We find that the audit report lag is significantly higher for former Andersen clients (that did not follow their Andersen partner to the new audit firm) than for clients voluntarily changing auditors from another Big 5 predecessor for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002 (the first year with...

In this study, I develop a measure of earnings quality by using qualitative characteristics of financial statement information specified in the Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts (SFAC) No. 2 (FASB 1980). I derive a summary measure of earnings quality by applying factor analysis on...

Many studies report that audit fees are discounted in the year of an auditor change and regulators have long been concerned that such fee discounting could impair audit quality. We find significant bias in the way studies have tested for fee discounting. The bias exists because interim...

Drawing on the extensive economics literature on wage rigidity, we examine CEO bonus rigidity and, in particular, the implications of downward bonus rigidity for future performance. We first document distributional support for downward rigidity in bonus payments. More importantly, we find that...

This analysis examines the time-series properties of quarterly aggregate earnings. We find that when aggregated, quarterly earnings can be fairly well described as following a simple random walk (RW) process. That is, the best historical time-series predictor for quarterly aggregated earnings is...

This paper identifies a distinct immediate announcement period negative relation between earnings announcement surprises and aggregate market returns. Such a relation implies that market participants use earnings information in forming expectations about expected aggregate discount rates and,...

Ernstberger and Vogler (2007) employ the concurrent use of three distinct accounting standard regimes (German GAAP; U.S. GAAP; and IAS/IFRS GAAP) in Germany as a foundation for evaluating the relation between accounting standard regime and equity return attributes. They find that firms using...