This paper examines the impact of a defined benefit (DB) pension plan freeze on the sponsoring firm's risk and risk-taking activities. Using a sample of firms declaring a hard freeze on their DB plans between 2002 and 2007, we observe an increase in total risk (proxied by the standard deviation...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a new measure of earnings management flexibility based on the limits of the allowable set of accruals, prior discretionary accruals used, and the reversal rate of these accruals. Design/methodology/approach – Quarterly financial data from...

This paper investigates productivity growth, technical progress, and efficiency change for a group of the 56 largest CPA firms in the US from the period 1996-1999 through the period 2003-2006, where the former preceded, and the latter followed, enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Data...

There have been many criticisms of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act passed in July of 2002 to correct business accountability and performance practices. The act has a major emphasis on accounting and its practices. This paper attempts a response to these criticisms by investigating changes in...

Most extant studies consider golden parachutes as the totality of change-in-control payments. However, for the median CEO of firms listed in the S&P SmallCap 600 index in 2009, golden parachute payments are only 46% of total change-in-control compensation. We measure total change-in-control...

I examine the motivation for, and effect of, including a collar in a merger agreement. The most important cross-sectional determinants of the bid structure (cash vs. stock, and whether to include a collar) are the market-related stock return standard deviations for the bidder and target. This...

The monthly volatility of IPO initial returns is substantial, fluctuates dramatically over time, and is considerably larger during "hot" IPO markets. Consistent with IPO theory, the volatility of initial returns is higher among firms whose value is more difficult to estimate, i.e., among firms...

Almost 20% of stock-swap merger bids contain collars that affect the payment received by target shareholders. I argue that a collar bid offers two sources of value to target shareholders: the basic offer premium and the value of the implicit collar options. Hypothesizing that the market should...