Practitioners have long criticized risk-factor disclosures in the 10-K as generic and boilerplate. In response, regulators emphasize the importance of being specific. By using a computing algorithm, this paper establishes a new measure (Specificity) to quantify the level of specificity of firms'...

Using a shock to the Chinese capital market and unique and detailed audit-adjustment data, this paper investigates the effect of a capital-market liberalization program on auditors' adjustments to their clients' financial reports. Employing difference-in-differences tests with propensity-score...

We examine the impact of China's anti-corruption campaign on firm-level financial reporting quality (FRQ). As an important component of the anti-corruption campaign, in October 2013, “Rule 18” was issued to prohibit party and government officials from serving as directors for publicly listed...

We examine the informational role of governments in the private sector in emerging economies. Using a large sample of private firms, we show that governments’ ability and willingness to collect and disseminate economic information (government transparency) is positively associated with...

This study constructs a novel measure that aims to capture face-to-face private communications between firm managers and sell-side analysts by mapping detailed, large-volume taxi trip records from New York City to the GPS coordinates of companies and brokerages. Consistent with earnings releases...

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether firms' auditor choice relates to national culture. We construct a novel measure of secretiveness based on Hofstede's (1980) cultural factors. Using a very large sample of firms from 37 countries and controlling for a number of firm- and...

Using an international sample, I investigate whether the extent of firms' disclosure of their accounting policies in the annual report is associated with properties of analysts' earnings forecasts. Controlling for firm - and country - level variables, I find that the level of accounting policy...

Using a sample from 22 countries, I investigate the relations between the accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts and the level of annual report disclosure; and between forecast accuracy and the degree of enforcement of accounting standards. I document that firm-level disclosures are positively...