Accounting rules for valuing retained interest from securitizations require management to make assumptions concerning discount rates, default rates, and prepayment rates. These assumptions provide management with discretion to determine the "gain on sale" of the receivables. We investigate...

We investigate whether a departure from a tax-based accounting system toward the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards encourages tax noncompliance. We also examine whether such a departure, which weakens book-tax conformity, affects the informativeness of book-tax differences...

Francis and Martin (2009) test whether accounting conservatism induces managers to make better acquisition decisions. This discussion highlights three main issues. First, the hypothesized links between conservatism and future investments are potentially incomplete. In particular, the possibility...

Recent accounting research has started to investigate the links between corporate compensation and auditor compensation. Engel et al. (2010) take a first step to connect these previously distinct literatures by investigating the association between audit committee pay and audit fees. I discuss...

We document a market failure to fully respond to loss/profit quarterly announcements. The annualized post portfolio formation return spread between two portfolios formed on extreme losses and extreme profits is approximately 21 percent. This loss/profit anomaly is incremental to previously...

Altamuro and Beatty (2009) examine financial reporting quality before and after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA). They document increases in the validity of the loan-loss provision, earnings persistence, predictability of future cash flows and reductions in...

This study attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationships among chief financial officers' (CFOs') professional qualifications, SOX Section 404 internal control weakness, CFOs' turnover, CFOs' qualification improvement, and correction of material weaknesses. We find...

Executive compensation consultants face potential conflicts of interest that can lead to higher recommended levels of CEO pay, including the desires to "cross-sell" services and to secure "repeat business." We find evidence in both the US and Canada that CEO pay is higher in companies where the...

We investigate if timely loss recognition is associated with acquisition-investment decisions. Using a Basu (1997) piece-wise linear regression model, we find that firms with more timely incorporation of economic losses into earnings make more profitable acquisitions, measured by the bidder's...

Sell-side analysts, on balance, have incentives to emphasize good company news and downplay the bad, resulting in inefficient forecasts. We conjecture that this behavior generates a demand for forecasts from conservative analysts who unwind this pattern, at least in part, resulting in more...