Previous studies examining internal accounting control judgments have found an inconclusive association between auditor consensus and auditor experience. The present study suggests that an association between judgment consensus and situational experience may be confounded because of the tenure of an auditor with the same audit staff group and/or superior. The adaptive behavior in an organizational relation suggests that judgment consensus among subordinates should increase (i.e., become more congruent) as the subordinate has greater interaction with the audit staff group and/or superior. As support for these expectations, an experiment was conducted using auditors of a state auditor's office. The results indicate that consensus among staff auditors increased as the length of time that staff auditors had been associated with the same audit manager increased, but did not increase based on the length of time that the auditors had been with the state auditor's office.

[Previous studies examining internal accounting control judgments have found an inconclusive association between auditor consensus and auditor experience. The present study suggests that an association between judgment consensus and situational experience may be confounded because of the tenure of an auditor with the same audit staff group and/or superior. The adaptive behavior in an organizational relation suggests that judgment consensus among subordinates should increase (i.e., become more congruent) as the subordinate has greater interaction with the audit staff group and/or superior. As support for these expectations, an experiment was conducted using auditors of a state auditor's office. The results indicate that consensus among staff auditors increased as the length of time that staff auditors had been associated with the same audit manager increased, but did not increase based on the length of time that the auditors had been with the state auditor's office.]

[In many accounting and finance research studies it is hypothesized that the news release under study has valuation implications. Results often indicate that the distribution of risk adjusted residual common stock returns, conditional on the occurrence of a wide variety of specific news event types, differs in one or more moments from the distribution of returns when such events are absent. This paper demonstrates that the distribution of Wall Street Journal news-conditional residual returns differs from the distribution of returns when such news is absent. A "news-conditional" model of the process generating security returns is proposed as an alternative to models typically used in previous event studies. Standardized prediction errors and squared standardized prediction errors from the news-conditional model are compared with those generated by conventional procedures.]

In many accounting and finance research studies it is hypothesized that the news release under study has valuation implications. Results often indicate that the distribution of risk adjusted residual common stock returns, conditional on the occurrence of a wide variety of specific news event types, differs in one or more moments from the distribution of returns when such events are absent. This paper demonstrates that the distribution of Wall Street Journal news-conditional residual returns differs from the distribution of returns when such news is absent. A "news-conditional" model of the process generating security returns is proposed as an alternative to models typically used in previous event studies. Standardized prediction errors and squared standardized prediction errors from the news-conditional model are compared with those generated by conventional procedures.

[The perceived limitations of historical cost net income for assessing the relative performance of oil and gas firms led the SEC and FASB to issue a series of pronouncements requiring disclosure of current value reserve-based information to supplement the information contained in the primary financial statements. This study examines whether historical cost earnings of oil and gas companies possess information in the sense of explaining cross-sectional differences in firm security returns. Additionally, we examine whether various Reserve Recognition Accounting-based measures possess incremental information relative to historical cost earnings measurements. The results indicate that for the sample period 1979-1981, historical cost earnings as well as reserve-based measures constructed from RRA data contain information relevant to valuing oil and gas firms. However, these results deteriorate for the sample period 1982-1984 where reserve-based measures are constructed from SFAS No. 69 data. The weaker relations in the latter period are consistent with the findings of Miller and Upton [1985b] and Magliolo [1986] and are attributed to the relative stability of oil prices during this time frame which results in a lower "signal-to-noise" ratio for the various reserve-based measurements.]

The perceived limitations of historical cost net income for assessing the relative performance of oil and gas firms led the SEC and FASB to issue a series of pronouncements requiring disclosure of current value reserve-based information to supplement the information contained in the primary financial statements. This study examines whether historical cost earnings of oil and gas companies possess information in the sense of explaining cross-sectional differences in firm security returns. Additionally, we examine whether various Reserve Recognition Accounting-based measures possess incremental information relative to historical cost earnings measurements. The results indicate that for the sample period 1979-1981, historical cost earnings as well as reserve-based measures constructed from RRA data contain information relevant to valuing oil and gas firms. However, these results deteriorate for the sample period 1982-1984 where reserve-based measures are constructed from SFAS No. 69 data. The weaker relations in the latter period are consistent with the findings of Miller and Upton [1985b] and Magliolo [1986] and are attributed to the relative stability of oil prices during this time frame which results in a lower "signal-to-noise" ratio for the various reserve-based measurements.