A regulatory approved Deed of cross guarantee (the Deed), introduced into Australia in December 1991, exempts nominated companies (the closed group) from having to prepare, have audited, and file financial statements. We examine the characteristics of firms that obtain relief from filing (and...

This paper is an investigation of the relationship between earnings opacity in 32 countries and elements of the political order. What the picture shows is a clear manifestation of earnings opacity internationally. What is interesting with this picture is the findings that earnings opacity is...

Globally, companies increasingly publish separate general purpose, non-financial (sustainability) reports. Some of these are independently assured and assurers may or may not be from the auditing profession. We seek to understand this emerging voluntary assurance market. Using a sample of 2,113...

Governments, organizations and individuals around the world are paying increasing attention to climate change and carbon emissions. This paper argues that a new international assurance standard on carbon emissions disclosures is an appropriate response by the auditing and assurance profession to...

Accounting quality in Brazil is higher for companies with a Big N auditor if quality is identified by compliance with disclosure rules or by timeliness of loss recognition. This is in agreement with Holthausen's hypothesis that auditor choice allows companies to opt-out of an environment where...

We investigate the impact of audit quality on the quality of government in a large cross-section of countries. We assess government performance using measures of six dimensions of governance, namely, voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality,...

The introduction of IFRS in Europe was intended to improve accounting quality and facilitate cross-border financial transactions. This study examines whether IFRS increases value-relevance of corporate disclosure using traders' response in financial markets of 15 EU countries. If the regulatory...

We examine the relation between lockup length and voluntary earnings forecast disclosures for IPOs in Singapore. Unlike firms in the United States, companies in Singapore are allowed to provide earnings forecasts in their IPO prospectuses. We find that forecasters are more likely to accept...

This paper examines the relationship between governance variables and voluntary intellectual capital disclosure in a sample of European biotechnology firms. We extend previous research by simultaneously considering governance mechanisms such as the proportion of independent directors, board...

This paper develops a model of the causes and consequences of misreporting of corporate performance. Misreporting in our model covers all actions, whether legal or illegal, that enable managers of firms with low value to make statements that mimic those made by firms with high value. We show...