We examine in this study the relevance to investors of information on the capitalization of software development costs, as promulgated in 1985 by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in its Statement No. 86 (SFAS 86). We find that software capitalization is value-relevant to investors: The...

Although researchers have documented gains from insider trading, the sources of private information leading to information asymmetry and insider gains have not been comprehensively investigated. We focus on research and development (R&D)-an increasingly important yet poorly disclosed productive...

We document that stocks with the strongest prior 12-month returns experience a significant average market-adjusted return of 1.58 percent during the five trading days before their earnings announcements and a significant average market-adjusted return of 1.86 percent in the five trading days...

Previous research argues that earnings quality, measured as the unsigned abnormal accruals, proxies for information asymmetries that affect cost of capital. We examine this argument directly in two stages. In the first stage, we estimate the firm's exposure to an earnings quality factor in the...

This study investigates factors associated with firms' decisions in 2002 and early 2003 to recognize stock-based compensation expense under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 123. We find that the likelihood of SFAS 123 expense recognition is significantly related to the...

We investigate firms' financial reporting policies with respect to business combinations, particularly the choice between the purchase and pooling-of-interests methods. To control for potentially confounding effects related to the method of acquisition financing, we focus on a sample of...

We investigate whether CEOs manage the timing of their voluntary disclosures around scheduled stock option awards. Because stock options generally are awarded with a fixed exercise price equal to the stock price on the award date, we conjecture that CEOs manage investors' expectations around...

In this paper we investigate the existence and magnitudes of implicit taxes on equity. Specifically, using futures market data to control for risk, we test whether the pre-tax returns on bonds are higher than the pre-tax returns on four stock indices during the period 1993-1999. We compare the...

We investigate firms' financial reporting policies with respect to business combinations, particularly the choice between the purchase and pooling-of-interests methods. To control for potentially confounding effects related to the method of acquisition financing, we focus on a sample of...