{"title":"Taxes and Investment: Evidence from the “Halloween Massacre” of 2006","authors":"MATTHEW BOLAND, KHIN PHYO HLAING, PETRO LISOWSKY","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.70084","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the relation between taxes and business investment using the setting of an unexpected and economically significant federal corporate income tax rate increase in Canada known colloquially as the Halloween Massacre of 2006. This tax increase only applies to firms organized as income trusts, but not corporations. Using a difference‐in‐differences design, we find that investment by income trusts decreases about 0.67% for each 1 percentage point increase in the tax rate, translating into over $10 billion in reduced aggregate investment. In decomposing total investment, our results reveal that capital expenditures exhibit an immediate decrease while there is a delayed decrease in acquisition activity. Our results are concentrated in high‐investment income trusts that are most sensitive to the link between investment and taxes. Our study helps resolve conflicting prior results by providing robust evidence that tax increases have an economically significant and negative causal effect on business investment.","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"188 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148842860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond Automation: AI and the Human Value of Sell‐Side Analysts","authors":"Devin Shanthikumar, Il Sun Yoo","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.70083","url":null,"abstract":"We examine how analysts’ information acquisition and processing differ when analysts have access to AI resources, focusing on investment banks’ AI investments. We propose and test a two‐step framework, which is informed by in‐depth interviews with analysts. First, consistent with AI facilitating automation‐assisted public information processing, we show that AI investments are associated with more timely earnings forecasts following 10‐K filings, particularly after the implementation of iXBRL, which increases the machine readability of filings. Second, we show that analysts reallocate the time and capacity freed by automation toward acquiring and incorporating private information, supported by several sets of evidence: AI investments (1) are associated with higher quality and bolder earnings forecasts, particularly when private information is more important and accessible to analysts; (2) are associated with an expansion of analyst coverage to new firms and industries; and (3) are associated with higher information‐seeking efforts, particularly greater participation in earnings conference calls. Additionally, exploiting the launch of AskResearchGPT at Morgan Stanley, an in‐house generative AI designed for research, we find results consistent with our main analyses. Overall, our study provides insights into the potential for AI to reshape the human value of sell‐side analysts.","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"63 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148767469","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AJ YUAN CHEN, MATTHEW A. PHILLIPS, REGINA WITTENBERG‐MOERMAN, TIANGE YE
{"title":"Non‐Fundamental Loan Renegotiations","authors":"AJ YUAN CHEN, MATTHEW A. PHILLIPS, REGINA WITTENBERG‐MOERMAN, TIANGE YE","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.70080","url":null,"abstract":"Prior studies predominantly examine fundamental performance‐driven explanations of loan renegotiations. We contrast with this work by investigating the improvement in secondary loan market trading conditions as a <jats:italic>non‐fundamental</jats:italic> driver of loan renegotiation. Exploiting a regression discontinuity design around the LSTA 100 Index reconstitution, we find that index‐included loans are around five times more likely to receive interest‐rate–reducing amendments than comparable loans just below the index inclusion threshold. Within‐loan‐package tests confirm that these renegotiations are not driven by changes in the borrower's fundamental performance. The threat of refinancing likely drives this effect, as the results are more pronounced when such threats are more credible.","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"90 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148754397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
John M. Barrios, Jung Ho Choi, Yael V. Hochberg, Jinhwan Kim, Miao Liu
{"title":"Informing Entrepreneurs? Initial Public Offerings and New Business Formation","authors":"John M. Barrios, Jung Ho Choi, Yael V. Hochberg, Jinhwan Kim, Miao Liu","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.70082","url":null,"abstract":"We examine the spillover effects of local initial public offerings (IPOs) on new business formation. An IPO in a local area is associated with a 1%–4% increase in new business registrations, and this effect is particularly pronounced in counties facing higher economic uncertainty. New business registrations are significantly influenced by the extent of EDGAR downloads related to the IPO firm's public disclosures and the information in the IPO firm's S‐1 disclosure. The findings highlight the role of IPOs in conveying crucial information through signaling of potential success prospects and additional provision of information through disclosures. A field survey of 503 entrepreneurs further supports these conclusions.","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148754551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Richard Crandall, Shannon Garavaglia, Cassie Mongold
{"title":"Disaggregating Cash Flows: The Effect of Linking and Labeling on Investors’ Understanding of the Statement of Cash Flows","authors":"Richard Crandall, Shannon Garavaglia, Cassie Mongold","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70081","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.70081","url":null,"abstract":"Operating cash flows are a critical input to valuation activities. Research and practice indicate that the most common method of presenting operating cash flows, the indirect method, is viewed as overly complex. We experimentally examine whether two theoretically motivated factors represent shortcomings of the indirect method: (1) inadequate linking of related components of net income and changes in working capital accounts, and (2) inconsistent income statement labeling between components of net income and their corresponding working capital changes. Drawing on causal reasoning theory, we predict and find that these factors hinder the decision usefulness of the operating section of the statement of cash flows. The results of our study are informative to the academic literature and standard setters, as we examine underlying reasons why the indirect method may be viewed unfavorably.","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148698804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“Megadeal” Subsidies, Local Spillovers, and Corporate Innovation","authors":"Yoojin Lee, Shaphan Ng, Aruhn Venkat","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679x.70079","url":null,"abstract":"We examine whether the largest place‐based, firm‐specific corporate subsidies (“Megadeals”) awarded by state and local governments affect local firms’ innovation. First, we document that (1) subsidy firms innovate in the subsidized county and (2) subsidy firms bring inventors from other counties into the subsidized county, consistent with