This paper describes how governments and regulators could introduce selective de-regulation based on exempting corporations from existing practices when they amend their constitution to provide superior outcomes for investors and other stakeholders. An example is presented on how a company...

This study investigates the extent of compliance with international accounting standards (IASs) by companies in the Gulf Co-Operation Council (GCC) member states (Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). Based on a sample of 137 companies (436 company-years) we...

We examine the effect of the use of fairness opinions by acquirers on acquirers' short-term market performance. Our paper is the first to examine the effect of using fairness opinions on acquirers' abnormal returns around merger announcements. We hypothesize that acquirers purchase fairness...

Following the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act 2002, US stock exchanges strongly advocate the presence of financial experts on audit committees. However, the ideal definition of financial expertise proves to be a controversial issue culminating with the stock exchanges adopting a wide scoped...

Criminal prosecution of financial reporting-related corporate misconduct is generally acknowledged to be sometimes warranted. The decision to seek an indictment of Arthur Andersen remains controversial, however. Eisenberg and Macey (2004) posit that because the resulting increased concentration...

The paper has discussed to what extent the Parmalat is to be considered as a particularly Italian case. The main characteristics of Parmalat's corporate governance structure have been compared and contrasted with those prevailing among Italian listed companies, as well as with the highest...

We examine 3-day cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around the announcement of 850 newly appointed outside board members assigned to audit committees during 1993-2002, a period prior to the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Motivated by the SOX requirement that public companies...

The largest CPA firms have been regarded as quality-differentiated auditors. This has been a prominent assumption of empirical research in accounting and auditing. Yet, prior research has only tested whether the largest CPA firms, in the aggregate, are quality-differentiated auditors. This paper...

This paper is Part II in a two part series on conservatism in accounting. Part I examines alternative explanations for conservatism in accounting and their implications for accounting regulators (SEC and FASB). Part II summarizes the empirical evidence on the existence of conservatism,...

The association of a country's investor protection regime with the quality of reported earnings is examined for a large sample of firms from 42 countries. Three attributes of earnings are evaluated: the magnitude of the association of a country's investor protection regime with the quality of...