Title of Dissertation: HERD BEHAVIOR IN VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE DECISIONS: AN EXAMINATION OF CAPITAL EXPENDITURE FORECASTS Nerissa Christine Brown, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Lawrence A. Gordon Department of Accounting and Information Assurance Professor Russell R. Wermers Department of Finance This study documents behavior consistent with herding in voluntary d...

This paper synthesizes the rates, barriers, and outcomes of HIV serostatus disclosure among women in developing countries. We identified 17 studies from peer-reviewed journals and international conference abstracts--15 from sub-Saharan Africa and 2 from south-east Asia--that included information on either the rates, barriers or outcomes of HIV serostatus disclosure among women in developing cou...

Disclosure theory argues that better information quality reduces audit risk, by decreasing information asymmetry in the market and consequently, information risk for firms. Extant literature on voluntary disclosure analyzes the relationships between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and audit risk, finding that auditors charge lower fees and issue less going concern opinions to firms with g...

Although mandatory disclosure programs have been studied extensively, strategic voluntary environmental disclosures by firms are not well understood. We study the motivations for and impacts of firms’ strategic disclosure of greenhouse gas reductions to theUS government.Wefirstmodel firms’ joint abatement and disclosure decisions, incorporating both economic and political incentives. We then us...