We consider stock markets in 20 countries to investigate whether the accrual anomaly (Sloan 1996), characterized by U.S. stock prices overweighting the role of accrual persistence, is a local manifestation of a global phenomenon. We explore whether the occurrence of the anomaly is related to...

We recently conducted a comprehensive survey that analyzes how senior financial executives make decisions related to performance measurement and voluntary disclosure. In particular, we ask CFOs what earnings benchmarks they care about and which factors motivate executives to exercise discretion,...

We consider stock markets in 20 countries to investigate whether the accruals anomaly (Sloan 1996), characterized by U.S. stock prices overweighting the role of accrual persistence, is a local manifestation of a global phenomenon. In addition, we structure our analysis to determine if the...

Sloan (1996) and several follow up papers show that the stock market behaves as though it cannot understand the implications of accruals for future earnings. We propose and find evidence consistent with the hypothesis that risk-averse arbitrageurs are unable to eliminate accrual related...

We show that the accrual anomaly documented by Sloan (1996) is concentrated in firms with high idiosyncratic stock return volatility making it risky for risk-averse arbitrageurs to take positions in stocks with extreme accruals. Moreover, the accrual anomaly is found in low price and low volume...

We investigate Beaver's (2002) conjecture that the accruals anomaly is a manifestation of the glamour stock phenomenon documented in the finance literature. Value (glamour) stocks, characterized by low (high) past sales growth, high (low) B/M, high (low) E/P and high (low) C/P, are known to earn...

Although leading indicators are becoming increasingly important for equity valuation, disclosures of such indicators suffer from the absence of GAAP related guidance on content and presentation. We explicitly examine (i) whether one leading indicator - order backlog - predicts future earnings,...

We examine the cost-effectiveness, from the shareholders' perspective, of the accounting standards issued by the FASB during 1973-2009. In particular, we evaluate (i) the stock market reactions of firms affected by the standards surrounding events that changed the probability of issuance of...

Several recent papers assume that private information (PIN), proposed by Easley, Hvidkjaer and O'Hara (2002, 2004), is a determinant of stock returns. We replicate Easley, Hvidkjaer and O'Hara (2002) and show that while PIN does predict future returns in the sample they analyze, the effect is...

We examine several explanations drawn from prior academic research and current popular press anecdotes for the unprecedented level of underpricing in Internet IPOs. Our sample consists of 342 Internet firms that went public between 1988 and 1999 and a matched sample of 249 non-Internet IPOs. The...