This study provides evidence concerning the significance of assessing operational control risks as part of an integrative evaluation of internal controls. We examine whether operational control weaknesses can be used as cues to potential unreported financial reporting control weaknesses, and in...

We examine whether chief financial officers (CFOs) with accounting backgrounds (accountant CFOs) are associated with more conservative corporate outcomes. We find that, in high-growth industries, firms with accountant CFOs invest less in research and development and capital expenditures and are...

Financial misrepresentation has usually been analysed by large-scale empirical research. However the generality gained from such an approach is at the cost of understanding the rich and complex nature of financial misrepresentation in real organizations. We adopt a case study approach to gain...

We conduct a meta-analysis of the association between audit committee (AC) independence and financial reporting quality (FRQ). Although we cannot reliably aggregate results across studies in a statistical sense because of inconsistencies in defining FRQ and the absence of replication studies,...

Prior research finds that donors reward nonprofits that report larger program ratios with more donations and that managers overstate these ratios, ostensibly to attract donations. We examine how donors react to inflated ratios. We find that the average donor discounts ratios that are inflated by...

We find that mean municipal debt costs are greater following financial restatement disclosures. Comparisons of the relative use of municipal debt, and of the use of unsecured versus secured debt, corroborate that financial restatements increase the cost of municipal debt financing. Additional...

Psychologists have studied human behavior for over a century and, as a result, have developed a robust set of theories regarding how people behave. Most financial accounting issues deal with matters of human behavior, such as the judgments and decisions of managers, investors, analysts, and...

We revisit evidence whether incentives or IFRS drive earnings quality changes, analyzing a large sample of German firms in the period from 1998 to 2008. Consistent with previous studies we find that voluntary and mandatory adopters differ distinctively in terms of essential firm characteristics...

We find that shorts establish significant positions more than a year before the average restatement announcement, those positions increase as the announcement month approaches, and the largest positions are held in companies that will announce an accounting irregularity that attracts class...

This paper examines how the characteristics of accounting systems and management incentives interact and collectively determine financial reporting quality. We develop a rational expectations equilibrium model that features a steady-state firm with investments, financial and non-financial...