Accounting norms preceded generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but little is known about how and why these norms emerged. We hypothesize that private-sector institutions aimed at building a knowledge base among practicing accountants fostered accounting norms before formal...

The expectations management literature has so far focused on firms meeting the analyst consensus forecast — the expectations of analysts as a group — at earnings announcements. In this study we argue that investors may use individual analyst forecasts as additional benchmarks in evaluating...

We examine the incentives of socially responsible firms, relative to a set of control firms, to engage in earnings management. We measure socially responsible behavior using various proxies of corporate social responsibility, and earnings management using abnormal levels of accruals, cash flows,...

I examine how a firm's accounting methods can be influenced by the choices of other firms, which I label contagion. I model accounting method choice as a combination of intrinsic propensities to adopt a method and contagion effects. I predict contagion of accounting methods occurs for two...