This paper studies how an accountant's method of aggregating information in a financial report is affected by differences in the reliability and relevance of components of the report. We study a firm that hires an accountant to produce a report that reveals information to investors regarding the...

I analyze a manager's decision to disclose private information when the stock market is a source of information for corporate investment-making. A manager with long-term incentives discloses her private information only if it crowds-in informed trading and increases the manager's ability to...

In a parsimonious model, we analyze how to obtain consistent incentives when both principal and agent are risk-averse and when a setting prevails in which the agent may have a shorter time horizon than the principal. Intertemporal dependencies in risky cash flows are taken into account. Building...

This monograph presents three variants of the neoclassical investment model and characterizes the firm's optimal investment policy, equity value, and the desirable properties of accrual accounting rules in each setting. Two main questions are considered: (1) What accounting rules result in the...

This paper examines the provision of managerial investment incentives by an accounting based incentive scheme in a multiperiod agency setting in which an impatient manager has to choose between mutually exclusive investment projects. We study the properties of accounting rules that motivate an...

Capital rationing is an empirically well-documented phenomenon. This constraint requires managers to make investment decisions between mutually exclusive investment opportunities. In a multiperiod agency setting, this paper analyses accounting rules that provide managerial incentives for...

Theory suggests a commitment to voluntary disclosure may improve firm investment over time. Our findings support this argument. We document that voluntary disclosure commitment is associated with the more profitable exercise of firm investment opportunities. Additionally, prior research...

This experimental study investigates the use of audits as a control instrument in capital budgeting processes and factors that contribute to audit efficiency (or inefficiency) in a repeated relationship. We disentangle reputation aspects of superiors and subordinates from an increased social...

Earnings less riskfree Interest Charge (ERIC) is a new residual income concept for Value Based Management (VBM), which takes the true risk and time preferences of shareholders into account. In this paper management based on ERIC is discussed from a theoretical and from a more practical point of...

Classical single-factor comparable company valuation (CCV) like e.g. valuation using the price-earnings ratio is associated with several shortcomings. The two most important are the non-applicability of negative values in the basis of reference and the high requirements to the qualitative...