My Research Projects

  • September 2022 Textual Analysis in Accounting: What’s Next?
  • We discuss new developments in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and how they can be applied to perform textual analysis in accounting research.
  • Bochkay, K., S. V. Brown, A. J. Leone, and J. W. Tucker. 2022. Textual Analysis in Accounting: What’s Next? Contemporary Accounting Research. Forthcoming.
  • August 2022 Financial Statement Dissimilarity and SEC Scrutiny
  • We develop a novel measure of financial statement similarity using vector-based cosine similarity.
  • Brown, S. V., G. Ma, and J. W. Tucker. 2022. Financial Statement Dissimilarity and SEC Scrutiny. Working Paper.
  • July 2021 Financial Statement Adequacy and Firms’ MD&A Disclosures
  • We look at how companies use the narrative MD&A in the annual report to compensate for financial statements have relatively lower information contained in the quantitative numbers themselves.
  • Brown, S. V., L. Hinson, and J. W. Tucker. 2021. Financial Statement Adequacy and Firms’ MD&A Disclosures. Working Paper.
  • January 2018 The Spillover Effect of SEC Comment Letters on Qualitative Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from the Risk Factor Disclosure
  • Companies change their risk factor disclosures after other leaders and peers in the industry receive a comment letter, even though the original company did not receive a letter itself. Not only does this spillover effect influence how much companies change their disclosures, but it also increases the amount of company-specific information they disclose. It also seems to improve overall disclosure quality.
  • Brown, S. V., X. Tian, and J. W. Tucker. 2018. The Spillover Effect of SEC Comment Letters on Qualitative Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from the Risk Factor Disclosure. Contemporary Accounting Research. 35 (2): 622-656.
  • June 2016 Auditor-Client Compatibility and Audit Firm Selection
  • When clients don't fit as well with their auditors, they're more likely to switch to one with a better fit. Using textual disclosure similarity to assess auditor-client fit, after an auditor change there is a quick alignment in the footnotes of that client with existing clients of the new auditor, followed by slower changes in unaudited sections of the 10-K.
  • Brown, S. V. and W. R. Knechel. 2016. Auditor-Client Compatibility and Audit Firm Selection. Journal of Accounting Research. 54 (3): 725-775.
  • May 2011 Large-Sample Evidence on Firms' Year-over-Year MD&A Modifications
  • We measure year-over-year changes in companies' 10-K MD&A disclosures, confirming these changes are more likely to appear following larger operational changes, but finding a decline in the magnitude of these changes and the stock market's reaction to them. This latter result may indicate a decline in the usefulness of the MD&A for investors, coincident with the MD&A disclosures becoming longer and more boilerplate over time. We find no evidence that sell-side analysts use the MD&A in adjusting their forecasts, possibly due to having superior information sources.
  • Brown, S. V. and J. Tucker. 2011. Large-Sample Evidence on Firms' Year-Over-Year MD&A Modifications. Journal of Accounting Research. 49 (2): 309-346.