I argue that external financial reporting quality has at best a 2nd order effect on firm value of U.S. publicly traded companies and that attempts to improve a firm's external reporting quality has a 3rd order effect on these firms' value. Recognizing that external financial reporting quality is...

Accounting studies routinely encounter observations taking on extreme values. Such observations can influence statistical estimates (coefficient) and inferences. Our survey of the accounting literature documents that the two most common approaches used to address influential observations are...