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Executives' "Off-The-Job" Behavior, Corporate Culture, and Financial Reporting Risk

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  • Robert Davidson
  • Aiyesha Dey
  • Abbie J. Smith

Abstract

We examine how executives' behavior outside the workplace, as measured by their ownership of luxury goods (low "frugality") and prior legal infractions, is related to financial reporting risk. We predict and find that CEOs and CFOs with a legal record are more likely to perpetrate fraud. In contrast, we do not find a relation between executives' frugality and the propensity to perpetrate fraud. However, as predicted, we find that unfrugal CEOs oversee a relatively loose control environment characterized by relatively high probabilities of other insiders perpetrating fraud and unintentional material reporting errors. Further, cultural changes associated with an increase in fraud risk are more likely during unfrugal (vs. frugal) CEOs' reign, including the appointment of an unfrugal CFO, an increase in executives' equity-based incentives to misreport, and a decline in measures of board monitoring intensity.

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  • Robert Davidson & Aiyesha Dey & Abbie J. Smith, 2012. "Executives' "Off-The-Job" Behavior, Corporate Culture, and Financial Reporting Risk," NBER Working Papers 18001, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18001
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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