many companies have emphasized adjusted-GAAP earnings numbers in their quarterly press releases. While managers use different names to describe these non-standard earnings metrics, the financial press frequently refers to them as "pro forma" earnings. Managers and other...

Insights on how ordinary, less-sophisticated investors interpret and process management-issued pro forma earnings numbers are useful to regulators because of concerns that pro forma disclosures are misleading to ordinary investors. Two recent experimental studies (Frederickson and Miller, 2004...

This study provides descriptive evidence on the controversial trend adopted by many firms in recent years of reporting earnings figures on a "pro forma" basis. Pro forma earnings exclude normal income statement items that managers deem to be nonrecurring or nonrepresentative of ongoing...

This study investigates whether market participants perceive pro forma earnings to be more informative and more persistent than GAAP operating income by analyzing a sample of 1,149 actual pro forma press releases. We find that pro forma announcers report frequent GAAP losses and are mostly...