This paper investigates whether the differences in audit quality between Big 4 and non-Big 4 auditors can be attributed to the client’s pre-audit financial reporting quality or to the differences in audit treatment via audit adjustments. Hand-collected pre-audit and audited financial statement...

We use Benford's Law to provide evidence that German firms round up both their net income and earnings per share. We use the introduction of the euro to show that round earnings numbers are likely the result of earnings management. The incentive to round up comes from stakeholders' left-digit...

This study examines the implications of firm profitability, as a potential indication of audit-related risk, to audit quality, auditor reporting, auditor continuance decisions, and audit pricing in the post-SOX environment. Using a sample of non-financial public companies over the period 2005...

This monograph is not a review of the empirical accounting literature. This monograph tells a story and relates it to salient empirical phenomena. Why does accounting exist? Our answer is that financial accounting helps firms function efficiently. That efficiency is manifested in many ways, and...

This study investigates the market's response to earnings surprises after first-time going-concern modifications (GCMs). Using a sample of 581 firms and an events-study research design, we document a significant decrease in earnings response coefficients (ERCs) in the quarters following the GCM....

This paper examines whether issuing management earnings guidance motivates a firm to raise its level of performance. The failure of management to attain a forecast may reflect poorly on its industry understanding, knowledge of the firm, and management capability. Accordingly, we hypothesize and...

This study examines the determinants of emphasis on non-GAAP disclosures in the earnings announcements of small cap companies. Two proxies of non-GAAP information emphasis are investigated — placement of the first non-GAAP disclosure and placement of the non-GAAP to GAAP reconciliation...

We ask nearly 400 CFOs about the definition and drivers of earnings quality, with a special emphasis on the prevalence and detection of earnings misrepresentation. CFOs believe that the hallmarks of earnings quality are sustainability, absence of one-time items, and backing by actual cash flows....

In most European countries, U.S.-owned subsidiaries are required by law to file separate entity financial statements in local GAAP. We use this unique institutional setting to examine whether the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) had a flow-through effect on the earnings quality of local GAAP...

Recent studies indicate dividends are associated with higher quality earnings. Our study extends the literature by examining whether dividends' information is associated with auditors' assessment of their clients' earnings quality. Our results show that auditors charge lower fees to...