Douglas Skinner is a leading expert in corporate disclosure practices, corporate financial reporting, and corporate finance, with a focus on payout policy. His research addresses (1) the causes and capital market effects of managers' corporate disclosure choices (especially forward-looking information, including earnings forecasts, earnings pre-announcements, and guidance, corporate conference calls, etc.); (2) how the legal and regulatory environment affects managers’ corporate disclosures; (3) managers' incentives to use their discretion in the financial reporting process to manage reported accounting earnings ("earnings management"); (4) how stock prices respond to earning releases, especially for high growth companies ("earnings torpedoes"); and (5) the determinants of firms' payout policies, including whether and how much firms should pay out, the form of payout (dividends versus stock repurchases), etc. Professor Skinner also has research interests in Japanese accounting, auditing, and corporate governance practices.