Prior literature raises a “puzzle” of high rates of return on corporate political investment, but evidence for this puzzle is largely descriptive in nature. We exploit the setting of the American Jobs Creation Act's passage in 2004 to provide more robust estimates of political returns based...

With the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), audit firm oversight shifted away from self-regulation to independent regulation. The inspections program is the central feature of the PCAOB. We examine whether PCAOB inspections are able to distinguish actual audit...

Regulators and the public are concerned about accounting firms lobbying politicians on behalf of their own audit clients because it could impair auditor independence. In this study, we examine whether these lobbying activities by accounting firms are associated with their clients' audit quality....

This paper investigates how increases in client audit risk influence the use of component auditors. Auditors respond to increases in audit risk by making adjustments to the audit engagement such as increasing fees and/or increasing effort. As more audit resources are demanded by clients with...

We study the role of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) as a monitor in mitigating uncertainty surrounding fair value (FV) estimates in issuer financial statements. Specifically, we examine whether the FV deficiencies highlighted in PCAOB inspection reports are associated with...

We examine whether audit quality is reduced when part of the audit is conducted by auditors other than the audit firm signing the audit report (“other” or “participating” auditors) which typically occurs in a multinational group audit. Prior literature suggests group audits could face...

Compliance plays an important role in the financial reporting oversight function of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). SEC compliance actions include reviewing firm filings and issuing comment letters on those filings. The SEC's compliance activities are seasonally compressed...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reviews firm filings and issues comment letters on those filings. These comment letters play an important role in the assessment of firm value. These activities are seasonally compressed because over 70 percent of registrants have a December...

This paper examines the consequences of real activities manipulation. Using financial statement data, I identify firms that appear to engage in any of the following real activities manipulation (RM): reducing Ramp;D to increase income, reducing SGamp;A to increase income, timing of income...

This study examines whether firms manage earnings to meet analyst forecasts to signal superior future performance. Prior research finds that firms use earnings management to just meet analyst forecasts and that these firms have a positive association with future performance (Bartov et al.,...