We address the fact that accounting academics often have very different perceptions of earnings management than do practitioners and regulators. Practitioners and regulators often see earnings management as pervasive and problematic, and in the need of immediate action to remedy. Academics are...

This paper provides evidence on the relation between the timeliness of voluntary earnings disclosures and the outcomes of related stockholder litigation. Like Francis Philbrick and Schipper (1994a) I find that many lawsuits result from voluntary disclosures of adverse earnings news. However I...

This paper documents that (1) special dividends were once commonly paid by NYSE firms, but are now a rare phenomenon; (2) firms typically paid specials almost as predictably as they paid regulars; and (3) despite the dramatic decline in specials as a whole, the incidence of very large specials...

It is well-established that the realized returns of ?growth? stocks have been low relative to other stocks. We show that this phenomenon is explained by a large and asymmetric response to negative earnings surprises for growth stocks. After controlling for this effect, there is no longer...

This paper explores the determinants of the valuation allowance for deferred tax assets under SFAS No. 109. We find that, consistent with SFAS No. 109, the allowance is larger for firms with relatively more deferred tax assets and smaller for firms with higher levels of expected future taxable...