This paper analyses data on 490 companies with broad-based stock option plans, matched to data from CompuStat in order to compare their characteristics and performance to that of other public companies. Major findings are that 1) companies with broadbased plans have higher levels of labor...

Prior literature refers to economic incentives to generate investment banking business and trading commissions as explanations for analyst publication of forecasts of firms' long-term earnings growth (LTG). Prior research also documents wildly optimistic LTG forecasts and a negative relation...

Existing research documents that firms employing relatively high levels of stock option-based compensation more frequently report quarterly earnings that meet or exceed analysts' forecasts. This paper examines the roles of income-increasing accounting choices and management guidance to analysts...