This commentary proposes an approach to asset measurement rooted in business valuation theory and practice. In the context of a business valuation, investors' information needs and the asset measurement investors find useful vary with the manner in which the assets are expected to realize value...

We exploit the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Kokesh v. SEC [2017] as a unique identification strategy to investigate the value of securities law enforcement. The Kokesh decision was an unanticipated legal change that limits the SEC's ability to impose disgorgement—its most potent...

The wide-spread use of rank and file equity-based compensation suggests that executives believe that rank and file employees can affect firm outcomes, and some research supports this view. If equity-based incentives influence rank and file employees' productive efforts, they might also influence...

This paper offers an in-depth data driven overview of the history and status as of 2017 of segment reporting by public entities trading in U.S. capital markets. Our analysis focuses on the perceived issues identified in the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) 2016 Invitation to Comment...

We examine whether the complexity of mandatory accounting disclosures prompts managers to voluntarily disclose adjusted measures of actual earnings performance. We also explore whether this disclosure practice reflects attempts to obfuscate or to mitigate informational problems arising from...

Researchers typically infer real earnings management when a firm's operating and investing activities differ from industry norms. One significant problem with classifying deviations from industry averages as “earnings management” is that companies can change their operating and investing...