We examine the influence of the ex ante risk of class action securities litigation on firms' decisions to issue management earnings forecasts as well as the characteristics of those forecasts. We find that litigation risk is positively associated with the likelihood of issuing a forecast for...

We hypothesize that conference calls are voluntary disclosures that lead to long-term reductions in information asymmetry among equity investors. Cross-sectional and time-series tests show that the level of information asymmetry is negatively associated with conference call activity. We find...

We examine the effect of earnings surprises on changes in information asymmetry. We hypothesize and find that asymmetry is lower (higher) in the quarter following positive (negative) earnings surprises compared to firms that meet the consensus analyst earnings forecast. The relations between...

This study examines how disclosure quality is related to the long-run level of information asymmetry. We examine two potential mechanisms through which disclosure quality is expected to reduce the long-run level of information asymmetry: (1) disclosure quality will alter the trading incentives...

We examine two potential mechanisms through which disclosure quality is expected to reduce information asymmetry: (1) altering the trading incentives of informed and uninformed investors so that there is relatively less trading by privately informed investors, and (2) reducing the likelihood...

We provide evidence on the “principles vs. rules” standards debate by examining how changes in cash flow reporting methods required by SFAS 95 Statement of Cash Flows affected firms' information environments. We argue that adoption of SFAS 95 represented a change from a principle based...

This study examines the properties of the R-squared metric frequently used in accounting research as a measure of value relevance. Analytical results show that the metric is unreliable in the presence of scale effects. Specifically, we show that the metric is upwardly biased for accounting...

This paper analyzes the performance consequences of employee stock options for a broad sample of firms during the period 1996-1999. Our tests are performed separately for the top 5 executives and all other employees. We estimate the expected level of option incentives based on each firm's...

We examine whether compensation consultants' potential cross-selling incentives explain more lucrative CEO pay packages using 755 firms from the Samp;P 1500 for 2006. Critics allege that these incentives lead consultants to bias their advice to secure greater revenues from their clients (Waxman,...

This paper analyzes the performance consequences of employee stock options for a broad sample of firms during the period 1996-1999. Our tests are performed separately for the top-5 executives and all other employees. We estimate the expected level of option incentives based on each firm's...