Conditional conservatism and the limits to earnings management

We examine the impact of conditional conservatism on earnings management. Our findings support the view that conditional conservatism reduces accruals-based earnings management but also triggers a trade-off between accruals and real earnings management. In our main tests we use the passage of SFAS 121 as a plausibly exogenous regulatory change that increased the level of conditional conservatism but did not materially affect earnings management. We find that, after the regulation, treated firms reduce accruals-based earnings management and increase real earnings management, and are less likely to be marginal or habitual beaters of earnings benchmarks. Given the crucial role of earnings for firm valuation and analysis, and that conditionally conservative accounting choices are observable, our results should be of wide interest for investment professionals.     

Estimating and validating a firm‐year‐specific measure of conservatism: Australian evidence

We provide new evidence on the asymmetric timeliness with which economic gains and losses are recognized in Australian financial reporting (i.e. conservatism), as well as some of the factors associated with variation in conservatism. We first derive, and then estimate and subsequently validate, a firm‐year‐specific measure of conservatism (C_Score) in the manner suggested by Khan and Watts (2007) . Our results indicate that conservatism is a pervasive feature of the Australian financial reporting environment. Conservatism is positively associated with stock return volatility, investment cycle length and prior period conservatism, and it is negatively associated with firm age, firm size and leverage. The results are an encouraging start for research into the causes and consequences of conservatism in Australian financial reporting.     

Evidence on the role of accounting conservatism in monitoring managers’ investment decisions

Watts (2003), among others, argues that conservatism helps in corporate governance by mitigating agency problems associated with managers’ investment decisions. We hypothesize that if conservatism reduces managers’ex ante incentives to take on negative net present value projects and improves the ex post monitoring of investments, firms with more conservative accounting ought to have higher future profitability and lower likelihood (and magnitude) of future special items charges. Consistent with this expectation, we find that firms with more conservative accounting have (i) higher future cash flows and gross margins and (ii) lower likelihood and magnitude of special items charges than firms with less conservative accounting.     

International Mergers and Acquisitions Laws,the Market for Corporate Control,and Accounting Conservatism

Exploiting the staggered enactment of country‐level mergers and acquisitions (M&A) law as an exogenous increase in corporate takeover threat, this paper examines how a disciplinary market for corporate control affects accounting conservatism. Following M&A law adoption, we find increased accounting conservatism, with more pronounced effects in countries with weak shareholder protection and in those experiencing larger growth in takeover activity. Further analysis reveals that elevated takeover threats increase conservatism through changes in capital structure and investment decisions as well as improvements in board monitoring. Our findings highlight the importance of the market for corporate control in shaping financial‐reporting outcome.     

社会信任与企业劳动投资效率

本文从非正式制度的视角,研究了社会信任与企业劳动投资效率的关系。研究发现,社会信任有助于提高企业劳动投资效率。进一步研究表明,社会信任与企业劳动投资效率的相关关系在融资约束越强以及代理冲突更严重的企业中更显著。同时,随着信息不对称程度的加大,社会信任对企业劳动投资效率的提升作用更显著。此外,社会信任对企业劳动投资效率的改善主要表现为降低劳动投资不足,且对雇佣不足与解雇过度两个方面都存在抑制作用。本文丰富了社会信任的经济后果和企业投资效率影响因素的研究,对于揭示社会信任在企业劳动投资中的作用以及提高劳动投资效率具有一定启示意义。     

会计稳健性对投资效率的作用机理研究——基于企业并购的研究视角

在剩余收益估值模型的基础上构造了 Basu (1997)的反函数,从而构建了可同时度量非条件稳健性和条件稳健性的实证模型,并基于企业并购的视角,探究了会计稳健性对企业投资效率的事前和事后影响。研究发现：非条件稳健性可以提升企业事前投资效率(降低并购溢价,提升累计超额收益率),阻止管理层的机会主义行为;条件稳健性会促进企业事后投资效率(并购前后绩效变化),保证项目的盈利性。进一步的研究表明：会计稳健性与企业投资效率的关系会随着上市公司代理成本的增加而越加明显。此外,国有企业和民营企业对于会计稳健性的公司治理效应存在差异。最后扩展了由 Lawrence,Sloan and Sun (2013)提出的稳健性操纵的定义。     

Corporate Governance and Accounting Conservatism in China

A principal-agent relationship exists among creditors, shareholders and management, and information asymmetry among them leads to asymmetric loss functions, which induces conservative accounting. This paper investigates the determinants of accounting conservatism using accrual-based measures and data from 2001 to 2006 in China. We find that a higher degree of leverage, lower level of control of ultimate shareholders and lower level of management ownership lead to more conservative financial reporting. We also find that political concerns and pressures among state-owned enterprises are greater than those among non-state owned enterprises, which leads to more conservative financial reporting among the former. However, a decrease in such concerns leads to a decrease in accounting conservatism. Overall, we find that among the determinants of conservatism in China, debt is the most important, followed by ownership, and that board has little influence.     

