Previous studies (Dumontier and Raffournier, 1998, El-Gazzar et al, 1999; Cuijpers and Buijink, 2004) typically explain the early adoption of IFRS by firm-specific benefits. However, the adoption of IFRS also leads to costs for company insiders, namely less managerial discretion and as a consequence...

We examine the influence of the ex ante risk of class action securities litigation on firms' decisions to issue management earnings forecasts as well as the characteristics of those forecasts. We find that litigation risk is positively associated with the likelihood of issuing a forecast for...

Criminal prosecution of financial reporting-related corporate misconduct is generally acknowledged to be sometimes warranted. The decision to seek an indictment of Arthur Andersen remains controversial, however. Eisenberg and Macey (2004) posit that because the resulting increased concentration...

A Securities Class Action lawsuit is initiated by a large class of shareholders against managers whom they suspect of wrongdoing. This paper proposes that Securities Class Action litigation is an ex post substitute for effective ex ante governance and monitoring. To elaborate this idea, I...

Prior to Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) some management spent considerable time and effort guiding analyst earnings estimates, often through detailed reviews of analysts' earnings models. In this paper I use proprietary survey data from the National Investor Relations Institute to identify...

The paper has discussed to what extent the Parmalat is to be considered as a particularly Italian case. The main characteristics of Parmalat's corporate governance structure have been compared and contrasted with those prevailing among Italian listed companies, as well as with the highest...

Since 2002, listed German corporations are legally obligated to declare annually their degree of conformity to the German Corporate Governance Code (GCGC). For a sample of (big) publicly traded German companies listed in DAX 30 and MDAX we examine whether there is a pricing effect connected to...

Why do firms pay dividends? If they didn't their asset and capital structures would eventually become untenable as the earnings of successful firms outstrip their investment opportunities. Had they not paid dividends, the 25 largest long-standing 2002 dividend payers would have cash holdings of...

This paper examines how 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 frequency of revision of quarterly earnings forecasts, and relative optimism in long-term...

The Task Force on Rebuilding Public Confidence in Financial Reporting was commissioned by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) to look at ways of restoring the credibility of financial reporting and corporate disclosure from an international perspective. It is this international...