American Accounting Association

Financial Accounting and Reporting Section
2009 Midyear Meeting

January 30-31, 2009
The Westin New Orleans Canal Place
New Orleans, Louisiana

Friday, January 30, 2009

7:00 am - 5:00 pm

FARS Registration

8:00 am - 11:30 am

Doctoral Consortium
Accounting- Advanced - 4.0 CH

Presenters:
Jake Thomas, Yale University
Rob Bloomfield, Cornell University and
Mike Kirschenheiter, University of Illinois at Chicago

Professors Thomas, Bloomfield and Kirschenheiter will provide advance materials encouraging students to develop creative solutions to real accounting research problems, introduce students to experimental, archival and analytic research methodologies, explain how collaborating across these research methods can improve research, and discuss common errors in the empirical research process.

10:15 am – 11:45 am

Steering board meeting: Christine Botosan

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Luncheon
Accounting -Update - 1 CH

FEI-Sponsored Speaker: Glenn Tyranski, Senior Vice President, Financial Compliance, NYSE Regulation.

2:00 pm - 3:15 pm

Plenary Session:
Current accounting issues and how their resolution could affect financial analyst research and recommendations: Perspectives from practice and academic research.
Accounting - Update - 1.5 CH

Moderator: Tom Robinson, Vice President of Education at the CFA Institute

Panelists: Richard Sloan, Barclays Global Investors and David Zion, Credit Suisse  

3:15 pm - 3:30 pm

Break

3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Plenary Session:
FASB Update and Related Research Opportunities
Accounting - Update - 1.5 CH

Panelists:  Tom Linsmeier, Ray Pfeiffer, and Rob Bloomfield, Financial Accounting Standards Board

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

AAA Commons Rollout Presentation: Larry Walther (FARS representative on the AAACommons Editorial Board)

6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Reception

Saturday, January 31, 2009

7:00 am - 2:00 pm

Registration

7:00 am - 8:00 am

Continental Breakfast

8:00 am - 9:30 am

Session 1: Perspectives on Accounting Research
Accounting- Advanced - 1.5 CH
Dan Dhaliwal, University of Arizona

Session 2: Economic Consequences of Standard Setting
Accounting- Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator:  Darren Roulstone, Ohio State University
Discussants:
Jenny Tucker, University of Florida
Seong Cho, Drexel University
Shyam Sunder, Northwestern University

Information Content of Insider Trades: Before and After the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
Francois Brochet, Harvard Business School

Are Accounting Standards Diversifiable? Evidence of the Aggregate Effects of Standards
Bjorn N. Jorgensen, The University of Colorado at Boulder
Jing Li, Columbia University
Gil Sadka, Columbia University

An Examination of SFAS 146 Restructuring Charges*
Yong Gyu Lee, City University of New York

Session 3:  Other Issues in Financial Accounting and Reporting
Accounting- Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Philip Shane, University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Auckland
Discussants:
Steve Lin, Florida International University
Heli Hookana
Han Yi, University of Oklahoma

The Power of Reputation: Hedge Fund Activists*
Emanuel Zur, City University of New York

Earnings Restatements and Subsequent Accounting Conservatism*
Ying Huang, University of Kansas
Weining Zhang, University of Texas at Dallas

Outside Directors, Litigation Environment and Management Earnings Forecasts
Surjit Tinaikar, Independent

Session 4: Cost of Capital and Accounting Information
Accounting- Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Marlene Plumlee, University of Utah
Discussant: Gregory Sommers, Southern Methodist University

R&D Intensity, Adverse Selection and the Information Benefit of Bank Debt
Yuan Xie, Fordham University
Meng Yan, Fordham University
Jeff Jiewei Yu, Southern Methodist University

Correcting for Cross-Sectional and Time-Series Dependence in Accounting Research*
Ian D. Gow, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Gaizka Ormazabal, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Daniel J. Taylor, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Disclosure, Analyst Forecast Bias, and the Cost of Equity Capital
Stephannie A. Larocque, University of Toronto

Session 5: Executive Compensation
Accounting- Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Mary Ellen Carter, Boston College
Discussant:
Preeti Choudhary, Georgetown University
Yonca Ertimur, Duke University
Emma Peng, Fordham University

CEO Risk-Related Incentives and Income Smoothing
Julia Grant, Case Western Reserve University
Antonio Parbonetti, University of Padua
Garen Markarian, IE Business School

The Role of Defined Benefit Pension Plans in Executive Compensation*
Brian D. Cadman, University of Utah
Linda Vincent, Northwestern University

