Using a large sample of U.S. firms for the period from 1994 to 2009, we find that firms’ prior real earnings management (RM) is positively associated with their stock price crash. These results are robust to firm-fixed effects analysis, different crash likelihood measurements, and suspect-firm...

This study uses the current financial crisis as a quasi-experiment to examine whether and to what extent corporate boards affect the performance of firms. Using cumulative stock returns over the crisis to measure of firm performance, we find that board independence, as traditionally defined,...