DEDICATION To my husband, Brendan. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my committee for their guidance and helpful comments throughout this project. I would especially like to thank my dissertation chair, Chris Agoglia. Chris encouraged me to pursue my Ph.D. while I was an undergraduate at Drexel. He guided me through the Ph.D. program application process, and he is still guiding me now as I complete my degree. He has made this process worthwhile and I will always be

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... for his mentorship. He is proof that a star researcher can also be a star human being. I would also like to thank Dave Piercey for all of his support and helpful comments on my dissertation. Throughout my doctoral program Dave has been truly generous with his time, and I have learned so much from him. My first attempt at doing research of my own came at the end of my second year as a doctoral student when I began working on a study with Dave. It has been (and continues to be) a great experience. I am very lucky to have such a great person and colleague to work with. I also owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Ray Pfeiffer. He invited me to attend the roundtable discussions on the SFAS 5 issue at the FASB. That experience helped to give me the confidence I needed to present this paper in job workshops. Also, when times were difficult for me over the past five years, Ray would put things in perspective for me. I am grateful to have crossed paths with Ray during my stay at UMass.