The Impact of Cash Flow Volatility on the Relation between Income Smoothing and CEO Cash Compensation
Somnath Das, University of Illinois at Chicago
Keejae Hong, University of Illinois at Chicago
Kyonghee Kim, University of Illinois at Chicago

Session 6: Accounting Information, Markets and Regulation
Accounting- Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Shailendra Pandit, University of Illinois at Chicago
Discussant: K.E. (Skip) Hughes, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

The Determinants and Information Content of the Forward-looking Statements in Corporate Filings - A Naive Bayesian Machine Learning Approach
Feng Li, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Accounting for Crises
Venky Nagar, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Gwen Yu, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Securities and Exchange Commission Comment Letters: Enforcing Accounting Quality and Disclosure,
Reining Chen, Ohio State University
Rick M. Johnston, Ohio State University

9:30 am - 10:00 am

Break

10:00 am - 11:30 am

Session 7: Corporate Governance
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Garen Markarian, IE Business School
Discussant: John (Xuefeng) Jiang, Michigan State University

Corporate Governance and Executive Perquisites: Evidence from the New SEC Disclosure Rules
Angela B. Andrews, Wayne State University
Scott C. Linn, University of Oklahoma
Han Yi, University of Oklahoma

Corporate Governance and Liquidity: An Exploration of Voluntary Disclosure, Analyst Coverage and Adverse Selection as Mediating Mechanisms
Beng Wee Goh, Singapore Management University
Kevin Ow Yong Keng, Singapore Management University
Jeffrey Ng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Executive Overconfidence and the Slippery Slope to Fraud*
Catherine M. Schrand, University of Pennsylvania
Sarah L. C. Zechman, University of Chicago

Session 8: Capital Markets or Intermediaries
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Darren Roulstone, Ohio State University
Discussant: Devin Shanthikumar, Harvard Business School

The Long-Run Performance of Analyst Coverage Initiations
Yonca Ertimur, Duke University
Frank Zhang, Yale School of Management
Volkan Muslu, University of Texas at Dallas

Trading Against the Prophets: Using Short Interest to Profit from Analyst Recommendations*
Michael S. Drake, Texas A&M University
Lynn L. Rees, Texas A&M University
Edward P. Swanson, Texas A&M University

Accruals and Conditional Equity Premium*
Hui Guo, University of Cincinnati
Xiaowen Jiang, University of Cincinnati

Session 9: Management Disclosures and Performance
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Jonathan Rogers, University of Chicago
Discussants:
Xia Chen, University of British Columbia
Shankar Venkataraman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Francois Brochet, Harvard Business School

Managers' Guidance Ability and its Effect on Investors and Analysts
Holly I-Hwa Yang, Cornell University

Organizational Design and Managers' Segment Reporting Decisions
Christine A. Botosan, University of Utah
Susan McMahon, University of Utah
Mary Harris Stanford, Texas Christian University

An Empirical Investigation of Managers' Interventions and Asymmetry in Intra-Industry Information Transfers
Rosemond Desir, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Session 10: Earnings Management
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Somnath Das, University of Illinois at Chicago
Discussant: Amy Sun, Penn State University

A Comprehensive Analysis of Special Items Abuse *
Carol Anilowski, Purdue University
Kalin Kolev, New York University
Sarah E. McVay, University of Utah

Opportunistic R&D Decision in the Fourth Fiscal Quarter and the Initial Evidence of R&D Reversals
Meng Yan, Fordham University

An Analysis of Managerial Use and Market Consequences of Earnings Management and Expectation Management
Somnath Das, University of Illinois at Chicago
Kyonghee Kim, University of Illinois at Chicago
Sukesh Patro, Kansas State University

Session 11: Voluntary Disclosure
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Leslie Davis Hodder, Indiana University Bloomington
Discussants:
Russell Lundholm, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Mohan Venkatachalam, Duke University
Devon Erickson, Indiana University Bloomington

Voluntary Disclosure of Sensitivity
Bjorn N. Jorgensen, University of Colorado at Boulder
Michael Kirschenheiter, University of Illinois at Chicago

Disclosure Choices during Earnings Conference Calls
Stephan Hollander, Tilburg University
Maarten Pronk, Tilburg University
Erik Roelofsen, Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

How Do Investors Assess the Credibility of Potentially Self-Serving Attributions of Earnings Performance?
Michael D. Kimbrough, Harvard Business School
Isabel Yanyan Wang, Michigan State University

Session 12: Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Keejae Hong
Discussant: Mostafa Maksy, Northeastern Illinois University

