This study investigates the monitoring role of high-quality auditors defined as office-level industry specialists in the stock market valuation of cash assets. We find that the market value of cash holdings is significantly higher for the client of an industry specialist auditor. The marginal...

This study first establishes a causal relation between insider trading and the likelihood of stock price crash occurrence, and then investigates potential channels through which the former influences the latter. Exploiting the initial enforcement of insider trading laws in a country as a natural...

The media in China has undergone extensive commercialization to become more market-driven over the last 35 years. Based on a sample of over two million newspaper articles, this study investigates whether the media in China has an incremental impact on stock price efficiency. We find that as...

We examine the economic benefits of paying dividends. We find that dividend payments mitigate stock price crash risk. In addition, we show that dividend payments reduce bad news hoarding (overinvestment) while bad news hoarding (overinvestment) is positively associated with stock price crash...

Technology spillovers have previously been shown to positively affect a firm's market value and innovation activities. We build on this literature by showing that value-relevant information from technology spillovers significantly reduces the likelihood of the focal firm experiencing a stock...

We study the consequences of firm-specific stock price crashes (SPCs) by examining whether, and if so, how SPCs affect market information efficiency. This contrasts with prior research that focuses on firm-specific causes or determinants of SPCs. The tension underlying our research question...

We investigate the influence of foreign institutional investors on firms' auditor choices in an international setting. Foreign institutional investors are likely to demand high-quality audits to mitigate the information asymmetry they face and facilitate their external monitoring when they...

The IRS uses information contained in financial statements as well as tax returns to detect tax avoidance behavior. We examine the impact on corporate tax avoidance behavior of reductions in the IRS's information processing costs resulting from the mandatory adoption of XBRL for financial...

Using data from 43 markets around the world, we document that firms with larger goodwill balances have a higher stock price crash risk in future years. The positive association between goodwill balances and future crash risk is stronger for firms with weaker incentives to provide transparent...

Prior literature provides mixed and relatively little evidence on the economic consequences of related-party transactions. We examine a hitherto underexplored issue of whether transactions among firms within the same business group increase or reduce firm value. Using a large sample of Chinese...