We examine whether organizational form matters for a firm's cost of capital. Contrary to conventional view, we argue that coinsurance among a firm's business units can reduce systematic risk through the avoidance of countercyclical deadweight costs. We find that diversified firms have on average...

In this paper, we use accounting fundamentals to measure systematic risk of distress. Our main testable prediction—that this risk increases with the probability of recessionary failure, P(R|F)—is based on a stylized model that guides our empirical analyses. We first apply the lasso method to...

This paper shows that risk in cash flow and accrual components of earnings is an important determinant of a firm's cost of equity beyond risk in earnings. The paper develops and tests a model that demonstrates how earnings smoothing hinders the ability of earnings to capture firm risk and how...

We investigate whether and to what extent aggregate earnings forecasts by sell-side analysts and forecasts of macroeconomic indicators by economists convey different information about the macroeconomy, and whether such differences have implications for forecast efficiency and the stock market....

While numerous studies in accounting and finance are devoted to predicting firm-specific earnings and understanding the forecasting behavior of analysts and management, it is unclear whether or how accounting information at the micro level can be applied to the macroeconomy. Bonsall, Bozanic,...

The documented decline in the information content of earnings numbers has paralleled the emergence of disclosures, mostly voluntary, of industry-specific key performance indicators (KPIs). We find that the incremental information content conveyed by KPI news is significant for many KPIs, yet it...

We examine twelve-month returns following disclosure of first-time going concern (GC) opinions in the U.S. and Australia. We find no evidence of significant negative abnormal returns associated with GC opinions in Australia. In the U.S., negative abnormal returns subsequent to GC opinions are...

The documented decline in the information content of earnings numbers has paralleled the emergence of disclosures, mostly voluntary, of industry-specific key performance indicators (KPIs). We find that the incremental information content conveyed by KPI news is significant for many KPIs, yet it...

We define a delayed disclosure ratio (DD) as the fraction of 10-Q financial statement items that are withheld at the earlier quarterly earnings announcement. We find that higher DD firms have a greater delay in investor and analyst response to earnings surprises: (i) the fraction of total market...