Economic policymakers express concern that procyclical lending by banks imperils financial stability. Prior research finds that banks that record timelier loan loss provisions originate more loans during downturns, consistent with loan-loss-provision timeliness mitigating loan-origination...

We provide evidence that banks smooth income by managing provisions for loan losses and loan charge-offs in a coordinated fashion that varies across the bust and boom phases of the business cycle and across homogeneous and heterogeneous loan types. In particular, during the 1990s boom, we...

We investigate whether the market prices the change in net trading assets as an operating or non-operating activity or some mixture of the two, and whether this market pricing is consistent with the (fundamental) association of the change in net trading assets with future cash flows from...

This essay describes implications of the subprime crisis for accounting. First, I overview the institutional and market aspects of subprime lending with the greatest accounting relevance. Second, I discuss the critical aspects of FAS 157's fair value definition and measurement guidance and...

We hypothesize and provide evidence that characteristics of banks' loan securitizations accounted for as sales determine the extent to which banks retain the risks of the securitized loans. We show that banks retain more risk when: (1) the types of loans have higher and/or less externally...

Prior research finds that commercial borrowers provide lenders with private information. This research generally does not identify how lenders obtain such information or the types of information obtained, however, limiting the directness and interpretability of tests of lenders' use of the...

Exploiting differential interstate branching deregulation across contiguous counties of adjacent states, we investigate the effect of entry threat on incumbent banks' loan loss provisions. Incumbents exposed to entry threat have offsetting incentives; lower provisions make their loan...

Firms measure fair values using Level 2 or 3 inputs when items do not trade in liquid markets, limiting market discipline over the measurements. We provide evidence that firms holding higher proportions of financial instruments measured at Level 2 and 3 fair values report more conditionally...

The use of accounting measures and disclosures in banks' contracts and regulation suggests that the quality of banks' financial reporting is central to the efficacy of market discipline and non-market mechanisms in limiting banks' development of debt and risk overhangs in economic good times and...

I discuss Desai, Rajgopal, and Yu (2015) with the goal of helping readers think carefully about which implications of the study are likely to generalize to future economic downturns and which are likely to be specific to the facts and circumstances of the recent financial crisis, given that the...