We examine the association between Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspection reports and a firm's cost of equity capital, measured using seasoned equity offering (SEO) discounting. SEO discounting occurs when the offer price is lower than the prior day's market price of the...

On April 11, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against KPMG LLP – arising from their participation in a scheme to misappropriate and use confidential information relating to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) planned inspections of KPMG....

Management quality is known to influence depository institution performance, but less understood are the characteristics of managers that influence performance. We empirically examine how the political ideology of a credit union’s CEO influenced decision making and performance during the...

This study examines whether bank risk is a factor influenced by chief executive officer (CEO) power and equity incentives and the interaction between these factors during 2005 through 2009 which marks the unraveling of the financial crisis. CEO power is measured with an index comprised of five...

We examine the impact of a specific facet of the Global Research Analyst Settlement (Global Settlement) - the $460 million spent to procure independent analyst research. We compare independent research funded by the Global Settlement to that of the sanctioned investment banks as well as that of...

On Sunday, February 26, 2017, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) erred on live television when Brian Cullinan, PwC's U.S. Board Chairman and Managing Partner of PwC's Southwest region, handed to the announcers the wrong envelope for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

After a lengthy and protracted debate, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) adopted new rules and related amendments to its auditing standards regarding the engagement partner and other accounting firms that took part in the audit (PCAOB 2015). The rules require disclosure of...

In response to Section 102(d) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, PCAOB Rule 2200 required annual reporting from all registered accounting firms via PCAOB Form 2. Filed for the first time during the second quarter of 2010, PCAOB Form 2 provides information about (1) each accounting firm's available human...

The SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies recommends paid-for research to fill the void created by declining sell-side coverage. Potential conflicts of interest inherent in paid-for research challenge this recommendation. We evaluate whether paid-for research provides value to...

We assess whether managers engage in ex ante strategic behavior when issuing earnings forecasts in a novel context. We posit that some managers provide inaccurate downward guidance to increase the positive surprise and pricing premium at the earnings announcement, thereby maximizing profits from...