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 investigates whether the decision to issue a management earnings forecast is related to information asymmetry in the market for the firm s stock and whether the forecasts reduce the asymmetry. Theoretical models hold that a portion of the bid-ask spread arises because of asymmetric...

Firms enjoy a wide degree of discretion in their disclosure of events in the patent granting process, which investors generally view as "good news" announcements. This study examines the timing of patent disclosure in conjunction with earnings announcements in light of managers' incentives to...

The legislation known as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) requires firms to assess their internal controls over financial reporting and to report material weaknesses, as defined by the Public Accounting Oversight Board. Based upon early evidence, we find that firms with material weaknesses are, on average,...

We investigate whether clear disclosure of comprehensive income (CI) facilitates detection of earnings management by buy-side financial analysts and predictably affects their security price judgments. Because analysts and investors often must sort through voluminous footnotes and non-financial...

Recent accounting research finds that the discretionary accrual component of earnings communicates managers' private information to stock market participants. We show that effects related to managerial compensation contracts and corporate debt agreements influence how the stock market interprets...

We compare earnings for the last twelve months ending in quarter four (i.e., fiscal year earnings), three, two and one. Prior literature offers two competing explanations for why fourth quarter earnings exhibit higher volatility than other interim quarters. Under the first explanation, GAAP...

Change in 10-K file size robustly and negatively predicts future stock returns. The documented return predictability reflects mainly information content of 10-K file size change on future cash flow news. We examine whether this return predictability derives from managers' risk disclosures or...

This paper uses several approaches to assess the impact of the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) scrutiny of firms' purchase accounting and in-process research and development (IPRamp;D) write-offs taken during 1997 and 1998. Using hand collected data, I examine the characteristics of...

We argue that high accruals are likely to be the outcome of rules with an income statement perspective, while low accruals are likely to be the outcome of rules with a balance sheet perspective and that this has implications for the properties of earnings. Specifically, earnings persistence is...