This paper seeks to provide empirical evidence on the efficacy of three important governance mechanisms (auditors, directors, and institutional shareholders) in constraining aggressive financial reporting, proxied by abnormal accruals. It also examines the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)...

We present evidence on the benefits of accounting conservatism of the target firm in a merger and acquisition transaction. The use of conservative accounting serves as a mechanism that reduces the likelihood of acquiring underperforming assets for the acquirer, making the target more valuable...

Watts (2003), among others, argues that conservatism helps in corporate governance by mitigating agency problems associated with managers' investment decisions. We hypothesize that if conservatism reduces managers' ex ante incentives to take on negative NPV projects and improves the ex post...