This study examines whether application of IFRS by non-US firms results in accounting amounts comparable to those resulting from application of US GAAP by US firms. IFRS firms have greater accounting system and value relevance comparability with US firms when IFRS firms apply IFRS than when they...

We examine changes in cross-country financial statement comparability around mandatory IFRS adoption and the effects of these changes on firms' information environments, as captured by analyst properties and bid-ask spreads. First, we show that cross-country earnings comovement is negatively...

We compare US firms' earnings with reconciled earnings for cross listed non-US firms. Non-US firms' earnings exhibit more evidence of smoothing, greater tendency to manage towards a target, lower association with share price and less timely recognition of losses. Firms from countries with weaker...

Employee stock options have become a large component of compensation for many companies, especially those in which human capital forms a large portion of company assets. In this monograph, I address how to value the equity of companies that grant employee options. I discuss prior research on...

Recent accounting scandals have led some to argue that US reporting is fundamentally flawed and that other systems might be preferable. However, the arguments are often based on anecdotes and conjecture. In this paper, my goal is to bring insights from empirical research to bear on the issue of...

This paper uses a sample of over 2,500 firms from 27 countries to investigate the relation between ownership structure, analyst following, investor protection and valuation. We find that analysts are less likely to follow firms with potential incentives to withhold or manipulate information,...

We examine whether cross-country differences in earnings-to-price multiples have changed between 1987-1992 versus 1994-1999. Our results suggest that earnings multiples became more similar over this time period for the jurisdictions we analyze, although systematic differences remain. Economic...

This paper investigates the relation between cross listing in the U.S. and the information environment of non-U.S. firms. We find that firms that cross list on U.S. exchanges have greater analyst coverage and increased forecast accuracy relative to firms that are not cross listed. A time-series...

We examine corporate disclosure activity around seasoned equity offerings and its relation to stock prices. Beginning six months before the offering, our sample issuing firms dramatically increase their disclosure activity, particularly for the categories of disclosure over which firms have the...