Interventions are required to reduce children's consumption of discretionary foods and drinks. To intervene we need to identify appropriate discretionary choice targets. This study aimed to determine the main discretionary choice contributors to energy and key nutrient intakes in children aged 2-18 years. Secondary analyses were performed with population weighted, single 24 h dietary recall dat...

This paper compares the informativeness of discretionary research and development (R&D) capitalization under IAS 38 with non-discretionary “as-if” R&D capitalization. While prior consistently demonstrated capital market benefits capitalization, evidence for reported are less favorable due to earnings management concerns. Because studies based on adjusted data assuming resulting numbers free fro...

We investigate whether the positive associations between discretionary accrual proxies and beating earnings benchmarks hold for comparisons of groups segregated at other points in the distributions of earnings, earnings changes, and analystsbased unexpected earnings. We refer to these points as ‘‘pseudo’’ targets. Results suggest that the positive association between discretionary accruals and ...

We estimate a semi-parametric model of health production process using a two-stage approach for OECD countries. By regressing data envelopment analysis output efficiency scores on non-discretionary variables, both using Tobit analysis and a single and double bootstrap procedure, we show that inefficiency is strongly related to GDP per head, the education level, and health behaviour such as obes...

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...

This study examines whether firms just above and just below three earnings benchmarks (loss avoidance, earnings changes, and analyst forecast) have differing levels of discretionary accruals. If discretionary accruals are a measure of earnings management, then firms above (benchmark beaters) and firms below a benchmark should have differing levels of discretionary accruals. Dechow et al. (2003)...

Activity-travel behavior research has hitherto focused on the modeling and understanding of daily time use and activity patterns and resulting travel demand. In this particular paper, an analysis and modeling of weekly activity-travel behavior is presented using a unique multi-week activity-travel behavior data set collected in and around Zurich, Switzerland. The paper focuses on six categories...