We investigate whether investors are misled by firms that exclude particular expenses in calculating non-GAAP earnings in order to beat analysts' earnings forecasts. Our empirical analyses suggest that firms that pursue a strategy of non-GAAP reporting to beat analysts' earnings forecasts not...

We examine the association between board independence and the characteristics of non-GAAP earnings. Our results suggest that companies with less independent boards are more likely to opportunistically exclude recurring items from non-GAAP earnings. Specifically, we find that exclusions from...

We find a positive association between short-selling and accruals during 1988-2009, and that asymmetry between the long and short sides of the accrual anomaly is stronger when constraints on short-arbitrage are more severe (low availability of loanable shares as proxied by institutional...

Prior studies employ a two period empirical model and interpret the negative association between accruals in period one and returns in period two as evidence that investors misprice the information contained in accruals. In contrast to prior studies, I employ a three period log-linear model...

Activist short-sellers could play an information role in capital markets by disclosing informative short-theses, or, as many are concerned, a manipulation role by spreading misinformation. To shed light on this controversy, this paper focuses on a powerful setting where both roles are heightened...

There is reliable evidence that managers smooth their reported earnings. If some firms manage earnings downwards (upwards) when they experience large positive (negative) earnings shocks and if investors have cognitive limits or are inattentive, then it is plausible that the post-earnings...

This paper examines the effect of income smoothing on information uncertainty, stock returns, and cost of equity. I show that income smoothing through both total accruals and discretionary accruals tends to reduce firms' information uncertainty, as measured by stock return volatility, analyst...

Until 2001, certain stock acquisitions could be accounted for as pooling-of-interests. There were concerns that pooling was associated with earnings fixation and weak corporate governance. I investigate the cross-sectional variation in the purchase-pooling choice and its association with...

Prior literature in accounting and financial economics measures asset growth as year-over-year growth in total assets. Such growth estimates are upward biased when firms engage in mergers and acquisitions. We decompose asset growth into merger-related and organic growth components, and find that...

This paper examines the accruals anomaly in an agency context where managers of overvalued firms engage in various activities, including accruals-based earnings management, to sustain overvaluation. We use managerial trading to operationalize the empirical investigation, hypothesizing that...