The post Sarbanes-Oxley Act period is associated with several initiatives designed to give shareholders a greater voice in the boardroom. The latest of these initiatives is the Say-on-Pay Bill (H.R. 1257) which passed the House of Representatives on April 20, 2007 by a 2 to 1 margin. This bill does not limit CEO pay but requires an advisory shareholder vote on executive compensation packages. U...

New corporate compliance regulations such as the Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 contain requirements for the chief executive and financial officers to certify the effectiveness of internal controls and processes leading to financial reporting. An inevitable result of implementing compliance with these regulations is an increased focus on improving systems and greater interdependence between t...

The US accounting profession was caught up in, and some say responsible for, the whirlwind of accounting and business scandals that rocked the US markets in 2002. To restore investor confidence in financial information, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act created a new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board with the authority to set standards for auditors of publicly traded companies, thus ending a centu...

SYNOPSIS We examine how internal control effectiveness influences the audit completeness of earnings announcements and consequences on reliability. One intentions Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 (SOX) was for controls to improve financial reporting. Although we show that effective directly reduce announcement revisions as SOX would intend, also find evidence it provides management with confidence relea...

This paper investigates the effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (hereafter, SOX) on the compensation structure and the risk-taking incentives of CEOs as revealed by their research and development expenses and capital expenditures. We hypothesize that firms will respond to the additional liability imposed by SOX on corporate executives by altering the mix of incentive compensation to fixed salary a...