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...

This paper develops a general equilibrium model and provides empirical support that the market volatility-of-volatility (VOV) predicts market returns and drives the time-varying volatility risk. In asset pricing tests with the market, volatility, and VOV as factors, the risk premium on VOV is...

Do firms' governance provisions affect their terms of obtaining external financing? We hypothesize that it is more difficult for firms with more restrictions on shareholder rights to raise external equity, and that since analyst coverage is an important part of underwriting services,...

We hypothesize that high stock price levels impede informed trading on the stocks and reduce price informativeness. This is because uninformed trading is needed to facilitate informed trading, and high stock prices may impose budget constraints on uninformed investors. Indeed, we find, for...

In this study, we propose a new rationale for firms' delisting and going private decision: voluntary delist then reissue shares and relist in the “home” country, because of favorable government economic policy and regulatory changes. 29 (27) out of 127 U.S.-listed Chinese ADRs announced...