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Katherine Schipper

Thomas F. Keller Distinguished Professor of Business Administration
Fuqua School of Business
A407 Fuqua School of Business, Box 90210, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications


Payoffs to Aggressiveness

Conference Accounting Review · November 1, 2023 For a broad sample of firms, we use structural equations modeling to construct latent variables for real-action aggressiveness and reporting policy aggressiveness. We estimate the association between the latent variables and the associations of each latent ... Full text Cite

The Costs of Waiving Audit Adjustments

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · December 1, 2022 We analyze the disposition of auditor-proposed adjustments to financial statements. Our analyses address concerns, expressed by regulators and others, that auditors and their clients fixate on quantitative thresholds and overlook qualitative factors in ass ... Full text Cite

Measuring Accounting Asset Informativeness

Journal Article Accounting Review · July 1, 2022 We develop and validate an empirical measure of the informativeness of accounting assets in measuring firm-specific economic capital, an important determinant of both cash flows and intrinsic values. Our validation tests show that the asset informativeness ... Full text Cite

Why do accounting issues end up in the ‘too difficult’ box?

Journal Article Accounting and Business Research · January 1, 2022 I discuss outcome-based characteristics of several vexatious and recurring standard-setting issues, described for purposes of this paper as ‘too difficult,’ and apply these characteristics to identify four examples of ‘too difficult’ accounting issues: rep ... Full text Cite

Immaterial Error Corrections and Financial Reporting Reliability*

Journal Article Contemporary Accounting Research · December 1, 2021 We provide large-sample archival evidence on the nature and consequences of errors deemed immaterial to the previously issued financial statements containing the errors (immaterial errors). The incidence of immaterial error corrections has been increasing ... Full text Cite

Non-random sampling and association tests on realized returns and risk proxies

Journal Article Review of Accounting Studies · June 1, 2021 This paper investigates how data requirements often encountered in archival accounting research can produce a data-restricted sample that is a non-random selection of observations from the reference sample to which the researcher wishes to generalize resul ... Full text Cite

Financial reporting for pollution reduction programs

Journal Article Management Science · December 1, 2020 We develop a conceptually grounded approach, based on the International Accounting Standards Board's conceptual framework, to the accounting for the rights and obligations embodied in a cap-and-trade program. Under this approach, firms recognize allowances ... Full text Cite

Auditors’ Quantitative Materiality Judgments: Properties and Implications for Financial Reporting Reliability

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · December 1, 2019 We analyze data made available through the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) to provide descriptive evidence on the properties of auditors’ actual quantitative materiality judgments and the implications of those judgments for financial repo ... Full text Cite

Evidence of Manager Intervention to Avoid Working Capital Deficits

Journal Article Contemporary Accounting Research · June 1, 2017 We study managers’ interventions in financial reporting by examining working capital deficits, measured as current ratios less than 1.0. Current ratios represent important balance sheet liquidity indicators to lenders and creditors, and have an identifiabl ... Full text Cite

Uniform Versus Discretionary Regimes in Reporting Information with Unverifiable Precision and a Coordination Role

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · March 1, 2017 We examine uniform and discretionary regimes for reporting information about firm performance from the perspective of a standard setter, in a setting where the precision of reported information is difficult to verify and the reported information can help c ... Full text Cite

Comments and observations regarding the relation between theory and empirical research in contemporary accounting research

Journal Article Foundations and Trends in Accounting · January 1, 2016 We offer some thoughts on the relation between theoretical and empirical accounting research in the context of causal inference, in response to two questions posed by Professor Ivan Marinovic, organizer of the 2014 Stanford University Graduate School of Bu ... Full text Cite

Fair value measurement in financial reporting

Journal Article Foundations and Trends in Accounting · January 1, 2014 This monograph provides a historically informed discussion of conceptual and procedural issues related to the use of the fair value measurement attribute in financial reporting. Our goal is to provide a structure, based on the conceptual frameworks of the ... Full text Cite

Estimation sample selection for discretionary accruals models

Journal Article Journal of Accounting and Economics · November 1, 2013 We examine how the criteria for choosing estimation samples affect the ability to detect discretionary accruals, using several variants of the Jones (1991) model. Researchers commonly estimate accruals models in cross-section, and define the estimation sam ... Full text Cite

Evidence that market participants assess recognized and disclosed items similarly when reliability is not an issue

Journal Article Accounting Review · July 1, 2013 We provide evidence that disclosed items are not processed differently from recognized items when the disclosures are salient, not based on management estimates, and amenable to simple techniques for imputing as-if recognized amounts. For a sample of firms ... Full text Cite

Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods and Uses

Book · November 8, 2012 Fully integrating the latest International Financial Reporting Standards, inclusive of the latest developments on Fair Value Accounting, and now more streamlined for busy students, this text provides the highest return on your financial ... ... Cite

The introduction of International Accounting Standards in Europe: Implications for international convergence

Journal Article European Accounting Review · January 1, 2005 This paper describes several implementation effects associated with the mandated adoption of international financial reporting standards promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board in the European Union, including a possible increased deman ... Full text Cite

The pricing of earnings and cash flows in the presence of abnormal and normal accruals

Journal Article Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics · January 1, 2002 This paper proposes a framework to assess the effects of abnormal and normal accruals on the valuation relevance of earnings and cash flows. We use this framework to investigate the relative weights placed by investors on earnings and cash flows, as a func ... Full text Cite

Payoffs to Aggressiveness

Conference Accounting Review · November 1, 2023 For a broad sample of firms, we use structural equations modeling to construct latent variables for real-action aggressiveness and reporting policy aggressiveness. We estimate the association between the latent variables and the associations of each latent ... Full text Cite

The Costs of Waiving Audit Adjustments

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · December 1, 2022 We analyze the disposition of auditor-proposed adjustments to financial statements. Our analyses address concerns, expressed by regulators and others, that auditors and their clients fixate on quantitative thresholds and overlook qualitative factors in ass ... Full text Cite

Measuring Accounting Asset Informativeness

Journal Article Accounting Review · July 1, 2022 We develop and validate an empirical measure of the informativeness of accounting assets in measuring firm-specific economic capital, an important determinant of both cash flows and intrinsic values. Our validation tests show that the asset informativeness ... Full text Cite

Why do accounting issues end up in the ‘too difficult’ box?

