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...

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...

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...

Motivated by the debate about globally uniform accounting standards, this paper investigates whether firms using US GAAP vis-a-vis IAS exhibit differences in several proxies for information asymmetry. The study exploits a unique setting where the two sets of standards are put on a level playing...

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...

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...

This study examines how disclosure quality is related to the long-run level of information asymmetry. We examine two potential mechanisms through which disclosure quality is expected to reduce the long-run level of information asymmetry: (1) disclosure quality will alter the trading incentives...

We hypothesize that conference calls are voluntary disclosures that lead to long-term reductions in information asymmetry among equity investors. Cross-sectional and time-series tests show that the level of information asymmetry is negatively associated with conference call activity. We find...

In this paper we model a corporate manager's choice of a disclosure regime. In a model in which disclosure has no efficiency gains like reduced cost of capital, no legal implications, and no signaling motivations, we show that a manager may choose to disclose payoff-relevant information as a...