We investigate the usefulness of balance sheet disaggregations in the context of forecasting operating asset growth. We find greater forecast accuracy for models using disaggregate relative to aggregate balance sheet information, with the most accurate disaggregation scheme considering property,...

We examine the relation between auditor industry specialization and the ability of accruals to predict future cash flows, a key attribute of informative accounting. We find that, on average, client firms of industry specialist auditors have a weaker relation between accruals and future cash...

The paper provides a cost-based explanation for decision makers' reluctance to use fraud prediction models, particularly as these models have nearly doubled their success at identifying fraud (true positive rates) when compared to the initial models in Beneish (1997, 1999). We estimate the costs...

The increasingly service-based U.S. economy places a high reliance on innovation. While there is considerable research on the importance of certain innovative activities such as patents, less attention has been paid to unpatented innovation, about which there is naturally less publicly available...

We investigate the presence of a shared life cycle component in earnings and test whether the earnings of one firm are relevant for valuing other firms in the same life cycle stage. We find that firm-pairs in the same life cycle stage have greater accounting comparability and greater co-movement...

This study investigates the impact of equity market competition on stock price crash risk. Higher levels of equity market competition lead to a faster incorporation of information into stock prices, so that the amount of information that is at any time impounded into prices is greater. I find...

This study examines how analyst forecast behavior varies over the firm life cycle. While mispricing by investors and firms' visibility concerns could increase both the supply and demand for analyst services in early-stage firms, forecasting difficulty and limited visibility could in contrast...

This study examines the relation between firm life cycle and stock price crash risk. Consistent with the argumentation that heterogeneity in investor beliefs about firm fundamental values is highest during the introduction and growth stage, we find that crash risk peaks in these stages....

I examine whether a reversal of an abnormal cut in discretionary investments is associated with the degree to which the cut is reflective of real earnings management (REM) and whether and how it predicts future operating performance. I define a reversal as occurring when a firm cuts...