This dissertation investigates whether harmonization of accounting standards enhances the comparability of financial information across countries. In the first chapter, I statistically define and link comparability to firm value in a theoretical framework. Based on a two-firm, sequential...

As the first English publication focusing on Japanese accounting research, we believe that one of the long-term goals for this journal is to help build an indigenous research culture that attracts an international audience. In this paper, we provide some thoughts on 1) identifying Japanese...

We examine the determinants and outcomes of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) accepting a $1 salary, a compensation practice that occurs relatively frequently in high-profile firms and is debated by regulators, investors, and the media. Using a hand-collected sample of 93 CEOs from 91 firms...

We examine the causal effect of expected private litigation costs on voluntary disclosure using a natural experiment, the Supreme Court ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank. This ruling reduced expected private litigation costs for foreign cross-listed firms by eliminating the right of...

Are regulatory interventions delayed reactions to market failures or can regulators proactively pre-empt corporate misbehavior? From a public interest view, we would expect “effective” regulation to ex ante mitigate agency conflicts between corporate insiders and outsiders, and prevent...

We examine how investors respond to concurrent financial and ESG performance news and the implications of their response for investor screening. Our analyses reveal that investors respond more strongly to ESG performance news during earnings announcement (EA) periods than non-EA periods. We also...

When countries shift from a fixed to a floating currency regime, the change in currency risk for a US MNC is larger for currencies tied to the dollar during the fixed regime than for non-dollar-linked currencies. Our analysis exploits this difference in changes in currency risk around regime...

We examine whether firms use social media to strategically disseminate financial information. Analyzing S&P 1500 firms' use of Twitter to disseminate quarterly earnings announcements, we find that firms are less likely to disseminate when the news is bad and when the magnitude of the bad news is...

We document that corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) expenditures are not a form of corporate charity nor do they improve future financial performance. Rather, firms undertake CSR expenditures in the current period when they anticipate stronger future financial performance. We show that...

This study empirically examines the role of risk sharing between taxable investors and the government on the relation between capital gains taxes and expected returns. Specifically, using an international panel from 26 countries over the period 1990 to 2004, we find evidence that the general...