A large body of literature demonstrates that acquisitions are on average value-destroying for the acquirer. We investigate whether the change in the acquirer's information uncertainty contributes to acquirer wealth losses. Information uncertainty affects the discount rate (the cost of capital),...

A large body of literature demonstrates that acquisitions are on average value-destroying for the acquirer. We investigate whether the change in the acquirer's information uncertainty contributes to acquirer wealth losses. Information uncertainty affects the discount rate (the cost of capital),...

We investigate the backdating of stock option exercises. Before SOX, we find evidence that some exercises were backdated to days with low stock prices. Consistent with a tax-based incentive, these suspect exercises are more likely when the personal tax savings from backdating are higher....

This paper examines the extent, if any, to which firms pay additional income taxes on allegedly fraudulent earnings. Our sample consists of firms that restated their financial statements in conjunction with SEC allegations of accounting fraud during the years 1996 to 2002. By examining firms...

Trust preferred stock, first issued in 1993, was engineered to be treated as preferred stock for financial statement purposes and as debt for tax purposes (i.e., payments on trust preferred stock are deductible by the issuer). Our analyses exploit the features of trust preferred stock to shed...

We compare executive equity incentives of firms accused of accounting fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during the period 1996-2003 to two samples of firms not accused of fraud. We measure equity incentives in a variety of ways and employ a battery of empirical tests. We find...

Recently, several studies have concluded that individual investor level dividend taxes on corporate retained earnings are impounded in common stock prices, independent of the timing of dividend payments. We show that the model underlying these studies is internally inconsistent. We also discuss...

Although tax arbitrage is central to the literatures on tax capitalization, implicit taxes, and even capital structure, there is little empirical evidence of the extent to which firms actually engage in tax arbitrage. This paper provides some evidence on the topic by focusing on a simple and...

Although tax arbitrage is central to the literatures on tax capitalization, implicit taxes, and even capital structure, there is little empirical evidence of the extent to which firms actually engage in tax arbitrage. This paper provides some evidence on the topic by focusing on a simple and...