We analyze a sample of 330 firms making unaudited disclosures required by Section 302 and 383 firms making audited disclosures required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes - Oxley Act. We find that Section 302 disclosures are associated with negative announcement abnormal returns of -1.8 percent, and...

This paper identifies tax and non-tax factors that influence commercial banks conversion from taxable C-corporation to nontaxable S-corporation from 1997 to 1999. A 1996 tax-law change allowed banks to elect S-corporation status for the first time. We find that banks are more likely to convert...

We assess whether financial statement audits reduce the risk of losses to capital providers. Prior research documents a negative association between financial statement audits and perceived credit risk or interest costs, but surprisingly few studies assess whether lower perceived risk or...

We conduct a laboratory experiment to examine investors' investment decisions and related assessments of managers' stewardship. We provide evidence that investors' stewardship assessments fall prey to correspondence bias; that is, investors attribute external (i.e., non-manager-related) causes...