We investigate whether non-GAAP reporting results in less conservative auditor materiality judgments, as measured by auditors' determination of quantitative materiality thresholds. Using a sample of audit reports for Premium Listed companies on the London Stock Exchange for the 2013-2014 fiscal...

We show that measures of business text sentiment are highly affected by transitory events. These transitory events lead to a strong positive association between sentiment and contemporaneous earnings. However, the association between sentiment and future earnings is insignificant. We develop a...

This study examines the role of media coverage on meritorious shareholder litigation. Asserting a causal effect of the media on litigation is normally difficult due to the endogenous nature of media coverage. However, we use the Wall Street Journal’s backdating coverage to overcome these...

Most accounting studies use only public enforcement actions (SEC cases) to measure accounting fraud. However, private cases (securities class actions) also play an important enforcement role. We discuss the legal standards and processes for both public and private enforcement regimes, emphasize...

This study introduces a new measure of ex ante litigation risk using scrutiny of SEC filings by the source of securities litigation—plaintiffs' lawyers—to reduce measurement error, relative to existing measures. We show that plaintiff-lawyer views proxy for the largely unobservable factors...

It is unclear how investors can quickly impound information from litigation filings given frictions to obtain the filings and interpret their complex legalese. However, specialized media members have expertise and ability to obtain filings and report on their content. We isolate the media’s...