This study investigates whether audit market competition influences the risk profile of audit offices' client portfolios and whether an audit office's client risk profile affects the association between audit market competition and audit quality. Economic theory suggests that market competition...

Existing research often assumes that firms’ financial reporting choices influence their return comovement with other firms. We examine the validity of that assumption. First, we provide initial evidence suggesting that similarity in two firms’ disclosures not only predicts, but influences,...

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of auditor workload compression on the likelihood of changes to the busy season client portfolio of an audit firm. We find evidence of a positive association between workload compression and the likelihood of changes to the constituents of...

Contrary to claims that fair value accounting exacerbated banks' securities sales during the recent financial crisis, we present evidence that suggests – if anything – that the current impairment accounting rules served as a deterrent to selling. Specifically, because banks must provide...

To test hypotheses about earnings management many studies investigate managers' manipulation of real activities (real earnings management, REM). Tests using measures of abnormal REM hinge critically on the measurement of normal real activities. Yet there is no systematic evidence on the...

This paper examines regulators' optimal design for banks' expected credit loss impairment rules. Recognizing expected credit losses imposes market discipline and thus sound risk-taking ex ante (social gain) while it potentially distorts the bank's socially desirable liquidity provision ex...

Most investors know that bond prices move inversely with interest rate fluctuations. These same investors, however, may not fully understand how to assess the interest rate risk of different fixed income investments. This is particularly timely given the improving U.S. economy and Federal...

This technical note proves a simple mathematical relationship between the return on assets (ROA) of financial accounting standards and the return on investments (ROI) of investment performance standards. We show why this relationship is needed by users of APRA data to convert ROA to ROI for...

IFRS 9 norms require classifying non-defaulted loans into two stages depending on their credit quality evolution since initial recognition by the bank. In this paper, we propose an optimal way to perform this classification. Target values of some key performance indicators of the provisioning...

Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) teaches us that active equity managers who use judgment in making investment decisions won't be able to match the returns (after fees and expenses) of blindly-invested, passively-managed index funds. Data on returns supports the theory, so it's no surprise that...