We analyze optimal correlation levels in information technologies when multiple signals are available as contracting mechanisms within the principal-agent paradigm. We identify sufficient conditions ensuring that uniformly lower-correlation functions (in action levels) are preferred, as well as...

Purpose – Auditing may be viewed as an arrangement for reducing inefficiencies arising from the fundamental market conflict between a seller who wants as high a price as possible and a buyer who wants to pay as low a price as possible. In more general terms, sellers prefer policies that boost...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between bargain purchase gains (BPGs) booked by the acquirer and smoothing of acquirers’ earning performance across time. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a sample of 122 bargain purchase acquisitions in...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the expected rate of return (ERR) management is related to disclosure of pension asset allocation. FAS 132R(1), which requires firms to disaggregate the detailed categories of pension asset allocation, provides a natural experiment...

Banker and Maindiratta (1992) provides a method for the estimation of a stochastic production frontier from the class of all monotone and concave functions. A key aspect of their procedure is that the arguments in the log-likelihood function are the fitted frontier outputs themselves rather than...

Legal penalties and liability insurance seem to have counteracting effects on the incentives of a potential injurer to take due care. However, if legal penalties are set efficiently and implemented perfectly, unrestricted access to insurance can be optimal. In contrast, if the standards of guilt...