The push for increased transparency in financial reporting and corporate governance serves shareholders only up to a limit. The problem of assessing the value of transparency to shareholders is subtle because both the level and pattern of earnings can convey information. Even when earnings...

common explanation for why firms incur sunk costs is that technology considerations make them inescapable. This paper shows that sometimes firms may prefer to make early (less informed) investment decisions even when technology allows such decisions to be delayed. Sunk costs commit and clarify a...

Job rotation refers to the practice of routinely transferring employees between jobs. The explanations provided for job rotation are as varied as its uses.Some posit that complementarities and learning across tasks allow increased productive efficiency, while others speculate that employees'...

When the Revelation Principle (RP) holds, managing earnings confers no advantage over revelation. We construct an explanation for earnings management that is based on limitations on owners? ability to make commitments (a violation of the RP?s assumptions). Traditionally, earnings management is...

Though sunk costs impact future income calculations (via depreciation for example), accountants are reminded that their sunk nature makes them irrelevant for future decisions. An explanation for why firms routinely incur such costs is that technology considerations make them inescapable. This...

This paper considers the desirability of aggregate performance measures in light of the fact that many individuals' performance incentives are driven by a desire to shape external perceptions (and thus pay). In contrast to the case of explicit contracts, we find that when individuals' actions...