(cont.) around thresholds do convey information about a firm's future performance, firms with a higher degree of information asymmetry between the management and investors are more likely to use this signaling mechanism, and the capital market recognizes the information content of the earnings...

This paper explores how accruals capture managerial operating decisions that evolve over a firm's life cycle. I argue that growing firms face different operating environments and have fundamentally different accruals properties than those of mature and declining firms. I provide evidence that...

Aircraft leasing represents a significant portion of the financial statements of airline firms. Accounting treatment of lease transactions is becoming more complicated as firms attempt to achieve off-balance-sheet outcomes vis a vis special purpose entities(SPC). Cross-border leasing involving...

PIPEs (Private Investments in Public Equity) are unique in that they are negotiated privately between sophisticated investors and the public firm. As a result, the issue price deviates from the firm's stock price, often resulting in a substantial PIPE discount. However, only a limited set of...

This paper examines the properties of accounting numbers using a real investment framework that predicts asymmetric timeliness of both investment and its outcomes (i.e. sales, earnings and operating cash flows) even in the absence of conservative accounting. In particular, I predict and find...

(cont.) In total, my thesis suggests that recent changes in the book-tax income gap may be exogenous and transitory, due to changes to the calculation of book income, general business conditions or other factors which generate temporary differences, rather than due to the deceptive and permanent...

I investigate the relation between corporate governance and insider trading by corporate executives. Despite the general view that trade on non-public information adversely affects capital market participants, the impact of corporate governance on such trading remains relatively unexplored in...

In this paper, I examine the ex post and ex ante benefits of conservatism to lenders and borrowers in the debt contracting process. First, I argue that conservatism benefits lenders ex post through a timely signal of default risk in the form of accelerated covenant violations by more...

Firm boundaries have been the subject of much scholarly interest in recent years, as firms increasingly hire external, "contingent" workers and outsource previously core activities. However, little empirical research has directly studied what happens differently inside the firm's boundaries,...

This thesis consists of three chapters, each with implications on information and trading patterns in financial markets. Chapter 1: In most financial markets, dealers are given trading advantages meant to encourage liquidity provision. However, it is unclear if these advantages truly induce such...