We find that trends and reversals in past earnings surprises predict future stock returns. These earnings surprise sequences produce a 9.88% risk-adjusted annual return which cannot be attributed to momentum nor post-earnings announcement drift. Our empirical methodology captures the market’s beliefs regarding future returns by estimating the probability associated with different possible retur...

In the actual rule (which we simplify somewhat in the text), Social Security taxable earnings (SSTE) are first indexed (adjusted) to reflect real dollar values by using national average wages for the year the beneficiary reaches age 60. The SSTE is also capped by a maximum value and this cap has increased over time (see Table A1). Once indexed, the 35 highest adjusted SSTE years are selected to...

Managers have incentives to voluntarily disclose good news early and delay bad news disclosure, and we propose that earnings announcements offset these asymmetric incentives by assuming a proportionately greater role in the disclosure of bad news relative to good news. We find that when news measured by quarterly market-adjusted returns is negative, the proportion of news variation concentrated...

Heritability and repeatability and genetic and phenotypic correlations were estimated for trotting race records with linear and generalized linear models using 510,519 records on 17,792 Finnhorses and 513,161 records on 25,536 Standardbred trotters. Heritability and repeatability were estimated for single racing time and earnings traits with linear models, and logarithmic scale was used for rac...

This paper analyzes executive compensation in a setting where managers may take a costly action to manipulate corporate performance, and whether managers do so is stochastic. We examine how the opportunity to manipulate affects the optimal pay contract, and establish necessary and sufficient conditions under which earnings management occurs. Our model provides a set of implications on the role ...

Models of sexual selection generally assume that behavioural courtship displays reflect intrinsic male qualities such as condition, and that males display with maximum intensity to attract females to mate. Here we use robotic females in a field experiment to demonstrate that male satin bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) do not always display at maximum intensity - rather, successful males m...

This paper investigates the relationship between earnings management and quality of earnings for the bankrupt and non-bankrupt firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2007 to 2012.The earnings quality  is measured by four separate accounting-based earnings attributes: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability; earnings and is also examined by testing the relationshi...

Using the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index record breaking days as a proxy for market wide attention, we show that as the aggregate stock market intensifies investor attention, stock market response to individual firms’ earnings announcements significantly increases. We hypothesize that there are many channels for the attention spill-over effect and document strong supportive evidence of one ...