The frequency of special items has increased dramatically over time, offering a convenient conduit for the inappropriate classification of past, present, and future recurring expenses as non-recurring. Identifying this misclassification is especially important in light of the pervasive use of...

We examine several potential explanations for the contemporaneous reporting of income increasing and income decreasing special items. The analysis is rooted in the observation that the practice should be infrequent since statement users discount special items relative to recurring income, i.e.,...

We introduce a measure of customer franchise value for subscription–based companies — a fast growing and vital sector of the economy. This measure is based on information voluntarily disclosed by some, but not all, firms. Controlling for self-selection, we examine the measure's information...

Risk is an important earnings attribute in valuation models and the FASB's conceptual framework identifies providing information about risk as a primary objective for earnings. Managers and analysts, however, state that they provide non-GAAP earnings to produce numbers that are more focused on...

We examine the effect of credit default swap (CDS) coverage on voluntary disclosure using firm provided non-GAAP earnings as a laboratory. For a large sample of U.S. firms, we find that for companies with CDS coverage, the persistence of non-GAAP exclusions is lower, implying higher disclosure...

A long-standing literature documents the existence of intra-industry capital market co-movements around earnings releases, yet the dynamics of these information transfers remain largely unexplored. We provide evidence on both the sources and the channels of information transfers by separating...

We study the interplay between the redaction of information from regulatory filings and SEC monitoring of the redacting firms. We find that redactions are associated with more intense SEC monitoring, as evidenced by higher incidence of comment letters and a longer letter resolution process. Hand...