Acquirers are motivated to overstate earnings prior to stock-financed acquisitions. We hypothesize that audits help to detect and correct such overstatements. We test this using a difference-in-differences design, which compares audit adjustments to earnings for stock-financed and cash-financed...

Using proprietary data obtained from a local tax office in China, we examine the determinants of corporate tax audits and the consequences of those audits. We find that the tax authority is more likely to select a firm for an audit when the firm has a lower effective tax rate, a higher book-tax...

In China, submitting a claim for R&D tax deductions increases the likelihood that a firm will be scrutinized by the tax authorities. We argue that tax aggressive firms are keen to avoid the oversight of the tax authorities and so they are less likely to submit claims for R&D tax deductions...

We extend prior research by exploring the importance of social ties among auditors' clients to audit quality. On one hand, social ties foster communication among clients concerning how to deal with an auditor, helping clients negotiate against proposed audit adjustments. On the other hand,...

Capitalizing on a unique setting in China where auditors disclose their prosocial activities, we examine the role that auditor social responsibility (ASR) plays in shaping their performance. In one direction, the behavior consistency theory implies that individual auditors exhibiting more social...

Capitalizing on a quasi-natural experiment in China where certain investment banks become investible to the global market across different periods, we explore the role that stock market liberalization plays in shaping local analysts' incentives to provide high quality forecasts. In a staggered...

Exploiting changes in China’s Environmental Protection Law in 2015 as a plausibly exogenous shock to the stringency of pollution control, we evaluate the role that state ownership plays in improving environmental quality. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we find a significant...

Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment in China in which some firms become investible to the global market across different periods (i.e., pilot firms), we evaluate the role that stock market liberalization plays in shaping local firms’ incentives to invest in corporate social responsibility...