This paper examines the association between ineffective internal control over financial reporting and the profitability of insider trading. We predict and find that the profitability of insider trading is significantly greater in firms disclosing material weaknesses in internal control relative...

Under U.S. GAAP, firms recognize assets acquired in business combinations at fair value. Similarly, in taxable asset acquisitions firms adjust the tax basis of assets to fair value. Managers can increase the present value of future tax savings by allocating a greater portion of the purchase...

We investigate a tax avoidance strategy where firms use the ambiguity inherent in tax reporting to classify indirect costs as research and development (R&D) expenditures to take advantage of the R&D tax credit. We label this tax practice “strategic R&D classification”. We find a one standard...

This study investigates the role of financial reporting quality in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals that are ultimately terminated, i.e., go bust. If a target is a U.S. publicly-traded company, an acquirer's initial assessment of the potential benefits associated with the acquisition of the...

This study investigates the role of financial reporting quality in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals that are ultimately terminated, (i.e., go bust). If a target is a U.S. publicly-traded company, an acquirer's initial assessment of the potential benefits associated with the acquisition of the...

More than half of the 163 Statements of Financial Accounting Standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) between 1973 and 2007 were passed with dissenting votes. In this study, we investigate the factors associated with FASB board members' decision to dissent. We find that...

Most prior studies model tax avoidance as a function of firm-level characteristics and do not consider how individual executive characteristics affect tax avoidance. This paper investigates whether executives with superior ability to efficiently manage corporate resources engage in greater tax...

Motivated by investor criticisms of current accounting for business combinations, this study investigates whether differences exist in how acquisition date fair values of identifiable intangible assets relate to investors' expectations about the entity's future cash flow prospects. Some...