Mispricing and risk have both been suggested as explanations for the cross-sectional relation between stock returns and firm characteristics such as accruals. As emphasized by Ferson and Harvey (1998) and Berk, Green and Naik (1999), it is difficult to evaluate these competing explanations...

There is reliable evidence that managers smooth their reported earnings. If some firms manage earnings downwards (upwards) when they experience large positive (negative) earnings shocks and if investors have cognitive limits or are inattentive, then it is plausible that the post-earnings...

This paper examines how the characteristics of accounting systems and management incentives interact and collectively determine financial reporting quality. We develop a rational expectations equilibrium model that features a steady-state firm with investments, financial and non-financial...

The corporate information environment develops endogenously as a consequence of information asymmetries and agency problems between investors, entrepreneurs, and managers. We provide a framework for analyzing the three main decisions that shape the corporate information environment in a capital...

We find that shorts establish significant positions more than a year before the average restatement announcement, those positions increase as the announcement month approaches, and the largest positions are held in companies that will announce an accounting irregularity that attracts class...

Using a large sample of earnings announcements made by firms belonging to Korean chaebols, we examine propping (i.e., negative tunneling) within a chaebol. Consistent with the market's ex-ante valuation of intra-group propping, we find that the announcement of increased (decreased) earnings over...

This paper examines the relation between earnings management and the marginal cost of debt to the firm using a sample of traded corporate bonds for the period 1994-2005. The marginal cost of debt is captured by market determined yield spreads, while earnings management is proxied by three...

We examine earnings management behavior around SEOs, focusing on both real activities and accrual-based manipulation. Although research has addressed the issues of earnings management around SEOs and earnings management via real activities manipulation, ours is the first paper to put these two...

This paper examines the consequences of expectations management for the usefulness of analyst forecasts in firm valuation. Specifically, I compare the performances of valuation models estimated using manipulated versus non-manipulated forecasts to predict firms' intrinsic values. The results...

Viewing the detection of earnings management from the perspective of a crime scene investigator sheds new light on prior research on earnings management and its close relative, earnings quality. Ball and Shivakumar (2007) and Teoh et al. (1998) are used to illustrate the application of seven...