This study investigates the empirical relationship between organized labor and audit fees. We find that audit fees are negatively related to the firm-level unionization rate — the higher the unionization rate, the lower the audit fees. We further observe that the unionized firms are less...

We examine the disclosure policies of non-unionized firms operating in unionized industries. We test the hypothesis that non-unionized firms have an incentive to disclose more information when their unionized rivals are engaged in labor renegotiations; that is, to weaken them. We find that...

In this study, we seek to understand whether soft information conveyed by contracting language found in private loan agreements is informative regarding borrower risk. We proxy for credit-risk-relevant soft information using Loughran and McDonald's (2011) uncertainty measure. We first examine...

The evolution of mobile is reshaping the future of communication in the digital age. This report identifies emerging patterns of mobile communication and the factors that are shaping its future, including its societal implications. This analysis is used to speculate on alternative scenarios for...

We propose an auction-based mechanism to improve the efficiency of low earth orbit satellite communication systems. The mechanism allows the ground stations to bid for downlink resources such as spectrum, satellite links, or radios, without the need to send channel status back to satellites....

This study examines the influence of institutional dual-holders, whose portfolios hold both loans and equity securities of the same firms, on those firms’ disclosures. Using mergers between institutional shareholders and lenders to the same firms as exogenous shocks to identify firms with...

We examine how the ordering of information within quarterly earnings announcements influences investor response to those announcements. Specifically, we examine whether earlier discussion of earnings information, and earlier discussion of qualitatively positive or negative information, is...

The SEC's Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative (December 2013) highlights a difference between accounting regulators and academics in their perceptions of Item 1A risk factor disclosure effectiveness. Because most academic evidence relies on pre-financial crisis data, we compare changes in risk...

Distributed optical fiber sensing is suitable for long-distance water pipeline deformation monitoring. However, the distributed optical fiber measures the structural strain, which is difficult to reflect the deflection deformation of the pipeline directly. So, it is necessary to study...