We present evidence consistent with managers using opportunistic Special Purpose Entities (SPE) and discretionary accruals as substitutes to manage reported earnings. Using a sample of industrial US listed firms for the period 2000-2004; we estimate a set of simultaneous equations that captures...

Recent corporate financial scandals show that managers, capital market intermediaries and financial statement users are unable to assess correctly the information disclosed by firms related to unconsolidated special purpose entities and securitisation transactions. In this paper, we present...

Recent corporate financial scandals show that managers, financial intermediaries and financial statement users are unable to assess correctly the information disclosed in firms' annual reports. In this paper, we present empirical evidence consistent with the use of securitisation gains by...