<heading id="h1" level="1" implicit="yes" format="display">ABSTRACT</heading>I investigate how the use and voluntary disclosure of synthetic leases is affected by incentives to defer cash outflows and manage the financial statements by keeping debt off the balance sheet. I find that managers of cash-constrained firms with incentives to defer cash payments are...

We investigate executive employment gaps (hereafter, gaps) between the appointment of an external CEO at a public firm and the individual's prior executive position at a public company. These gaps cannot be reliably obtained from common databases. We hand‐collect data for externally hired CEOs...

Using a confidential dataset, we evaluate whether the degree of foreign operations affects U.S. multinational corporation (MNC) value by comparing actual value to imputed value for these firms. We control for differences in discount rates and expected growth rates across countries and industries...

A detailed analysis of 49 firms subject to AAERs suggests that approximately one-quarter of the misstatements meet the legal standards of intent. In the remaining three quarters, the initial misstatement reflects an optimistic bias that is not necessarily intentional. Because of the bias,...

Our paper examines voluntary disclosure choice about a different type of “news” than traditional models consider. Firms are exposed to a continuous flow of information about industry conditions that are correlated and uncertain. We predict that capital market pressure and externality costs...

A detailed analysis of firms subject to SEC Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases (AAERs) in the 1990s and 2000s suggests that approximately one-quarter are the result of an act that is consistent with legal standards of intent. In the remaining three quarters, the initial misstatement...