We examine the effect of Big 4 auditors on management's use of optimistic language in audited financial statement disclosures. While regulators and practitioners consider the audit of disclosures to be increasingly important, empirical evidence of an auditor's effect on management's qualitative...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has long asserted that earnings management practices result in adverse consequences for investors. We examine whether SEC oversight affects firms' accounting quality in terms of earnings management trade-offs. We expect that increased firm-specific...

This paper examines the impact of a firm's social performance on the CEO's employment prospects. We track departing CEOs' subsequent employment records and find that the social performance of their previous employers improves their labor market outcomes. These CEOs are more likely to find a new...

Companies often use non-compete agreements to restrict employees from joining or forming a rival company. However, enforcement of non-compete agreements could also affect executive and director incentives to trade on their inside ownership because excessive trading profits could result in...

This paper examines the effect of information technologies on stock price crash risk. Information technology advancements change the way firm-specific information is disseminated and acquired, providing significant benefits to investors. We use the required staggered implementation of the SEC's...

We examine the impact of overconfidence on compensation structure. We test alternative hypotheses, drawing upon and extending existing theories. Our findings support the exploitation hypothesis: firms offer incentive-heavy compensation contracts to overconfident CEOs to exploit their...

We use the unique economic, legal, and political landscape of China to examine the impact of auditors on the incidence and consequences of accounting fraud. In particular, we examine whether large audit firms reduce the incidence of financial statement fraud in China, an emerging market in which...

A firm's investment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) builds a positive image of caring for social good and imposes additional costs on executives' informed trading, which is widely perceived self-serving. We thus expect executives of CSR-conscious firms to be more likely to refrain from...

An emerging literature shows that shareholders benefit from the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) filing reviews in terms of improved disclosures and reduced information asymmetry. However, these reviews also impose significant costs on companies because comment letter remediation...