Texas Christian University

About: Texas Christian University is a education organization based out in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 3245 authors who have published 8258 publications receiving 282216 citations. The organization is also known as: TCU & Texas Christian University, TCU.

An Alternative Interpretation of the Discontinuity in Earnings Distributions

Abstract: We show that the asymmetric effects of income taxes and special items for profit and loss firms contribute substantially to a discontinuity at zero in the distribution of earnings. Income taxes draw profit observations towards zero while negative special items pull loss observations away from zero. These earnings components are thus expected to contribute to a discontinuity even in the absence of discretion. We show our results are not an artifact of deflation, and that other common components of earnings do not have similar effects on the earnings distribution around zero.

Timeliness of Annual Report Releases and Market Reaction to Earnings Announcements in an Emerging Capital Market: The Case of China

Abstract: This paper examines the relation between firm performance and the timing of annual report releases in an emerging capital market. Based on the population of listed Chinese firms with A-shares for 1994-1997, we find that good news firms release their annual reports earlier than bad news firms, and loss firms release their annual reports the latest. Moreover, consistent with Chambers and Penman (1984) and Begley and Fischer (1998), these firms unexpectedly accelerate the release of good news and delay the disclosure of bad news relative to their previous reporting pattern. We also observe a significant price reaction to the annual earnings announcements for both early (good news) and late (bad news) reporting firms. Similar results are found for those A-share firms which have also issued B- or H-shares to foreign investors. Our study documents a systematic timing pattern of annual report disclosures, which is useful for investors to predict future earnings, especially in anticipating bad news in China's emerging market where information about future earnings is very limited.

Rapid Institutional Shifts and the Co-evolution of Entrepreneurial Firms in Transition Economies

Abstract: Economies in transition such as Russia's are among the world's fastest growing. Entrepreneurial firms in an environment like Russia's face rapid and dramatic shifts in the institutional environment...

Does It Matter Who Pays for Bond Ratings? Historical Evidence

Abstract: We test whether Standard and Poor’s (S&P) assigns higher bond ratings after it switches from investor-pay to issuer-pay fees in 1974. Using Moody’s rating for the same bond as a benchmark, we find that when S&P charges investors and Moody’s charges issuers, S&P’s ratings are lower than Moody’s. Once S&P adopts issuer-pay, its ratings increase and no longer differ from Moody’s. More importantly, S&P only assigns higher ratings for bonds that are subject to greater conflicts of interest, measured by higher expected rating fees or lower credit quality. Our findings suggest that the issuer-pay model leads to higher ratings.