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This study assesses whether the accrual-generating process is adequately described by a linear model with respect to a range of underlying determinants examined by prior literature. We document substantial departures from linearity across the distributions of accrual determinants, including measures of size, performance, and growth. To incorporate non-linear relations, we employ a recently developed multivariate matching approach (entropy balancing) to adjust for determinants in place of relying on a linear model. Entropy balancing identifies weights for the control sample to equalize the distribution of determinants across treatment and control samples. In simulations drawing random samples from deciles where a linear model displays poor fit, we find that entropy balancing significantly improves accrual model specification by reducing coefficient bias relative to linear and propensity-score matched models. Consistent with entropy balancing retaining sufficient power, we find that its estimates detect seeded accrual manipulations and explain variation in accruals around equity issuances.

Regulators claim that increased mandated disclosure frequency should lead to more efficient price formation. However, analytical models suggest that mandating disclosure may actually impede the price formation process, and prior empirical studies have been unable to document a relation between mandatory disclosure and improved price formation. We re-examine this relationship using a recent SEC regulation that increased the frequency of mandated event disclosures in form 8-K. We show that price formation improves after the mandate, where firms with the largest increases in mandatory disclosure experience the greatest improvements in price formation. Our evidence is consistent with the idea that mandating an increase in the frequency that material events must be disclosed is associated with improved price formation.

Regulators and the profession have long complained that \"boilerplate\" footnotes impair financial reporting quality, where boilerplate refers to standardized text that is similar across firms. They raise these concerns without acknowledging that the use of boilerplate may create learning and network externalities that benefit financial statement preparers and users. One channel through which boilerplate footnotes create these externalities is by affecting accounting comparability, although it is unclear whether similarity increases or decreases comparability. I investigate this question by examining the association between accounting comparability, measures of network benefits and a measure of footnote similarity derived from text re-use detection software. I begin by documenting the factors that explain footnote similarity, and find that similarity increases among firms that are in the same industry, are geographically proximate, and share the same auditor office. In answer to my primary question, I find that footnote similarity is positively associated with accounting comparability and measures of network benefits, consistent with boilerplate footnotes improving financial reporting quality, on average. In addition, the results are robust to alternative measures of accounting comparability and to several matching methods, some of which are new to the accounting literature. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of footnotes in improving financial reporting quality, and provide new insights into the footnote creation process. This study also adds to the growing textual analysis literature by introducing the use of text re-use detection software to measure footnote similarity, and to the general accounting literature by introducing two new matching methods.

This is the first national indigenous cohort study in which a common, in-depth protocol with a common set of objectives has been adopted by several indigenous communities across Canada. The overarching objective of the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM) cohort is to investigate how the community-level environment is associated with individual health behaviors and the presence and progression of chronic disease risk factors and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. CAHHM aims to recruit approximately 2,000 First Nations indigenous individuals from up to nine communities across Canada and have participants complete questionnaires, blood collection, physical measurements, cognitive assessments, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Through individual- and community-level data collection, we will develop an understanding of the specific role of the socioenvironmental, biological, and contextual factors have on the development of chronic disease risk factors and chronic diseases. Information collected in the indigenous cohort will be used to assist communities to develop local management strategies for chronic disease, and can be used collectively to understand the contextual, environmental, socioeconomic, and biological determinants of differences in health status in harmony with First Nations beliefs and reality.