This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of reorganization provisions available to financially distressed firms in three major economies – the U.S. the U.K., and Japan. The paper addresses a central question of the relative effectiveness of the various bankruptcy laws in resolving...

The properties of earnings have changed dramatically over the past 40 years. Prior studies interpret this trend as a decline in earnings quality but disagree on whether it results from changes in the real economy or changes in accounting standards. I find that each new cohort of listed firms...

Prior research suggests that managers use income-increasing (decreasing) accruals to increase the value of their stock option exercises (grants). I extend this research by modeling firms' accrual choices when incentives from stock options conflict and are confounded by other stock option...

This paper examines whether stock option grants explain missed earnings targets, including reported losses, earnings declines and missed analysts' forecasts. Anecdotal evidence and surveys suggest that managers believe that missing an earnings target can cause stock-price drops (Graham, et al....

Revenue is one of the largest and most value-relevant items in firms' financial statements. Based on the ldquo;realizablerdquo; and the ldquo;earnedrdquo; criteria of SFAC No. 5 (FASB 1984), revenues should reflect both selling price and timing of delivery. Of those two aspects, selling-price...

The exercise price of stock options is typically the closing stock price on the option grant dates, so managers can potentially benefit from low stock prices on those dates. Prior studies find that on average, managers issue more pessimistic guidance before than after grant dates. They interpret...

Firms can increase their level of conservatism by recognizing adverse economic events more promptly or by delaying the recognition of positive economic events, that is, by increasing their loss or gains conservatism, respectively. We extend prior research by examining the independent...

We investigate incentives that led to the rash of restated financial statements at the end of the 1990s market bubble. We find the likelihood of a misstated financial statement increases greatly when the CEO has very sizable holdings of stock options quot;in-the-moneyquot; (i.e., stock price...