Real earnings management (REM) practices are related to subsequent stock returns. Specifically, stocks of firms with abnormally low (high) levels of operating cash flows underperform (outperform) in the subsequent year, whereas stocks of firms with abnormally low (high) levels of production...

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) in China is unique worldwide in requiring disclosure of the timing, participants and selected content of private in-house meetings between firm managers and outside investors. We investigate whether these private meetings benefit hosting-firms and their major...

We investigate whether non-GAAP earnings disclosures increase stock price crash risk. Consistent with the notion that non-GAAP reporting allows managers to downplay reported bad news in GAAP earnings and re-direct investors' attention to the more positive aspects of performance, our empirical...

This paper constructs a signal-based composite index, namely ESCORE, which captures the context of earnings management. Specifically, ESCORE aggregates 15 individual signals related to earnings management based on prior relevant literature. Empirical results using UK data shows that when ESCORE...

We investigate whether firms “lean against the wind,” i.e., manage earnings upward to offset aggregate (market wide) undervaluation, by examining how firm-specific measures of earnings management correlate with aggregate market conditions. Leaning against the wind has been proposed by prior...

We model the dynamic survival of earnings fixated investors in a competitive securities market that allows for learning and arbitrage and that is populated by heterogeneous investors. Our model is distinct from those based on aggressive trading by overconfident investors. We prove that in the...

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...

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...

China has sustained a rapid rate of economic growth and absorbed a great deal of foreign investment over the past decades. However, the laws pertaining to business in China have not kept up with China's market growth. For this reason, investors in the Chinese stock market must assess associated...

This paper studies the impact of public audit oversight on financial reporting credibility. We analyze changes in market responses to earnings news after public audit oversight is introduced, exploiting that the regime onset depends on fiscal-year ends, auditors, and the roll-out of auditor...