This study examines all SOX 404 reports issued between 2004 and 2014 to determine their readability as measured by the FOG index after controlling for report size. We find that managements' reports are more readable than auditors' reports. Big 6 reports are less readable than non-Big 6 reports....

A number of papers have attempted to study firm-specific characteristics of the participants in the SEC-administered XBRL Voluntary Filing Program (VFP). However, to date their findings have been conflicting, contrary to the underlying theory or inconclusive due to methodological limitations....

This study experimentally examines a random sample of 50 SOX 404 reports issued between 2004 and 2009 to determine their informativeness, as represented by their readability measured by the Fog index and understandability measured by coding errors. We hypothesize that there has been no change in...

This study examines SOX 404 reports with fiscal year-ends between 2004 and 2014 to determine their readability as measured by the FOG Index. We investigate the association between readability and company characteristics, auditor type, opinion type, time period, report content, and report length....

This paper investigates the relationship between changes in accounting estimates and subsequent restatements. Theory suggests that depending on the underlying reason for an estimate change, this relationship can be either negative (for changes in estimates made in response to new developments or...