This paper investigates whether firms use discretion in accounting for deferred taxes to increase earnings and avoid reporting a loss. We find that firm-years with small scaled profits reduce (relative to the prior year) the proportion of the gross deferred tax asset reserved by the valuation...

Using a sample of seventy-two firms that adopted fresh start reporting upon their emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, I test whether management estimates of fresh start equity values are misstated and whether such misstatements are related to characteristics of individual firms' bankruptcy...

The adoption of SAB 101, a regulation affecting revenue recognition, was controversial. The SEC argued that firms were using their revenue recognition practices to manage earnings, while opponents asserted that eliminating accepted revenue recognition practices would decrease the quality of...

Based on the data of Chinese listed companies, this paper examines the impact of anti-corruption on accounting conservatism. We find that anti-corruption can significantly improve accounting conservatism, especially in companies with weak internal control, high proportion of large shareholders...

We study labor unions, an important stakeholder group that has not been a focus of the earnings smoothing literature. We posit that managers strike a balance between sheltering resources from employees’ profit sharing demands and catering to employees’ aversion to downside risk by smoothing...

The financial press and accounting regulators (e.g., the SEC and FASB) have expressed concern about pressures on Internet firms to report high levels of revenue. This study verifies the association between market capitalization and revenue, and examines economic factors that potentially...

Financial Accounting Standard No. 130 Reporting Comprehensive Income encourages enterprises to report comprehensive income on a performance statement rather than on a statement of equity. We investigate the reporting decisions of 82 publicly traded property-liability insurers, which are fairly...

Estimates of future quarterly earnings are of prime importance to capital market participants for formulating their investment decisions. Superior ability to forecast future earnings may enable investors to reap extraordinary returns by trading in the affected securities. The extant forecast...

Our paper examines the association between components of analysts' earnings surprises and future earnings. We decompose the analysts' earnings surprise into its revenue, pretax margin, pretax income, and tax components. After controlling for current period earnings and discretionary accruals, we...

This study provides evidence concerning the significance of assessing operational control risks as part of an integrative evaluation of internal controls. We examine whether operational control weaknesses can be used as cues to potential unreported financial reporting control weaknesses, and in...