Ideally, firms should discontinue projects that become unprofitable. Managers, however, continue to operate such projects because of their limited employment horizons and empire-building motivations (Jensen, 1986; Ball, 2001). Prior studies suggest that timely loss recognition in accounting earnings...

The literature shows that a lender becomes reluctant to aid a distressed client after it receives insurance on its outstanding debt via a credit default swap (CDS). The onset of CDS trade thus accelerates client bankruptcy. We predict that the client firm's shareholders would respond by...

We construct a measure of intangible intensity — intangibles talk — based on textual analysis of discussions on intangibles in a firm’s 10-K filings. This measure is based on firms’ discussion of ex-post outcomes of intangibles investments. Our measure is correlated with, but carries...

Prior research suggests that managers use income-increasing (decreasing) accruals to increase the value of their stock option exercises (grants). I extend this research by modeling firms' accrual choices when incentives from stock options conflict and are confounded by other stock option...

This paper examines whether stock option grants explain missed earnings targets, including reported losses, earnings declines and missed analysts' forecasts. Anecdotal evidence and surveys suggest that managers believe that missing an earnings target can cause stock-price drops (Graham, et al....