We investigate the determinants of firms' implicit insurance to employees, using a difference-indifference approach: we rely on differences between family and non-family firms to identify the supply of insurance, and exploit variation in unemployment insurance across and within countries to...

Contract audits aimed at reducing information asymmetry and transaction costs are frequently used in imperfect markets such as defense procurement. This contradicts predictions from standard economic theory. We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate this paradox. Our laboratory setup...

This study analyzes how the Big Five personality traits and professional experience affect the aggressiveness of tax preparers' recommendations. To this aim, we conduct a survey among tax professionals of a Big Four accounting firm and tax students. Using treatment-effects regressions, we find...

Tax accounting and tax law concern the probability thresholds that can require the taxpayer to estimate the likelihood that a tax position would be upheld by a court. Tax complexity and the consequent ambiguity results in a reliance by most taxpayers on a tax expert estimate of this likelihood....

The business reporting standard XBRL offers the opportunity to easily extract and analyze a sufficient number of monetary items out of single annual reports for statistical analysis purposes. Using XBRL 10-K reports filed with the SEC EDGAR system, we derive first digit distributions for single...

Can corporate governance ratings reduce problems of asymmetric information between companies and investors? To answer this question, we set out to examine the information basis for providing such ratings by reviewing corporate governance attributes that are required or recommended in laws,...

The purpose of this paper is to examine determinants of financial information disclosure by Tunisian companies. The methodology is based on qualitative approach, using the cognitive mapping technique. To take into account the specificities of the Tunisian economic, we felt that it is essential...

This paper provides a systematic study of the market for accountants in Italy during the period 1980-91. Firstly, it develops a comparison in the determinants of incomes of the two competing professions (Commercialisti and Ragionieri) focusing on entry as one of the main variables of interest to...

As environmental performance is increasingly seen to have an influence over financial performance and financial risk assessment, disclosure of environmental issues in the Annual Reports is a fundamental requirement for a company in order to satisfy the information needs of its stakeholders....

Fraud is a serious problem in the world, which often implies huge financial losses. The risk of fraud which is committed in companies is often considered insignificant and no preventive measures are taken which would minimize the possibility of its occurrence. Often, companies also do not have...