We examine the post-acquisition operating performance of merged firms using a sample of the 50 largest mergers between U.S. public industrial firms completed in the period 1979 to 1983. The results indicate that merged firms have significant improvement in asset productivity relative to their...

The roots of recent American stock market and corporate governance failures are traced to regulatory changes that were intended to reduce the cost of financial information and increase market liquidity. In a textbook instance of the law of unintended consequences, policymakers' attempts to...

Financial reporting and disclosure are potentially important means for management to communicate firm performance and governance to outside investors. We provide a framework for analyzing managers' reporting and disclosure decisions in a capital markets setting, and identify key research...

This paper examines the causes and consequences of expanded disclosure for 90 firms with increased analyst disclosure ratings. Our evidence suggests that managers expand disclosure when they believe their firms are undervalued. Undervaluation is costly for the sample firms because it reduces...

We examine investor communication issues faced by public corporations using the experience of CUC International. CUC had difficulty convincing investors that its new product marketing outlays were profitable investments, leading to stock mis-valution over an extended period. To resolve this...

We will assess how governance and incentive problems contributed to Enron's rise and fall. A well-functioning capital market creates appropriate linkages of information, incentives, and governance between managers and investors. This process is supposed to be carried out through a network of...

The financial reporting and disclosure problems at Enron, as well as the high market valuations for its stock raise troubling questions about the performance of capital market intermediaries, regulators and governance experts whose are supposed to ensure the effective functioning of the stock...

Corporate disclosure is critical for the functioning of an efficient capital market. Firms provide disclosure through regulated financial reports, including the financial statements, footnotes, management discussion and analysis, and other regulatory filings. In addition, some firms engage in...

This paper investigates whether a spin-off, equity carve-out, or targeted stock offering results in making the operating performance of a firm's business segments more transparent. Using a sample of 146 spin-offs, equity carve-outs, and targeted stock offerings between 1990-1995, we document...

This case examines the challenges in implementing fair value accounting for mortgage instruments, the role of accounting in the sub-prime crisis, and proposals for revising accounting standards given the crisis