In this paper we examine whether the valuation properties of historical accounting amounts, namely earnings and equity book value, differ from those of forecasted earnings for firms in 17 developed countries classified into six accounting regimes. We compare the performance of a historical model...

As shown in the international business literature, the ability of controlling owners to extract private benefits is greater in countries with weaker legal institutions. In these countries, providing credible financial information could play an especially important role in reducing information...

Using an extensive panel of cross-border M&A transactions between 1990 and 2007, we find that firms from developing countries, compared with those from developed countries, bid higher on average to acquire assets in developed countries. We are interested in why these higher bids occur. We find...

This study tests the relation between corporate tax avoidance and disclosure of geographic earnings for U.S. multinational companies. We find that after the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 131 in 1998, firms opting to discontinue disclosure of geographic earnings in...

We are interested in understanding how agency conflicts in private firms arise through ownership structures and family relationships. Specifically, we analyze auditors’ increase of effort and firms’ choice of auditors in situations with higher level of agency conflicts. For a large sample of...

Beginning with Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 131 (SFAS 131), Disclosures about Segments of an Enterprise and Related Information, most US multinational firms no longer disclose geographic earnings in their annual reports. Given the recent growth in foreign operations of US...

<heading id="h1" level="1" implicit="yes" format="display">ABSTRACT</heading>This study tests the agency cost hypothesis in the context of geographic earnings disclosures. The agency cost hypothesis predicts that managers, when not monitored by shareholders, make self-maximizing decisions that may not necessarily be in the best interest of shareholders. These...

We investigate the effects of the introduction of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 131 (SFAS 131) on the market's valuation of foreign earnings. <link rid="b61">Thomas (1999)</link> documents that investors discount the value of foreign earnings for US multinational companies. He conjectures but does...