We analyze whether tough IRS monitoring generates a positive externality by constraining managers' bad news hoarding activities. Supporting this prediction, we find a negative relation between the threat of an IRS audit and stock price crash risk. Our evidence is consistent with recent theory...

In measuring tunneling with inter-corporate loans disclosed by Chinese listed companies, we analyze the underlying channels through which aggressive tax planning facilitates the diversion of corporate resources by firm insiders. Using path analysis, we document that the path from tax...

Prior research documents wide variation in the precision of accounting standards (rules-based standards (RBS) versus principles-based standards (PBS)). We examine whether financial reporting quality evident in restatements is associated with accounting standard precision and whether the role...

Auditors are required by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other rules to evaluate the probability that a firm's management bribes foreign government officials. If the auditors comply with these rules by assessing higher audit risk for firms with operations in corrupt foreign countries, we...

Theory suggests that financial-report-based debt covenants engender incentives for the manager to relax covenant constraints through accounting choices in order to avoid costly covenant violations. Prior studies directly testing this hypothesis in the context of financial misreporting fail to...

Extant evidence implies that managers rely on a variety of non-income-increasing techniques to manipulate earnings. However, prior research finds that the auditor is more likely to discipline firms against practicing income-increasing (II) earnings management due to its higher litigation and...

We examine which of two opposing financial reporting incentives that group-affiliated firms experience shapes their accounting transparency evident in auditor choice. In one direction, complex group structure and intra-group transactions enable controlling shareholders to pursue diversionary...

This study examines whether the term of the auditor-client relationship (i.e., auditor tenure) is associated with future stock price crash risk measured both ex ante and ex post. Using a large sample of U.S. public firms with Big Four auditors, we find robust evidence that auditor tenure is...

Existing research on opinion shopping focuses primarily on managers' attempts to switch auditors in order to avoid the receipt of an unfavorable audit opinion. We extend this literature by examining whether managers successfully shop for auditors who will allow questionable accounting practices,...