This study investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) mitigates or contributes to stock price crash risk. Crash risk, defined as the conditional skewness of return distribution, captures asymmetry in risk and is important for investment decisions and risk management. If socially...

This study examines whether CEO equity incentives have an impact on audit pricing. Prior studies investigate whether CEO equity incentives motivate executives to manage earnings for personal financial gains. Our focus is on whether auditors perceive CEO equity incentives to be associated with...

Motivated by the international business literature that examines the interactions between political forces and business environments, we investigate whether and how political connections affect managers' voluntary disclosure choices. We show that compared to non-connected firms, connected firms...

This paper investigates the capital market consequences of the SEC's decision to eliminate the reconciliation requirement for cross-listed companies following International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find no evidence that the elimination has a negative impact on firms' market...

Using seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) from 1989 to 2008, we examine the role of accounting conservatism in the equity market. We find that issuers with a greater degree of conservatism experience less negative market reactions to SEO announcements. We further show that an important mechanism...

We offer evidence that the use of Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE) in CEOs' incentive contracts influences the effect of risk-taking incentives on both the magnitude and composition of firm risk. We find that when the incentive design lacks RPE features, the incentive portfolio vega...

We examine how a firm's operational slack is associated with current income and future stock price crash risk. By doing so, we test the validity of a firm's alternative motivations for holding operational slack. We show that Supply Chain Slack, which is based on excess working capital, is...

Income taxes are a major expense for profitable corporations, oftentimes 25 percent or more of pretax income. This study exploits a setting – the market for corporate control – to test competing agency-based and risk-based explanations of corporate tax planning. Exploiting the staggered...

Contracting theory asserts that the income statement's primary role is to provide useful information for management performance evaluation. We study the effect of fair value accounting on this role by examining the change in earnings pay-performance sensitivity (PPS) following the 2005 worldwide...

We examine the impact of corporate board reforms around the world on stock price crash risk. Using a sample of firms in 41 economies that passed major board reforms between 1990 and 2012, we find that board reforms are associated with a significant reduction in crash risk of about 13%. The...