This paper analyzes the effect of coverage initiation by a sell-side analyst on the production of private information. It shows that the sell-side analyst's information production may crowd out information production by buy-side analysts. Nonetheless, coverage initiation increases the total...

This paper examines the impact of soft dollar practices on market equilibrium and trading profits. The setting is one in which there exist both money managers and individual (nonclient) investors and in which soft dollar payments from brokers to money managers cannot be publicly observed. In...

Is human capital an asset? We empirically address this question using the accounting concept of assets - costs should be capitalized as assets if they are expected to generate future measurable benefits with reasonable certainty. Also, holding the investment opportunity set constant, disposal of...

Since 1974, Ramp;D expenditures have been fully expensed when incurred partly because Ramp;D activities are claimed to be associated with a high degree of uncertainty in future economic benefits. In this study, we estimate the association between Ramp;D expenditures and capital expenditures...

Regulators in the US ruled against introducing mandatory firm rotations in addition to the existing rule for periodic partner rotations. In contrast, European regulators ruled in favour of a dual mandatory rotation rule in which both audit firm and audit partner rotations are required. Employing...