Journal Article Accounting and Business Research · January 1, 2022 I discuss outcome-based characteristics of several vexatious and recurring standard-setting issues, described for purposes of this paper as ‘too difficult,’ and apply these characteristics to identify four examples of ‘too difficult’ accounting issues: rep ... Full text Cite

Immaterial Error Corrections and Financial Reporting Reliability*

Journal Article Contemporary Accounting Research · December 1, 2021 We provide large-sample archival evidence on the nature and consequences of errors deemed immaterial to the previously issued financial statements containing the errors (immaterial errors). The incidence of immaterial error corrections has been increasing ... Full text Cite

Non-random sampling and association tests on realized returns and risk proxies

Journal Article Review of Accounting Studies · June 1, 2021 This paper investigates how data requirements often encountered in archival accounting research can produce a data-restricted sample that is a non-random selection of observations from the reference sample to which the researcher wishes to generalize resul ... Full text Cite

Financial reporting for pollution reduction programs

Journal Article Management Science · December 1, 2020 We develop a conceptually grounded approach, based on the International Accounting Standards Board's conceptual framework, to the accounting for the rights and obligations embodied in a cap-and-trade program. Under this approach, firms recognize allowances ... Full text Cite

Auditors’ Quantitative Materiality Judgments: Properties and Implications for Financial Reporting Reliability

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · December 1, 2019 We analyze data made available through the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) to provide descriptive evidence on the properties of auditors’ actual quantitative materiality judgments and the implications of those judgments for financial repo ... Full text Cite

Evidence of Manager Intervention to Avoid Working Capital Deficits

Journal Article Contemporary Accounting Research · June 1, 2017 We study managers’ interventions in financial reporting by examining working capital deficits, measured as current ratios less than 1.0. Current ratios represent important balance sheet liquidity indicators to lenders and creditors, and have an identifiabl ... Full text Cite

Uniform Versus Discretionary Regimes in Reporting Information with Unverifiable Precision and a Coordination Role

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · March 1, 2017 We examine uniform and discretionary regimes for reporting information about firm performance from the perspective of a standard setter, in a setting where the precision of reported information is difficult to verify and the reported information can help c ... Full text Cite

Comments and observations regarding the relation between theory and empirical research in contemporary accounting research

Journal Article Foundations and Trends in Accounting · January 1, 2016 We offer some thoughts on the relation between theoretical and empirical accounting research in the context of causal inference, in response to two questions posed by Professor Ivan Marinovic, organizer of the 2014 Stanford University Graduate School of Bu ... Full text Cite

Fair value measurement in financial reporting

Journal Article Foundations and Trends in Accounting · January 1, 2014 This monograph provides a historically informed discussion of conceptual and procedural issues related to the use of the fair value measurement attribute in financial reporting. Our goal is to provide a structure, based on the conceptual frameworks of the ... Full text Cite

Estimation sample selection for discretionary accruals models

Journal Article Journal of Accounting and Economics · November 1, 2013 We examine how the criteria for choosing estimation samples affect the ability to detect discretionary accruals, using several variants of the Jones (1991) model. Researchers commonly estimate accruals models in cross-section, and define the estimation sam ... Full text Cite

Evidence that market participants assess recognized and disclosed items similarly when reliability is not an issue

Journal Article Accounting Review · July 1, 2013 We provide evidence that disclosed items are not processed differently from recognized items when the disclosures are salient, not based on management estimates, and amenable to simple techniques for imputing as-if recognized amounts. For a sample of firms ... Full text Cite

Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods and Uses

Book · November 8, 2012 Fully integrating the latest International Financial Reporting Standards, inclusive of the latest developments on Fair Value Accounting, and now more streamlined for busy students, this text provides the highest return on your financial ... ... Cite

The introduction of International Accounting Standards in Europe: Implications for international convergence

Journal Article European Accounting Review · January 1, 2005 This paper describes several implementation effects associated with the mandated adoption of international financial reporting standards promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board in the European Union, including a possible increased deman ... Full text Cite

The pricing of earnings and cash flows in the presence of abnormal and normal accruals

Journal Article Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics · January 1, 2002 This paper proposes a framework to assess the effects of abnormal and normal accruals on the valuation relevance of earnings and cash flows. We use this framework to investigate the relative weights placed by investors on earnings and cash flows, as a func ... Full text Cite

The framework of financial accounting concepts and standards

Journal Article ACCOUNTING REVIEW · July 1, 2000 Link to item Cite

Earnings Surprises and Litigation Risk

Journal Article Journal of Financial Statement Analysis · 1998 Cite

Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Disclosures

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · 1994 Cite

Effects of Management Buyouts on Corporate Interest and Depreciation Tax Deductions

Journal Article The Journal of Law and Economics · October 1991 Full text Cite

The Impact of Merger-Related Regulations on the Shareholders of Acquiring Firms

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · 1983 Cite

Pensions

Chapter · 1982 Cite

Alternative Accounting Treatments for Pensions

Journal Article The Accounting Review · 1982 Cite

Financial Distress in Private Colleges

Journal Article Journal of Accounting Research · 1977 Cite