Acquisition Profitability and Asymmetric Timeliness of Accounting Earnings
Jere R. Francis, University of Missouri at Columbia
Xiumin Martin, University of Missouri at Columbia

On the Estimation of the Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings: Inference and Bias Corrections
Judson A. Caskey, University of California, Los Angeles
Kyle Peterson, University of Oregon

Adjusting Linear Information Models for the Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings*
Sebastian Gell, University of Cologne
Carsten Homburg, University of Cologne
Julia Nasev, Stanford Graduate School of Business

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch
Accounting - Update - 1 CH

Speaker: Sue Haka – American Accounting Association President

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Session 13: International or IFRS
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Teri Yohn, Indiana University Bloomington
Discussants:
Cynthia Chen
Steve Lin, Florida International University

External Financing Constraints and Corporate Financial Transparency: An International Study*
Ole-Kristian Hope, University of Toronto
Wayne B. Thomas, University of Oklahoma
Dushyantkumar Vyas, University of Toronto

An International Comparison of the Value Relevance of Research and Development Expenses*
James Jianxin Gong, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
I-Ling Wang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mandatory Adoption of IFRS and Stock Price Informativeness
Christof Beuselinck, Tilburg University
Philip Joos, William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration
Inder K. Khurana, University of Missouri at Columbia
Sofie Van der Meulen, Tilburg University

Session 14 Behavioral Research and Financial Analysts
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator:  Max Hewitt, Indiana University Bloomington
Discussants:
Jeffrey Hales, Georgia Institute of Technology
Steven Orpurt, Singapore Management University

Earnings Trends and Beating Analysts' Forecasts: Are Both Considered Together Over Time?
Lisa L. Koonce, University of Texas at Austin
Marlys Gascho Lipe, University of Oklahoma

Determinants of Analysts' Expectations of Mispricing: The Joint Effects of Institutional Investor Group and Accounting Disclosure Transparency*
W. Brooke Elliott, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Susan D. Krische, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mark E. Peecher, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

What Drives Sell-Side Analyst Compensation at High-Status Banks?
Boris Groysberg, Harvard University
Paul M. Healy, Harvard Business School
David A. Maber, Harvard Business School

Session 15: Contracting or Regulation
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Jonathan Rogers, University of Chicago
Discussant:  Peter Demerjian, Emory University

Do CFOs Have Styles of Their Own? An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Individual CFOs on Financial Reporting Practices*
Weili Ge, University of Washington
Dawn A. Matsumoto, University of Washington
Jenny Li Zhang, University of Washington

Are Investors Confused by Restatements after Sarbanes-Oxley?*
Jeffrey J. Burks, University of Notre Dame

The Influence of Regulation FD on Firm Financing Decisions*
Susan M. M. Albring, Syracuse University
Monica L. Banyi, University of Virginia
Dan S. Dhaliwal, University of Arizona
Raynolde Pereira, University of Missouri at Columbia

Session 16: Accounting Conservatism, Monitoring and Contracting
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Sudipta Basu, Temple University
Discussants:
Sudipta Basu, Temple University
Ying Huang, University of Kansas

Borrower Conservatism and Private Debt Contracting*
Jayanthi Sunder, Northwestern University
Shyam V. Sunder, Northwestern University
Jingjing Zhang, Northwestern University

The Effect of Investors' Incentive for Monitoring Versus Trading on Their Demand for Accounting Conservatism: Evidence from Institutional Investors*
Santhosh Ramalingegowda, University of Georgia
Yong Yu, University of Texas at Austin

Proximity to Broad Credit Rating Change and Conservatism in Reported Earnings*
Ashiq Ali, University of Texas at Dallas
Weining Zhang, University of Texas at Dallas

Session 17:  Stock Options
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Mary Ellen Carter, Boston College
Discussant:
Brian Cadman, University of Utah
Melissa Lewis, University of Utah
Mary Ellen Carter, Boston College

Valuing Employee Stock Options: Do Managers Use Lattice Models to Understate Option Values?
Brian Bratten, University of Texas at Austin
Ross Jennings, University of Texas at Austin
Casey Schwab, University of Texas at Austin

Reliability Differences for Recognized Versus Disclosed Fair Values of Employee Stock Options *
Preeti Choudhary, Georgetown University

Stock Option Grants, Managerial Power, and SFAS 123(R)
Terrance R. Skantz, Florida Atlantic University

Session 18: Market Efficiency or Anomalies
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Judson Caskey, University of California, Los Angeles
Discussant:  Judson Caskey, University of California, Los Angeles

