We examine whether directors׳ and officers׳ (D&O) liability insurance affects a firm’s cost of equity. We find a positive association between D&O insurance and the cost of equity. Information quality and risk-taking appear to be two underlying channels through which D&O insurance affects the cost of equity. Further tests suggest that this positive association is not due to optimal risk-taking, as evidenced by a negative market reaction to an increase in D&O insurance coverage, a lack of improvement in firms׳ cash flow and a low valuation associated with high D&O insurance. Overall, our evidence is consistent with the notion that D&O insurance weakens the disciplining effect of shareholder litigation, leading to an increase in the cost of equity.

We investigate the extent to which capitalization of expected capital gains taxes and the lock-in effect induced by the capital gains tax rate differential simultaneously impact the pricing and underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). Using a large sample of IPOs from 1987 to 2010, we estimate regressions of offer prices and first-day underpricing on tax rates. Supporting tax capitalization, IPO offer prices decrease in long-term capital gains taxes. Supporting lock-in, IPO underpricing increases in the long-term and short-term tax rate differential. These effects are consistent with capital gains taxes simultaneously reducing IPO proceeds and exacerbating IPO underpricing.

We examine how information-processing cost affects investors’ acquisition of firm-specific information using a natural experiment resulting from a recent mandate requiring U.S. firms to adopt eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) when submitting filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). XBRL filings make financial data standardized, tagged, and machine readable. We find that XBRL adoption reduces firms’ stock return synchronicity. The reduction in synchronicity mainly applies to filings under the mandatory program as opposed to the voluntary program. Furthermore, such an effect is more pronounced for opaque and complex firms. Finally, we find that XBRL adoption also reduces price delay.

ABSTRACT We examine efficiency improvement associated with audit firm mergers. Our analysis is made possible by a unique dataset of audit hours in China. We find a significant reduction in audit hours, unaccompanied by a deterioration in audit quality, of merged audit firms. Further, we find a larger reduction in audit hours when acquirers are Chinese domestic Big 10 audit firms and when client firms are more complex. These results are consistent with the notion of economies of scale arising from horizontal mergers. However, enhanced efficiency does not necessarily reduce audit fees. Instead, we find an increase in audit fees when acquirers are international Big 4 audit firms even when we control for possible changes in market power. This premium is at least partially due to the certification effect of international Big 4 audit firms.