We investigate the impact of uncertainty of uncertainty (UOU) on corporate accounting conservatism, finding a positive association. Mechanism analysis suggests that under UOU, creditor demands for real information drives shifts toward accounting conservatism. Further analysis shows that the...

Accounting conservatism could affect the quantitative information on a financial statement. In this paper, the author focuses on qualitative information on financial statements. The author investigates the association between financial report readability and accounting conservatism and uses the...

In this study, we examine the consequences of CEO facial masculinity for accounting conservatism. Facial masculinity is associated with an array of masculine behaviors including aggression, ambition, egocentricity, risk taking, and an increased desire to maintain social status. We predict that...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are among the most important investment activities for companies, but they contain great risks. We investigate the role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection and risk. We find that for risk-averse reasons, firms with high accounting conservatism are...

Political uncertainty leads to greater information asymmetry among contracting parties to the firm, resulting in an increased demand for accounting conservatism. Exploiting the exogenous variation in political uncertainty induced by the U.S. gubernatorial election cycle over the period...

We examine the effect of labor unemployment risk on corporate accounting conservatism by exploring the relationship between unemployment insurance benefits and conservatism. We find that lower perceived unemployment risk (i.e. higher unemployment insurance benefits) is associated with lower...

This study examines the relation between narrative risk disclosures and accounting conservatism by utilizing the SEC's 2005 mandate that firms disclose “the most significant factors that make the company speculative or risky” in their 10-K filings. By viewing such risk factor disclosures...

We examine the relation between the use of collateral and accounting conservatism for a sample of Chinese firms during 2001 to 2006. China provides a powerful setting for testing the direct effect of accounting conservatism on collateral requirements because of the government's tight control...

For a large sample of U.S. listed firms, we find that unconditional and conditional accounting conservatism help lower bankruptcy risk. We further find that the mitigating effect of accounting conservatism on bankruptcy risk functions via cash enhancement and earnings management mitigation...

We exploit variation in demand induced by demographics to provide causal evidence of the precautionary motive of cash holdings. Specifically, we show that firms significantly increase their cash levels in response to exogenous increases in investment opportunities. We also present the dynamics...

Previous studies show mixed evidence of the role of banking expertise on the board of directors on accounting conservatism. In this paper, we add to this growing literature by providing an innovative way to measure banking expertise based on life-time working history in banks of all individual...

This paper presents a static model of a competitive securities market. In the market there are two assets: risk-free asset and risky asset. The payoff of the risk-free asset is one and the payoff of the risky asset is unknown. Rational traders correctly estimate the mean and variance of the...

Based on the data of Chinese listed companies, this paper examines the impact of returnee's executives on accounting conservatism. We find that employing returnee executives can significantly improve accounting conservatism, especially in companies with weak internal control, high proportion of...

This study analyzes the relation between accounting conservatism, future tax rate cuts and countries' level of book-tax conformity. Firms have an incentive to increase conservatism in financial reporting when a tax rate cut is imminent to shift taxable income into the lower taxed future. Using a...

This study analyzes the relation between accounting conservatism, future tax rate cuts and countries' level of book-tax conformity. Firms have an incentive to increase conservatism in financial reporting when a tax rate cut is imminent to shift taxable income into the lower taxed future. Using a...

This paper investigates the association between investor sentiment and accounting conservatism. We find that managers recognize economic losses in earnings in a more timely manner during periods of high investor sentiment. Further, the sentiment-conservatism relation is stronger for firms with...

This study investigates how differences in religiosity (i.e., the strength of religion) across countries influence an important characteristic of financial reporting, accounting conservatism. Prior literature suggests that religious individuals are more risk-averse and have higher ethical...

In this paper, we illuminate the importance of accounting conservatism adjustments when estimating the implied cost of capital (ICC) with the Residual Income Valuation (RIV) and the Abnormal Earnings Growth (AEG) model. Specifically, we adjust for three main limitations in the research of ICC,...

In this study, we examine the relationship between a firm’s lobbying activities and financial reporting quality using a U.S. setting where public scrutiny of corporate political activities is high. More importantly, we examine whether and how a firm’s visibility shapes the relationship...

We examine whether and how accounting conservatism plays a disciplinary role in corporate layoffs. Analyzing 722 layoff announcements in Form 8-K over the period 2004 to 2012, we first document that the level of hiring on average falls short of the optimal level (i.e., under-hiring) even before...

This paper investigates the effect of CFO gender on corporate financial reporting decision-making. Focusing on firms that experience changes of CFO from male to female, the paper compares the firms' degree of accounting conservatism between pre- and post-transition periods. We find that female...

We examine the effect of second-generation state antitakeover laws (ATLs) on accounting conservatism. We adopt a novel methodology that corrects for selection bias resulting from firms' endogenous incorporation decision. Focusing on the period from when these ATLs became constitutional, we find...

Hedge fund intervention has been associated with many positive corporate changes and is an important vehicle for informed shareholder monitoring. Effective monitoring has also been positively associated with accounting conservatism. Building upon these prior results, we predict an increase in...

​This paper investigates the effect of CFO gender on corporate financial reporting decision-making. Focusing on firms that experience changes of CFO from male to female, the paper compares the firms' degree of accounting conservatism between pre- and post-transition periods. We find that...

The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the effects of the three pillars of Basel II, i.e. bank regulation, supervision and market discipline, on the timeliness of loan loss provisioning by banks. In particular, we analyze explicitly how regulatory and supervisory regimes interact with...