subsidy firms generating new knowledge locally. In our main test, we use a stacked cohort design with stringent fixed effects to document that local firms increase patenting following a Megadeal. Cross‐sectionally, effects are increasing (1) in subsidy firm innovativeness, (2) in the technological closeness of subsidy firms and local firms, (3) when subsidy and local firms share an industry, and (4) when the subsidized location has a heavy college presence. Additionally, we document that following a Megadeal, local firms increasingly make citations to subsidy firm patents and that the patent similarity of local and subsidy firms increases. We document that subsidy firm inventors are more likely to move to local firms following a Megadeal. We also find that subsidies for labs, headquarters, and high‐tech manufacturing plants drive our main results. These results are consistent with knowledge spillovers being one channel through which we observe an increase in local firm patenting following Megadeals.","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148596131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Nature-Loving CEOs Make the World Greener?","authors":"WEIJIA ZHI","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70033","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-679x.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study examines the relation between CEOs’ preferences for environmental protection (“nature-loving preferences”) and corporate environmental actions. Drawing on social ecology research, I develop a proxy for CEOs’ nature-loving preferences based on their childhood exposure to greenspace and validate it using their positive discussions of nature during earnings conference calls. Findings show a significant positive association between CEOs’ nature-loving preferences and their firms’ participation in Clean Development Mechanism projects. This effect remains robust after addressing firm–CEO matching and omitted variable concerns. Cross-sectional tests reveal stronger effects when local environmental demands are high and when CEOs have greater decision-making power. Further analyses suggest that these CEOs are associated with greater corporate carbon reduction, while market reactions to their appointments remain neutral. The study highlights the link between CEOs’ personal environmental preferences and firms’ environmental actions, offering new insights into individual-level factors behind corporate social responsibility.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"64 4","pages":"1935-1983"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145730999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accounting Rules and the Labor Market for Accountants","authors":"ANTHONY LE","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70043","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-679x.70043","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this study, I explore how accounting rules—in particular the restrictiveness of GAAP—have impacted the labor market for accountants. I find that when the rules become more restrictive, there are fewer students majoring in accounting and fewer accountants and auditors overall. The overall number of accounting positions that firms recruit for does not decrease when the rules become more restrictive; however, the nature of accountants' work changes. There is less focus on tasks such as applying judgment, thinking creatively, and thinking critically and more focus on determining compliance. Despite the decrease in accountants, earnings for accountants do not increase, and the wage distribution becomes more compressed. I supplement these analyses with a survey-based field experiment and find that the salience of restrictiveness heightens students' views of accounting as a profession where they are unable to use creative and critical thinking. Overall, the findings suggest that restrictive regulation can shift the task content of occupations and reduce the pool of individuals interested in the profession.</p>","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"64 4","pages":"1457-1513"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-679x.70043","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146215760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financial Climate-Risk Measurement, Impact Funds, and Green Transitions","authors":"VOLKER LAUX, LUCAS MAHIEUX","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70042","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-679x.70042","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Regulators are contemplating or mandating precise measurement of financial climate-risk exposure to promote sustainable investments. We show that such mandates can be counterproductive in the presence of social funds that catalyze change by subsidizing the adoption of cleaner production technologies. Firms can exploit a social fund's impact motive by measuring their climate-risk exposure imprecisely. This strategic imprecision prevents the fund from distinguishing between firms that require subsidies and those that would switch to clean technologies for financial reasons alone, thereby increasing the ex ante subsidies firms can extract. A by-product of this rent-seeking behavior is that firms adopt clean technologies more frequently than would be jointly efficient under precise measurement. Our analysis suggests that the regulatory push for precise climate-risk measurement can reduce social funds' impact and the frequency of green transitions.</p>","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"64 4","pages":"1867-1903"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-679x.70042","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146169592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond Old Boys' Clubs: Financial Analysts' Utilization of Professional Connections","authors":"MENGQIAO DU, RACHEL XI ZHANG","doi":"10.1111/1475-679x.70044","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1475-679x.70044","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Women often lack the opportunity to join exclusive social clubs, limiting the benefits they derive from their social networks. We investigate whether, when given the opportunity to interact with the right people in a professional setting, women gain greater advantages from these connections for career performance and advancement compared to men. Using a unique data set that documents when, where, and with whom financial analysts interact at investor conferences, we find that female analysts show greater improvement in earnings forecast accuracy than their male counterparts after interacting with a firm's executives. Further evidence suggests that female analysts overcome homophily in conference interactions with executives and that they sustain their gains, enhancing forecast accuracy for up to three years. In addition, both the capital and labor markets recognize women's superior gains from conference connections. Our findings suggest that women capitalize on professional connections, highlighting the importance of promoting structured networking opportunities for women in professional environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":48414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting Research","volume":"64 4","pages":"1771-1817"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1475-679x.70044","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147360891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}