There is growing public concern over the rapid growth in CEO pay relative to average worker pay (CEO pay ratio). Critics contend that high CEO pay ratios could destroy firm value by damaging employee morale and/or signal CEO rent extraction. In this paper, we use a proprietary dataset to examine...

We investigate the impact of founding family ownership on accounting conservatism. Family ownership is characterized by large, under-diversified equity stake and long investment horizon. These features give family owners both the incentives and the ability to implement conservative financial...

We examine the effect of the common ownership relation between brokerage houses and the firms covered by their analysts (referred to as co-owned brokerage houses, co-owned firms, and connected analysts, respectively) on analyst forecast performance. Common ownership can help the connected...

The Canadian income trust organizational structure allows operating entities to pass on free-cash flows to unit-holders in a tax-efficient manner. This paper examines the market valuation of pro forma disclosures of free cash flows, known as distributable cash, disclosed by these income trusts...

CEO contractual protection, in forms of CEO employment agreements and CEO severance pay agreements, is prevalent among S&P 1500 firms. While prior research has examined the impact of these agreements on corporate decisions from shareholders’ perspective, there is little research on the impact...

We examine whether internal governance affects the extent of real earnings management in U.S. corporations. Internal governance refers to the process through which key subordinate executives provide checks and balances in the organization and affect corporate decisions. Using the number of years...

Using the adoption of SFAS 142 as an exogenous shock, we examine the effect of changes in financial reporting on firms' internal information environment. SFAS 142 removed goodwill amortization and required firms to perform a two-step impairment test. We argue that complying with SFAS 142 induces...

Prior research finds that the decline in the information content of earnings after restatement announcements is short-lived and the earnings response coefficient (ERC) bounces back after three quarters. We re-examine this issue using a more recent and comprehensive sample of restatements. We...

Prior research finds that the decline in the information content of earnings after restatement announcements is short-lived and that the earnings response coefficient (ERC), the proxy for the information content of earnings, bounces back after three quarters. We re-examine the persistence of the...

Using data from China, we examine whether and how the incentive to boost GDP growth at the government level affects earnings management at the firm level. We find that firms in provinces with GDP growth lower than the national level or the average of the adjacent provinces are more likely to...