Subsidiaries of a firm can use their reporting discretion for several goals, such as reporting earnings comparable to other subsidiaries or reporting earnings that are smooth over time. Prior theoretical work on reporting discretion recognizes the tension among these goals (Holmstrom, 1982; Demski...

This paper provides descriptive evidence about the firm and managerial characteristics that drive voluntary disclosure when the investor base is inexperienced and information asymmetry is high – equity crowdfunding offerings issued under Regulation Crowdfunding. I find evidence that disclosure...

Accounting research has long claimed that banks time sales of available-for-sale securities to smooth earnings. We find that what the prior literature calls smoothing is more accurately characterized as boosting of low earnings. That is, the “smoothing” behavior is asymmetric, occurring at...