This paper investigates whether and how financial restatements affect the market for corporate control. We show that firms that recently filed financial restatements are significantly less likely to become takeover targets than a propensity score-matched sample of non-restating firms. For those...

This paper discusses the use of M&A to facilitate earnings management. The accounting procedures we analyse variously create earnings which would not be reported in the absence of M&A; or reduce reported earnings; or shift earnings between accounting periods. The motivation for deploying the...

In their joint framework project, the FASB and the IASB recently proposed dropping stewardship as one of the objectives of financial accounting, because the Boards view stewardship and valuation usefulness as compatible sub-objectives ranking under an overall objective of decision usefulness....

As domestic sources of outside finance are limited in many countries around the world, it is important to understand factors that influence whether foreign investors provide capital to a country's firms. We study 4,409 firms from 29 countries to assess whether and why concerns about corporate...

We infer motives for trade initiation from market sidedness. We define trading as more two-sided (one-sided) if the correlation between the numbers of buyer- and seller-initiated trades increases (decreases), and assess changes in sidedness (relative to a control sample) around events that...

As domestic sources of outside finance are limited in many countries around the world, it is important to understand factors that influence whether foreign investors provide capital to a country's firms. We study 4,409 firms from 29 countries to assess whether and why concerns about corporate...

How does a public announcement about a company exploring its potential sale or merger (“strategic alternatives”) affect the company and its shareholders? This study provides the first look at some of the positive and negative consequences to this unique disclosure of strategic alternatives....

This study finds that pro-forma earnings forecasts by bidding firms during acquisitions are associated with a higher likelihood of deal completion, expedited deal closing, and with a lower acquisition premium − but only in stock-financed acquisitions. Analysts also respond to these forecasts...

We document time varying investor sentiment for corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) performance. We show that announcements of CSR activities generate positive abnormal returns during periods when investors place a valuation premium on CSR performance. In addition, we find that firms...

We examine the relationship between the quality of corporate governance and information asymmetry in the equity market around quarterly earnings announcements. We use the change in market liquidity (i.e., bid-ask spreads and depths) around the announcements as a proxy for information asymmetry....