In this article we investigate the behavior in asset sales of publicly traded U.S. hotel firms in relation to earnings management. Asset disposition has been regarded as one of the most efficient methods for controlling accounting income. Given a heavy weight of fixed assets in the asset...

A rich literature argues that stock repurchases often serve as positive economic signals beneficial to investors. Yet due to their inherent flexibility, open-market repurchase programs have long been criticized as weak signals lacking commitment. We evaluate whether some managers potentially use...

We examine whether earnings management spreads from firm to firm via board connections of shared directors. A firm has a higher likelihood of restating earnings in a given year if it shares a director with another firm that restated earnings either in that same year or within the past two years....

Prior literature suggests two competing theories regarding the role of venture capitalists (VCs) in their portfolio companies. The VC monitoring hypothesis argues that VCs effectively resolve the managerial agency problem through close monitoring and restraining managers' earnings management...

Today's predominant disclosure philosophy calls for the fulldisclosure of all decision relevant information bycompanies. More publicly available information, theargument goes, limits the adverse selection problem by reducinginformation asymmetry among heterogeneous investors. Thus, theliquidity...

In the first essay, I examine the association between auditor industry specialization and earnings management choices. Prior research suggests that industry specialist auditors constrain accounting-based earnings management. But such actions may cause client companies to seek alternative means...

This paper examines when firms manage reported cash from operations in the statement of cash flows (CFO) and the mechanisms through which CFO can be managed. CFO management as investigated in this paper is distinct from earnings management. Unlike the manipulation of accruals, firms cannot...

This dissertation investigates how economically-comparable peer firms can be used to obtain inferences about a company’s accounting quality in two different research settings. The first Chapter examines whether auditor industry specialization, measured using auditor market share by industry,...

AbstractThe Effect of Investor Relations on Income Objectives andMeeting ExpectationsBy: Marcus KirkOver a quarter of publicly listed firms employ National InvestorRelationsInstitute (NIRI) members. Yet we know little about the impact ofinvestor relations (IR)for these firms. I examine the role...

Los bancos españoles tuvieron que realizar provisiones estadísticas contracíclicas en el período 2000-2004. Los bancos tenían que comunicar los importes de dichas provisiones al mercado. Esto crea un experimento natural que permite testar si los bancos suavizan el resultado para despistar a...