Exploiting the staggered adoption of country-level takeover laws that increased takeover threats, this paper examines whether the resulting increase in CEOs' job security concerns leads to greater earnings management. Using a difference-in-difference design, I find that the enactment of laws...

One of the main goals of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) is to ensure a greater flow of timely and accurate accounting information to investors. While there has been a lot of criticism of SOX, mostly with regard to compliance costs, very little light has been shed on the impact of SOX on...

We examine the effects of Ontario Bill-198 (CSOX-2003), the strictest corporate law in Canada. Despite some drawbacks, we find the Act has added significant value contrary to many practitioners' beliefs. Using a large sample of Canadian tender offers between 1996 and 2009, we find that both...

We examine the relevance of the disclosure of internal control weaknesses (ICWs) by target firms for acquirers in making their merger-and-acquisition (M&A) decisions. Based on a sample of M&A transactions in 2005–2018, we find that acquirers offer lower premiums for targets that disclose ICWs...

Contingent considerations (“earnouts”) in acquisition agreements provide sellers with future payments conditional on meeting certain conditions. Prior research provides evidence that acquiring firms use earnouts to minimize agency costs associated with acquisitions. Using earnout fair value...

This study examines how and why investors change the use of their information sources in valuation between book value and earnings after mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in both pre- and post-SFAS 141(R) periods. We find that investors generally put less weight on earnings but more weight on book...

Contingent considerations (earnouts) in acquisition agreements provide sellers with future payments conditional on meeting certain conditions. Prior research provides evidence that acquiring firms use earnouts to minimize agency costs associated with acquisitions. Using earnout fair value...

Using a sample of US noncash acquirers, we find significant evidence of upward earnings management prior to announcing merger and acquisition deals. In this event study, we adopt an industry adjusted leverage proxy. No evidence of premerger earnings management is found in highly leveraged firms....

This study investigates acquiring firms' earnings management (EM) strategies around mergers and acquisition (M&A) in the US market and analyzes firm's post-acquisition performance. Acquirers are shown to use both accruals management (AM) and real earnings management (REM), both prior to and...