Abstract We experimentally evaluate group-based financial education, savings account access, or both for members of Ugandan youth groups. We measure both short- and long-run impacts with one- and five-year endline household surveys. Education, but not account access, increases measured financial knowledge and trust at one year. At five years, knowledge effects essentially disappear, and trust effects weaken. However, savings and income increase for each treatment at both endlines, which is noteworthy given the interventions’ low cost and the long time horizon of our second endline. Exploring potential mechanisms, we find evidence consistent with multiple pathways to behavior change and outcome improvement.

ABSTRACT We conduct two experiments to investigate the effects of giving subordinates the possibility to return budget surplus on capital budgeting processes. We predict and find that when subordinates face low uncertainty when submitting their budget request, the possibility to return budget surplus increases budget requests compared to not having this possibility but that this effect is mitigated under high uncertainty. We also predict and find that subordinates return more budget surplus under high than low uncertainty. Together, these results imply that the possibility to return budget surplus can be particularly beneficial for firms operating under high uncertainty. We contribute to the literature by integrating an important feature of budgeting practice into research, i.e., subordinates’ possibility to return budget surplus and by showing that the effects of implementing such an option may strongly depend on the level of uncertainty a subordinate faces. Data Availability: The data and research instrument are available from the authors upon request. JEL Classifications: D91; M10; M40.

ABSTRACT The annual proportion of U.S. public firms that reported a financial covenant violation fell roughly 70% between 1997 and 2019. To understand this trend, we develop an estimable model of covenant design that depends on the ability to differentiate between distressed and nondistressed borrowers and the relative costs associated with screening incorrectly. We find that the drop in violations is best explained by an increased willingness to forgo early detection of distressed borrowers in exchange for fewer inconsequential violations, which we attribute largely to a shift in the composition of public borrowers and partly to heightened investor sentiment during the 2010s.

ABSTRACT Macroeconomic forces are challenging the ability of audit firms to sustain engagement profitability. Although one available strategy for multinational clients is to employ non-U.S. firms as component auditors (CAs), the impacts of this choice are unclear. We investigate the influence of CAs on engagement economics in Big 6 audits from 2012 to 2022, a period of increasing non-U.S. labor use. Results show that global hours increase with CA participation, suggesting that additional CA labor is needed to substitute for each U.S. hour. Global billing rates decline, implying that principal auditors share savings from lower cost labor with clients. However, U.S. lead team realizations rise with increasing substitution of non-U.S. labor, incentivizing more extensive CA use. Further analysis shows that these impacts are concentrated in engagements with high CA participation in countries with low wages and low English proficiency. Audit quality is not reduced by greater substitution of non-U.S. labor. JEL Classifications: M40; M42; M48; F66.