In this paper, we investigate the spill-over of sovereign rating changes into the corporate sector across 34 countries, with a primary focus on the relative effects of positive and negative events. Positive or negative bias of such spill-overs could impact the relative speed and depth of...

We examine the impact of SFAS 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, on the reporting behavior of commercial banks and the informativeness of their financial statements. We argue that, because mandatory recognition of hedge ineffectiveness under SFAS 133 reduced...

We study whether bank managers' use their discretion in estimating the allowance for loan losses (ALL) for efficiency or for opportunistic reasons. We do so by examining whether the use of this discretion relates to bank stability and bank risk taking, or whether it relates to earnings...

We examine the relation between the use of collateral and accounting conservatism for a sample of Chinese firms during 2001 to 2006. China provides a powerful setting for testing the direct effect of accounting conservatism on collateral requirements because of the government's tight control...