The purpose of this study is to determine whether earning management is exacerbated or alleviated in diversified firms. An explicit distinction is made between industrial and geographic diversification. The empirical evidence shows that earnings management is mitigated by 1.8% in industrially...

Prior research shows that religion promotes honesty. Honesty in turn motivates managers to view an expropriation from shareholders as self-serving, opportunistic, and unethical, thereby alleviating the agency conflict. Religious piety is thus expected to discourage agency-driven acquisitions...

This paper examines the impact of multiple directorships on stockholder wealth around the announcements of mergers and acquisitions. Grounded in agency theory, we argue that multiple directorships affect the quality of managerial oversight and thus influence agency conflicts in acquisition...

Grounded in agency theory, this study explores how capital structure is influenced by aggregate corporate governance quality. We employ broad-based governance measures that encompass multiple factors, including boards, audit quality, charter/bylaws, director quality, executive compensation,...

We examine the impact of corporate governance quality on the extent of analyst coverage. The evidence based on nearly 3,000 firms indicates that more analysts are likely to cover firms with weaker corporate governance. In particular, as corporate governance quality falls by one standard...

This paper investigates operational hedging by firms and how operational hedging is related to financial hedging by using a sample of 424 firm observations, which consist of 212 operationally-hedged firms (firms with foreign sales) and a size and industry matched sample of 212...

This paper empirically examines the economic effects of both corporate industrial and geographic diversifications. Using a sample of 28,050 firm year observations from 1990 to 1998, we find that industrial and geographic diversifications are associated with firm value decrease. Consistent with...

Motivated by agency theory, we investigate how a firm’s overall quality of corporate governance affects its dividend policy. Using a large sample of firms with governance data from The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), we find that firms with stronger governance exhibit a higher...

We investigate the extent of earnings management during the financial crisis of 2008 (The Great Recession). Based on a large sample of over 14,000 observations across 15 years, our results show that firms managed earnings less aggressively during the crisis. We also show a severe decline in firm...

We provide evidence on the effect of corporate governance on the extent of corporate risk-taking. Provided by the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), our governance metrics are among the most comprehensive in the literature. Our results show that firms with more effective governance...