The new lease standard (ASC 842) allows firms to keep variable leases off balance sheet, in part based on the assumption that future expenses are difficult to estimate reliably. We show that variable lease expenses are both prevalent and substantial, exhibiting persistence and predictability comparable to operating lease expenses while showing limited sensitivity to revenue changes. These patterns are consistent with variable lease payments being based on stable drivers. Following ASC 842 adoption, firms report lower minimum operating lease commitments and higher variable lease expenses, suggesting a substitution from operating to variable leases. Neither equity betas nor credit ratings reflect potential variable lease liabilities. Conservative estimates show that recognition of variable lease liabilities would increase debt by 7.1% on average. Our findings provide evidence on the properties of variable leases and the potential implications of keeping them off balance sheet.

This study examines whether enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations are associated with reductions in corporate misconduct. Specifically, we study the relation between staggered facility-level rollouts of ERP systems and facility-level regulatory violations across a large sample of U.S. firms. Our results indicate that facility-level ERP adoptions are associated with substantial reductions in local violations and penalties. Additional analyses suggest that the effects are more pronounced among facilities incorporating advanced analytics into their systems and among workforces that are less resistant to technology change. Overall, our results suggest that ERP systems generate indirect effects that enhance compliance outcomes across a wide range of violations.