Implications of Suboptimal Cash Holdings for Current and Future Market Returns*
Derek Oler, Indiana University Bloomington
Marc Picconi, Indiana University Bloomington

Investor Trading and the Post Earnings Announcement Drift
Benjamin C. Ayers, University of Georgia
Oliver Zhen Li
Eric Yeung, University of Georgia

Investor Sentiment, Post-Earnings Announcement Drift, and Accruals*
Joshua Livnat, New York University
Christine Petrovits, New York University

3:30 pm - 4:00 pm

Break

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Session 19 Analytical Modeling
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Bjorn Jorgensen, University of Colorado at Boulder
Discussants:
Edwige Cheynel, Carnegie Mellon University
Jeremy Bertomeu, Northwestern University

Fundamental Analysis and Hedge Trading in a Disagreement Model
Russell J. Lundholm, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

Efficiency Properties of Impairment Accounting in Debt Contracting
Judson A. Caskey, University of California, Los Angeles
John S. Hughes, University of California, Los Angeles

Information and the Cost of Capital: An Ex-Ante Perspective
Peter O. Christensen, University of Southern Denmark
Leonidas Enrique de la Rosa, University of Aarhus
Gerald A. Feltham, University of British Columbia

Session 20: Economic Impact of Accounting Information
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Marlene Plumlee, University of Utah
Discussants:
Davit Adut, University of Cincinnati
Yvonne Lu, University of Southern California
Dan Taylor, Stanford University

Banks' Asset Securitization and Information Asymmetry
Mei Cheng, University of Arizona
Dan S. Dhaliwal, University of Arizona
Monica Neamtiu, University of Arizona

Real Time Disclosure Through Current Reports: The Case of Material Contracts
Edward X. Li, University of Rochester

The Effect of Accounting Policy Disclosure Length on Investor and Analyst Uncertainty
Kyle Peterson, University of Oregon

Session 21: Financial Reporting and Financial Analysts
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Somnath Das, University of Illinois at Chicago
Discussant:  Shailendra Pandit

Variation of Forecast Error Distributions and Forecast Dispersion Across Shares of Different Prices: Some Unexpected Findings
Foong Soon Cheong, Yale School of Management
Jacob K. Thomas, Yale School of Management

Cover Me: Managers' Response to Decreases in Analyst Coverage*
Divya Anantharaman, Columbia University
Yuan Zhang, Columbia University

Can Companies Buy Credible Analyst Research?*
Marcus Kirk, Emory University

Session 22: Value Relevance and Financial Reporting
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Mark Cecchini, University of South Carolina
Discussant: Lucile Faurel, University of California, Irvine

Impact of Disclosure and Corporate Governance on the Association between Fair Value Gains and Losses and Stock Returns in the Commercial Banking Industry
Gauri Bhat, Washington University, St. Louis

Economic Consequences of Recognizing Off-Balance Sheet Activities*
Jenny Li Zhang, University of Washington

A Re-Examination of the Costs (and Benefits) to Equity Investors from Including Accruals in Financial Reports*
Bradley E. Lail, University of Oklahoma
Robert C. Lipe, University of Oklahoma
Han Yi, University of Oklahoma

Session 23: Market Intermediaries
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator:  Leslie Davis Hodder, Indiana University Bloomington
Discussant: Jayanthi Sunder, Northwestern University

The Informational Role of Bond Analysts*
Gus De Franco, University of Toronto
Florin P. Vasvari, London Business School
Regina Wittenberg Moerman, University of Chicago

Rating Agency Adjustments to GAAP Financial Statements and their Effect on Ratings and Bond Yields*
Pepa Kraft, University of Chicago

Auditor Industry Specialization, Analysts Behavior, and Cost of Debt
Chan Li, University of Pittsburgh
Yuan Xie, Fordham University
Jian Zhou, SUNY at Binghamton - School of Management

Session 24: Managerial Ability and Reputation
Accounting - Advanced - 1.5 CH
Moderator: Christine Botosan, University of Utah
Discussant: Shuping Chen, University of Texas at Austin

Why Do CFOs Become Involved in Material Accounting Manipulations?*
Mei Feng, University of Pittsburgh
Weili Ge, University of Washington
Shuqing Luo, University of Pittsburgh
Terry J. Shevlin, University of Washington

Quantifying Managerial Ability: A New Measure and Validity Tests*
Peter R. Demerjian, Emory University
Baruch Itamar Lev, New York University
Sarah E. McVay, University of Utah

Managerial Reputation and Firm Internal Monitoring Mechanisms
Christo Karuna, University of California, Irvine