type="main" <title type="main">ABSTRACT</title> <p>We extend recent research on the links between political connections and financial reporting by examining the role of auditor choice. Our evidence that public firms with political connections are more likely to appoint a Big 4 auditor supports the intuition that insiders in...</p>

We rely on a unique data set to estimate the impact of disclosure standards and auditor-related characteristics on ownership concentration in 190 privatized firms from 31 countries. Accounting transparency can help alleviate the agency conflict between minority investors and controlling...

We rely on a unique dataset of 176 privatizations from 32 countries to extend recent research on the link between the political economy and accounting transparency by examining the importance of shareholders' proportionate holdings to auditor choice. Consistent with our predictions on...

This study considers whether consumers' motives to avoid waiting can be used to benefit both themselves and the services they attend. Specifically, two related aspects are explored: informing customers about alternative service delivery options that will allow them to avoid physically standing...

Clients of services expect short waiting times and servers desire short periods of non-productive time. One of the areas where this is most important is appointment scheduling systems. Recent research has indicated that using information about clients' service time variability can simultaneously...

We examine the link between Internal Revenue Service (IRS) monitoring and yield spreads on private firms' 144A bond issues. After controlling for security-specific and other firm-specific determinants, we provide evidence that debt financing is cheaper when the probability of a face-to-face IRS...

For a sample comprising 36,105 U.S. firm-year observations from 1985 to 2008, we find that firms located in more religious counties enjoy cheaper equity financing costs. This result is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including alternative assumptions and model specifications,...