We examine a model that incorporates two hidden-actions of the manager: a productive effort and a manipulative effort. The manager is paid a bonus based on the accounting report that the manager can manipulate. A downward restatement of the accounting report triggers lawsuits. The manager is...

This paper examines the effect of income smoothing on information uncertainty, stock returns, and cost of equity. I show that income smoothing through both total accruals and discretionary accruals tends to reduce firms' information uncertainty, as measured by stock return volatility, analyst...

Many recent studies explore how earnings properties such as opacity, conservatism, and comparability relate to stock price crash risk. Motivated by the importance of earnings guidance as a voluntary disclosure mechanism that directly provides new information to the market, we investigate how...

In the model there are two types of financial auditors with identical technology, one of which is endowed with a prior reputation for honesty. We characterize conditions under which there exists a “two-tier equilibrium” in which “reputable” auditors refuse bribes offered by clients for...

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate whether more frequent disclosure by firms is associated with lower levels of information asymmetry among investors. Using a panel of 386 firms in the U.S. retail sector, I find that the practice of regularly providing monthly revenue disclosures...

In empirical tests guided by recent theory (e.g., Hughes, Liu and Liu 2007; and Lambert, Leuz and Verrecchia 2011), we examine the joint effects of information precision, information asymmetry and the level of market competition on firms' cost of equity capital. Consistent with theory, we find that...

We explore the link between open market share repurchases (OMRs) and asymmetric information - based on financial reporting quality - and find opaque firms experience positive abnormal returns twice the magnitude of transparent firms. These significant differences remain after controlling for...

We investigate whether characteristics of firms' debt structure, beyond leverage, are associated with predictable variation in conditional conservatism. The contracting theory of conservatism holds that conditional conservatism is an efficient mechanism employed by an organization to address...

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...

How does a public announcement about a company exploring its potential sale or merger (“strategic alternatives”) affect the company and its shareholders? This study provides the first look at some of the positive and negative consequences to this unique disclosure of strategic alternatives....