We survey 401 financial executives, and conduct in-depth interviews with an additional 20, to determine the key factors that drive decisions related to performance measurement and voluntary disclosure. The majority of firms view earnings, especially EPS, as the key metric for an external...

This paper studies how industry peers respond when another firm in the industry is the subject of a hostile takeover attempt. We document two major responses. First, the industry peers cut their capital spending, free cash flows, and cash holdings, and increase their leverage and payouts to...

This paper finds that CEO stock options influence the choice, amount, and timing of funds distributed as a buyback. These results support two research expectations - that buybacks impose option-induced agency costs on outside shareholders, and that managers benefit from weak governance and...

In 2006-2007, convert funded stock buybacks are popular. Why? Consider Cypress Semiconductor's complex transaction. In March 2007, its stock at $18.89, Cypress sells $600 million of converts, enters a $571 million VWAP (volume weighted average price) stock buyback contract, buys calls and sells...

Prior research has separately examined pretax earnings management activities that have current taxable income consequences (book-tax 'conforming earnings management') and those that do not have current taxable income consequences (book-tax 'nonconforming earnings management'). Our study...

Prior research has separately examined pretax earnings management activities that have current taxable income consequences (book-tax 'conforming earnings management') and those that do not have current taxable income consequences (book-tax 'nonconforming earnings management'). Our study...

The objective of this paper is to provide preliminary evidence whether SFAS No. 109 tax data might be useful in distinguishing between firms that do versus do not engage in earnings overstatement fraud (hereafter fraud). We examine the associations of various versions of deferred tax expense...

We examine whether worker representation on corporate boards results in improved monitoring or payroll maximization. Several economic theories predict that worker representatives would use control and voting rights in the boardroom to transform firm assets into private benefits and increased...

This paper analyzes the links between corporate tax avoidance and the growth of high-powered incentives for managers. We develop a simple model that highlights the role of feedback effects between tax sheltering and managerial diversion in determining how high-powered incentives influence tax...

This Professor Cunningham's Introduction to his edited collection of Warren Buffett's noted letters to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The collection was prepared for a symposium held at Cardozo Law School in New York City in 1997 and originally published in the Cardozo Law Review. The...