We examine how political corruption affects firms' accounting choices. We hypothesize and find that firms headquartered in corrupt districts manipulate earnings downwards, relative to firms headquartered elsewhere. Our finding is robust to alternative corruption measures, restatement-based...

We investigate how language similarity between acquirers and targets affects post-M&A performance using a large sample of M&A transactions in China. We hypothesize and find that acquirers achieve higher post-M&A operating performance when they acquire targets that share the same native...

We identify a positive causal effect of healthy working environments on corporate innovation, using the staggered passage of U.S. state-level smoke-free laws that ban smoking in workplaces. We find a significant increase in patents and patent citations for firms headquartered in states that have...

We present evidence that managers consider employee turnover likelihood in their accounting choices. Our tests exploit U.S. state courts' staggered recognition of the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine (IDD), which reduces employees' ability to switch employers. We find a significant decrease in...

This paper exploits a quasi-natural experiment to investigate the relation between Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and corporate innovation: firms with a public float under $75 million can delay compliance with Section 404 of the Act. We find a significant decrease in the number of patents and patent...