We present evidence on the relationship between firms that have engaged in fraudulent financial reporting and accounting conservatism. We empirically investigate the extent to which U.S. firms identified by the SEC in their Enforcement Releases demonstrate higher levels of conditional...

Drawing on financial reporting, institutional, and social psychology theories, we consider whether awareness of SEC scrutiny affects the extent to which managers exercise financial reporting discretion. Because there is a higher probability that the SEC will detect misconduct and impose...

We examine whether firms exploit enforcement heterogeneity in response to risks and costs arising from investigations by regional Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement offices. We find that firms facing high SEC scrutiny risk are more likely to relocate outside the jurisdiction of...

We use hand-collected data from SEC's litigation releases for insider trading violations to examine the effect of geographic distance on its enforcement activities and insider trading activities. First, we find that the SEC is more likely to investigate companies that are closer to its offices....

The Dodd-Frank Act allows the SEC to choose either an internal administrative proceeding or a federal district court as an enforcement venue for resolving violations of federal securities laws. I first document that the SEC increased the use of administrative proceedings after Dodd-Frank. I next...

Government officials, advocacy groups, and the business press have raised concerns that former SEC employees may continue to influence the SEC after leaving the agency. Using a hand-collected database of lawyers who represent firms in responding to SEC comment letters, we examine the...

We examine how SEC comment letters asking firms to remove full non-GAAP income statements affect those firms' information environments. Using a difference-in-difference design, we find that the informativeness of non-GAAP earnings and earnings announcements decreases, information asymmetry...

SEC oversight of publicly listed firms ranges from comment letter (CL) reviews of firms' reporting compliance to pursuing enforcement actions against violators. Prior literature finds that firm political connections (PC) negatively predict enforcement actions, inferring SEC capture. We present...

Donald T. Nicolaisen (1944-2019) was an internationalist, a progressive thinker, and a leader of the U.S. accounting profession. This memorial article traces Nicolaisen's early education and career in the Milwaukee office of Price Waterhouse & Co. in the 1960s, his rise to partner and eventual...

Employing the SEC Tick Size Pilot Program that increases the minimum trading unit of a set of randomly selected small-capitalization stocks, we examine whether and how an exogenous change in stock liquidity affects corporate voluntary disclosure. Using difference-in-differences analyses with...