We exploit a unique setting of accounting regulation change to examine how accounting information quality affects the well-documented accrual anomaly. We show a significant reduction in the negative return predictability of accruals among UK companies with poorer accounting information quality following the introduction of Financial Reporting Standard No. 3: Reporting Financial Performance (FRS...

While there are many alternative proxies for “earnings quality”, there is little evidence as to what auditors consider to be indicative of high earnings quality. To answer this, we examine the adjustments that auditors require companies to make to earnings during year-end audits. There are three findings. First, audit adjustments serve to increase earnings persistence, smoothness, and accrual q...

PURPOSE Postactivation barriers to oncology clinical trial accruals are well documented; however, potential barriers prior to trial opening are not. We investigate one such barrier: trial development time. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP)-sponsored trials for all therapeutic, nonpediatric phase I, I/II, II, and III studies activated betwee...

This thesis comprises of three essays. The first essay is titled ‘Do Acquiring Firms Manage Earnings?’ and is co-authored with Professor Anand M. Vijh. The second essay is titled ‘Do Firms Have a Target Leverage? Evidence from Credit Markets’ and is joint work with Professors Anand M. Vijh and Redouane Elkamhi. The third is essay is single authored and titled ‘Bondholder Wealth Effects of Fraud...

Download pose: Postactivation barriers to oncology clinical trial accruals are well documented; however, pol barriers prior to trial opening are not. We investigate one such barrier: trial development time. erimental Design: National Cancer Institute Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP)–sponsored for all therapeutic, nonpediatric phase I, I/II, II, and III studies activated between 2000 and...

We examine whether rational investor responses to information uncertainty explain properties of and returns to accounting-based trading anomalies. We proxy for information uncertainty with two measures of earnings quality: the standard deviation of the residuals from a Dechow and Dichev [2002] model relating accruals to cash flows, and the absolute value of performanceadjusted abnormal accruals...

This study presents the first targeted examination of changes in financial reporting surrounding the appointment of both new CEOs and Principal Financial Officers (PFOs). We identify companies that appoint new CEOs and PFOs in the period 1995 to 2002 and find that the change in discretionary accruals is negative and significant in the year of hire (from t-1 to t) for firms appointing a new CEO ...

This paper investigates whether earnings management occurs in non-profit hospitals. Using manually collected financial data of the foundation hospitals in Taiwan over the period from 2006 to 2008, I find non-profit hospitals tend to manage earnings to a range just above zero by examining the distribution of reported income on a sample of 45 hospitals and 133 hospital-year observations. The stud...