In this paper we address two important questions that emerged in the aftermath of the recent banking crisis. First, did the financial statements of the bank holding companies provide an early warning of their impending distress? Second, whether the actions of four key financial intermediaries...

Nonrecurring items are often characterized as transitory and are assumed to be irrelevant for firm valuation. However, I find that industry-level measures of the informativeness of special items and discontinued operations help to revise market assessments of firm value, and these signals are...

We empirically examine the cash flow statements for Japanese banks and whether their managers engage in classification shifting to temper concerns about risk exposure. To create a buffer against liquidity shocks, they shift cash flows from investing and/or financing activities to operating...