Pay for Praise: Do Rating Agencies Get Paid More When They Provide Higher Ratings? An Examination of the Consequences of the Recalibration of Municipal Debt 

  Anne Beatty, Jacqueline Gillette, Reining Petacchi, and Joseph Weber

An Investigation of Auditors’ Judgments when Companies Release Earnings before Audit Completion 

  Lori Bhaskar, Patrick Hopkins and Joseph Schroeder

The Disciplinary Role of Financial Statements: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions of Privately Held Targets 

Ciao-Wei Chen

Federal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex-Ante Litigation Risk

Allen Huang, Kai Wai Hui, and Reeyarn Li

Do Financial Gatekeepers Under-Protect Investors? Evidence from Criminal Background Checks

Kelvin Law and Lillian Mills

Financial Reporting and Credit Ratings: On the Effects of Competition in the Rating Industry and Rating Agencies' Gatekeeper Role

Kyungha Lee and Stefan Schantl

* Papers will be available to download in early May 2018.