We analyze the financial statements of 58,653 firm-years from 34 countries for the period 1985-1998 to construct a panel data set measuring three dimensions of reported accounting earnings for each country – earnings aggressiveness, loss avoidance, and earnings smoothing. We hypothesize that...

We examine whether certification by an internationally recognized information intermediary helps emerging-market firms overcome the liability of foreignness in capital markets. Specifically, we ask whether securing a credit rating from Standard & Poor's (S&P) enables these firms to certify their...

We examine the trade response of individuals, institutional traders, and specialists to disclosures. We investigate reactions to good versus bad news and mandatory versus discretionary announcements. We find that individuals and institutions both have heightened trade activity before...

This paper examines whether mandated market risk disclosures under the SEC Financial Reporting Release No. 48 (FRR 48) provide useful information to investors regarding firms' risk exposures. To provide evidence on this issue we investigate whether the SEC disclosures reduce investor uncertainty...

This paper uses a trading volume analysis to examine the extent to which SEC-mandated disclosures make firms' market risk exposures more transparent to investors. We hypothesize that if the SEC's quantitative market risk disclosures reduce investor disagreements about firms' risk exposures,...