We dissect the portion of stock price change of the fiscal year that is recognized in reported accounting earnings of the year. We call this portion earnings recognition timeliness (ERT). The emphasis in our dissection is on empirical identification of two fundamental precepts of financial...

A vast literature following Hayn [1995] and Burgstahler and Dichev [1997] attributed the so-called 'discontinuities' in earnings distributions around zero to earnings management. Despite recent evidence that these discontinuities are likely caused by other factors, researchers and teachers...

Other comprehensive income (OCI) items are often considered to be transitory (Chambers et al. 2007; IASB 2013; CFA2014). In this paper we show that a significant portion of OCI, namely unrealized gains and losses (UGL) from available-for-sale (AFS) debt securities, is non-transitory: a negative...

The extant literature provides evidence that, for many SEC 8-K filings, there is a significant market reaction on the date of the event that led to the 8-K filing, on the days between the event date and the filing date and on the filing date. We address the question, who pays attention and who...

We extend Easton's (2007) review of the literature on accounting-based estimates of the expected rate of return on equity capital, which we refer to as the ERR. We begin by reiterating the reasons why accounting-based estimates are used. Next, we briefly review the recent literature that focuses...

We use the relaxation of interstate branching restrictions under the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act (IBBEA) to examine how increases in competition affect incumbents' voluntary disclosure choices. States implemented the IBBEA over several years and to varying degrees, allowing...

This research note formulates a method called Effect Size Confidence (ESC) that provides confidence about whether a null result reflects an effect that is economically insignificant. Null or statistically insignificant results are more credible when coupled with evidence that the effects under...

Accounting research has long claimed that banks time sales of available-for-sale securities to smooth earnings. We find that what the prior literature calls smoothing is more accurately characterized as boosting of low earnings. That is, the “smoothing” behavior is asymmetric, occurring at...

Motivated by the ambiguity of auditor dismissals and dismissal disclosures, this study informs about an alternative signal – the timing of the dismissal – for inferring the causes and implications of dismissals. Dividing the reporting year into four periods when dismissals can occur, we find...