This paper examines the extent to which financial signaling affects the analysts' and managers' forecast releases. The findings give evidence of heterogeneity of analysts' forecast errors between firms with strong financial indicators (high signal group), weak financial indicators (low signal...

We analyze the importance of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) monitoring to equity pricing in U.S. public firms. Our evidence from large samples implies that equity financing is cheaper when the probability of an IRS audit is higher, enabling investors to learn more about the firm. Reflecting its...

This teaching guide is based on a comprehensive survey as well as in-depth interviews of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs). We ask the CFOs about the definition and drivers of earnings quality, with a special emphasis on the prevalence and detection of earnings misrepresentation. CFOs believe that...

We examine whether internal governance affects the extent of real earnings management in U.S. corporations. Internal governance refers to the process through which key subordinate executives provide checks and balances in the organization and affect corporate decisions. Using the number of years...

Initial public offering (IPO) companies are exempt from Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, leaving investors to assess the quality of an IPO company's internal controls, which affect the quality of management-provided financial information, without an opinion on internal controls...

Contemporary investors worry more about firms' survival prospect than immediate financial gains. Analysts employ the use of short and long-term solvency tools to gauge the financial health of prospective firms. Often, these tools fail to generate the required information owing to their inherent...

The empirical corporate finance literature claims that better corporate governance constrains earnings management, while others argue that the unique legal and reporting structure of REITs may reduce the need for such internal corporate governance. Using a sample of publicly traded REITs for the...

By excluding the change in non-operational working capital in calculating the net working capital for the FCF, analysts create a hypothetical or ‘virtual' cash flow. This may, or may not, be feasible given the firm's business plan, as funds may be earmarked for future capex, or other purposes....

Columbia University's Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis (CEASA) recently distributed Stephen Penman's June 2009 paper, “Accounting for Intangible Assets: There is Also an Income Statement”. Penman acclaims accounting's “brilliance” and provides a reasoned argument...

Few purely financial decisions rival stock repurchase programs in their bearing on the well-being of shareholders. Absent better financial reports on buybacks, an occasional tally of results seems appropriate. The current “Monitor” extends an earlier study back to 2000 to look at...