By analyzing a large panel of elections in 55 countries, we show that political uncertainty surrounding elections can affect asymmetric cost responses to activity changes (i.e., cost stickiness). In comparison to non-election years, we find that the asymmetry in cost behaviors is stronger during...

In analyzing a large panel of elections in 56 countries for the period 1989-2012, we show that political uncertainty surrounding elections can affect asymmetric cost behaviors to activity changes (i.e., cost stickiness). The asymmetry in cost behaviors is stronger during election years than in...

We examine how state liability regimes within the United States affect auditor reporting decisions. We exploit variation across state-level common law in two aspects of auditor liability: the extent to which auditors can be held liable by third parties for negligence, and rules for apportioning...

Relying on their history of legal infractions to measure individuals' risk tolerance, we examine the association between engagement partners' risk appetites and audit quality in the U.S. Criminology and economics research links criminal activity with enduring personality traits that capture an...

Prior research documents that information transmitted via director networks affects firms' policies and real economic activities. We explore whether information flow through director networks influences managers' ability to hoard bad news. We find that the extent of external connections of the...

In analyzing newly collected data on the ultimate ownership structure of publicly traded firms in nine East Asian economies, we contribute to international accounting research by providing evidence on earnings management in insider-controlled firms in this region. We find that family-controlled...

A firm's decision on whether to choose the same auditor as a close competitor reflects a trade-off between exercising caution to protect its proprietary information and pursuing the benefits of auditor knowledge derived from providing services to comparable clients. We conduct a survey of audit...

We analyze whether tough IRS monitoring generates a positive externality by constraining managers' bad news hoarding activities. Supporting this prediction, we find a negative relation between the threat of an IRS audit and stock price crash risk. Our evidence is consistent with recent theory...

Theory suggests that financial-report-based debt covenants engender incentives for the manager to relax covenant constraints through accounting choices in order to avoid costly covenant violations. Prior studies directly testing this hypothesis in the context of financial misreporting fail to...

Capitalizing on a quasi-natural experiment in China where certain investment banks become investible to the global market across different periods, we explore the role that stock market liberalization plays in shaping local analysts' incentives to provide high quality forecasts. In a staggered...