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...

the aim of this study is to determine the effect of the income smoothing on the future earnings response coefficient taking into account the effect of the information environment. future earnings response coefficient is used as a measure for evaluation of stock price information content which represents the relationship between current stock returns and future earnings. information environment ...

In the past two decades, China’s manufacturing exports have grown spectacularly, U.S. imports from China have surged, but U.S. exports to China have increased only modestly. Using representative, longitudinal data on individual earnings by employer, we analyze the effect of exposure to import competition on earnings and employment of U.S. workers over 1992 through 2007. Individuals who in 1991 ...

This paper analyzes the welfare costs of business cycles when workers face uninsurable job displacement risk that has a cyclical component. Using a simple general equilibrium model with incomplete markets, this paper shows the following result: for sufficiently high degree of risk aversion (at least one), cyclical variations in the long-term earnings losses of displaced workers can generate arb...

This study examines the effect of earnings pressure on firms’ strategic behavior in output competition. We argue that firms facing earnings pressure will attempt to increase current profits to meet analysts’ forecasts by exploiting market power opportunities in their product markets, even at the risk of encouraging future entry and rival expansion. In commodity industries, this behavior will le...

Recent high-profiled accounting scandals (e.g., Enron and WorldCom) have called into question the quality of financial reporting in the U.S. These accounting scandals have resulted in massive restatements of corporate earnings and market value losses to investors. While earnings restatements have become more prevalent and costly in recent years, detection or prediction of earnings restatement h...

When the Revelation Principle (RP) holds, managing earnings confers no advantage over revelation. We construct an explanation for earnings management that is based on limitations on owners’ ability to make commitments (a violation of the RP’s assumptions). Traditionally, earnings management is seen as sneaky managers pulling the wool over the eyes of gullible owners by manipulating accruals; ou...

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of the characteristics of board of directors (Chief Executive Officer Duality, CEO tenure duration, size and independence of the board of directors) on earnings management. In this study, data from 62 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years of 2011 to 2015 were used. The statistical method used in this research is panel ...