This paper investigates the extent to which banks alter the timing and magnitude of transactions such as asset sales, loan loss accruals, pension settlements and securities issues in response to primary capital, tax, and earnings goals. The authors hypothesize that each year bank managers face a...

This paper analyzes security returns of bank holding companies and insurance companies during periods surrounding the adoption of SFAS 115. We find that bank share prices were negatively affected by the examined events but find little share price reaction for insurance companies. Our evidence...

This paper examines whether managerial discretion over loan loss accruals, accounting related transactions such as sales of investment securities, and financing transactions are used to manage capital, earnings or taxes. We model discretion over these decisions using a system of five equations...

In this paper we examine the factors that determine how firms manage large, firm-specific risks, in this case, product liability. We study the impact of this high-probability, high-loss risk on a group of firms that all manage product liability through insurance purchases in the early 1980s. A...