U.S. public companies can redact information from required material contracts disclosures whenmanagement asserts that the information is immaterial and would cause competitive harm ifpublicly disclosed (i.e., it is proprietary). This study examines whether managers use this channelto withhold...

The Securities and Exchange Commission permits companies to redact proprietary information from material contract filings so long as the redacted information 1) would cause competitive harm if disclosed, and 2) the information is legally immaterial. Because these joint criteria are inherently...

This paper provides an in-depth look into the properties of accounting numbers used in compensation contracts for S&P 500 firms from 2006 to 2017. Our data reveal wide variation in the accounting performance metrics used in compensation contracts, with some recent movement from bottom-line...

Analyzing over 97,000 price target valuations from 2005-2020, we find analysts’ judgments reflect over four times more pessimism per dollar of negative earnings news for Non-White CEO firms, resulting in lower target valuations. These lower target valuations are associated with an increased...