We examine firms’ behavior around the adoption of SFAS 160 to provide evidence on the costs and benefits associated with mandated accounting changes. The reclassification of minority interest to equity mandated by SFAS 160 can result in a wealth transfer from bondholders to stockholders....

This study examines the relation between the ability of insider trades to predict future returns and the availability of firm information. It investigates the marginal effect of three information sources: financial statements, analyst following, and firm information provided by voluntary...

We use MD&A disclosures to predict current-year firm-level accruals using support-vector regressions. We call these predictions big-data accruals. Our aim is to measure the explanatory power of MD&A disclosures for liquidity and critical accounting choices. We find that big-data accruals explain...

Working capital is an important indicator of firm operational efficiency. All else equal, lower levels signal greater efficiency. As such, managers are likely to be motivated to report lower levels of working capital at times of greater external attention to its levels. This study provides...