A growing literature examines how a firm's behavior impacts the behavior of its peers. In this paper, we examine how changes in tax paying, and the associated financial reporting, impact a firm's peers. Changes to tax paying and reporting behavior at other firms within a peer group can be...

We examine the effect of auditor conservatism on corporate innovation. We hypothesize that because conservative auditors constrain income-increasing accounting discretion, managers may sacrifice long-term investments in innovation to boost current earnings and meet short-term performance...

Prior analyst literature focuses on the impact of financial analysts on the firms they cover, and prior information-transfer literature concentrates on the externalities of information provided by management. This paper fills gaps in both streams of literature by examining the focal firm's...

Companies' earnings conference calls are perceived to be venues for sell-side equity analysts to ask management questions. In this study, we examine another important conference call participant — the buy-side analyst — that has been underexplored in the literature due to data limitations....

Activist short-sellers could play an information role in capital markets by disclosing informative short-theses, or, as many are concerned, a manipulation role by spreading misinformation. To shed light on this controversy, this paper focuses on a powerful setting where both roles are heightened...

We examine the impact of China's anti-corruption campaign on firm-level financial reporting quality (FRQ). As an important component of the anti-corruption campaign, in October 2013, “Rule 18” was issued to prohibit party and government officials from serving as directors for publicly listed...

We study the ex ante stock market reactions to events leading up to China's convergence to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The literature consistently shows that the benefits of mandatory IFRS convergence are concentrated in countries with stronger legal enforcement and...

This paper examines the impact of borrowers' managerial ability on lenders' bank-loan pricing and the channels through which managerial ability affects bank-loan pricing. Using a large sample of U.S. bank loans, we provide evidence that higher managerial ability is associated with lower...

Companies' earnings conference calls are perceived to be venues for sell-side equity analysts to ask management questions. In this study, we examine another important conference call participant — the buy-side analyst — that has been underexplored in the literature due to data limitations....

We investigate how the availability of traded credit default swaps (CDSs) affects the referenced firms' voluntary disclosure choices. CDSs enable lenders to hedge their credit risk exposure, weakening their incentives to monitor borrowers. We predict that reduced lender monitoring in turn leads...