We investigate the relationship of candidate information asymmetry measures to aspects of insiders' trades. For two of the measures, the median absolute abnormal return over past earnings announcements (MAG_AR) and whether the firm reports Ramp;D expenditures, associations are consistent with...

Evidence contrasting U.S. insider trades in high- and low-jeopardy periods and across firms at high and low risk for 10b-5 litigation indicates that insiders condition their trades on foreknowledge of price-relevant public disclosures, but avoid profitable trades when the jeopardy associated...

Following the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002, US stock exchanges strongly advocate the presence of financial experts on audit committees. However, the ideal definition of financial expertise proves to be a controversial issue culminating with the stock exchanges adopting a wide scoped...

This paper examines the timeliness of financial reporting in the Russian energy sector and compares the days delay in reporting by Russian energy companies to days delay by non-Russian companies in the petroleum refining industry. The study found that Russian companies' delay in reporting...

The aim this study is to compare the activities of two significant examples of alternative enforcement models - the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP) in the United Kingdom and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in Australia over the period 1997-2004. The study was...

We study a relatively recent change in voluntary disclosure practices by management, namely the issuance of cash flow forecasts. We predict and find that management issues cash flow forecasts to signal good news in cash flow, to meet investor demand for cash flow information, and to pre-commit...

This paper examines whether the quality of stock analysts' forecasts is related to conflicts of interest from investment banking and brokerage. We consider four aspects of forecast quality: accuracy, bias and revision frequency of quarterly earnings per share (EPS) forecasts, and relative...

The paper examines the impact of executive compensation on private securities litigation. We find that incentive pay in the form of options increases the probability of securities class action litigation, holding constant a wide range of firm characteristics. We further document that there is...

This paper provides evidence that insiders possess, and trade upon, knowledge of specific and economically-significant forthcoming accounting disclosures as long as two years prior to the disclosure. Stock sales by insiders increase three to nine quarters prior to a break in a string of...

Lang, Raedy and Wilson (2006) examine the properties of U.S. GAAP accounting numbers provided by cross-listed firms and compare them to those of U.S. firms. Using a wide range of properties related to earnings management, timely loss recognition, and value relevance, LRW show that accounting...