Does accounting conservatism pay?

We investigate whether or not there is a link between conservative accounting practices and the sensitivity of executive pay to accounting performance. Using several accrual‐based measures of accounting conservatism as well as alternative measures of accounting performance, we estimate an econometric model of CEO compensation that incorporates the interaction of accounting conservatism and accounting performance. Consistent with optimal contracting theory, we find that the sensitivity of executive pay to accounting performance is higher for firms that report conservative accounting earnings. These results support the hypothesis that accounting conservatism, by limiting earnings management opportunities and improving the reliability of accounting performance measures, allows firms to formulate contracts that tie executive compensation more closely to accounting performance.     

会计稳健性、公司治理与社会责任报告印象管理

以2009-2014年披露社会责任报告的A股上市公司为样本,研究会计稳健性与公司治理对企业社会责任报告印象管理的交互影响.结果表明:企业会计稳健性越高,社会责任报告印象管理程度越低;公司治理水平越高,社会责任报告印象管理程度越低;公司治理水平越高,会计稳健性对社会责任报告印象管理的抑制作用越小;反之,公司治理水平越低,会计稳健性对社会责任报告印象管理的抑制作用越大.会计稳健性和公司治理均有助于抑制企业社会责任报告印象管理行为,且具有替代关系,这种替代关系在非国有企业中更为显著.     

The Effect of Accounting Conservatism on Corporate Investment during the Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines the effect of accounting conservatism on firm‐level investment during the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. Using a differences‐in‐differences design, we find that firms with less conservative financial reporting experienced a sharper decline in investment activity following the onset of the crisis compared to firms with more conservative financial reporting. This relationship was stronger for firms that were financially constrained, faced greater external financing needs, or had higher information asymmetry. We also find that more conservative firms experienced lower declines in both debt‐raising activity and stock performance. The evidence suggests that accounting conservatism reduces underinvestment in the presence of information frictions.     

The role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are among the most important investment activities for companies, but they contain great risks. We investigate the role of accounting conservatism in M&A target selection and risk. We find that for risk-averse reasons, firms with high accounting conservatism are likely to acquire profitable targets and avoid loss-making targets. When such firms acquire loss-making targets, the conservatism’s risk-control role reduces M&A risk and increases M&A performance, but only when control of the target is transferred and the acquirer has high long-term debt and low management power. Furthermore, accounting conservatism reduces risk by increasing the maturity match between cash flow and debt. Our results suggest that accounting conservatism plays not only a risk-averse role but also a risk-control role, providing new evidence for the usefulness of accounting conservatism in M&A decisions.     

The effect of government industrial policies on corporate accounting conservatism

This study examines whether and how firms adjust their accounting conservatism in response to government support through industrial policies, which reduce firms’ dependence on external financing from the capital market. Based on China’s unique economic programme called ‘Five-Year Plan’ from 1991 to 2015, we observe a decline in accounting conservatism among firms covered by government industrial policies. The decline is more pronounced in covered firms, which face higher ex-ante financial constraints, and in the subsample of firms which receive higher government support. These findings are robust to alternative specifications of accounting conservatism and policy timing. Our evidence implies that government industrial policies can have unintended consequences for corporate financial reporting.     

Earnings quality and firm valuation: international evidence*

This study uses a sample of over 7000 firms in 38 countries to investigate the relation between firm valuation and earnings quality. We find a positive and significant relation between firm valuation and an aggregate earnings quality measure based on seven earnings attributes (accruals quality, persistence, predictability, smoothness, value relevance, timeliness, and conservatism). This relation is particularly strong for firms with greater investment opportunities and more need for external finance, and for firms in low investor protection countries. Thus, firms are able to compensate for a weak legal environment by adopting higher earnings quality standards, particularly when they need to gain access to global capital markets. Overall, our findings suggest that firms with higher earnings quality are valued more highly in stock markets, supporting the idea that investors require a premium for the information risk associated with lower‐quality earnings.     

Regulatory risk and auditors’ reporting conservatism: Evidence from Chinese comment letters

We study how auditors respond to regulatory risk that arises when their clients receive comment letters from Chinese stock exchanges. Our results show that auditors are more likely to issue modified or conservative—but not excessively conservative—audit opinions to the recipients of comment letters. This reporting conservatism is especially pronounced when the regulatory risk perceived by auditors rises, such as when comment letters contain more questions, when more comment letters are issued, when the auditors must give opinions on specific issues, or when comment letters involve more auditor issues. Comment letters have been issued in China since 2013, but did not have to be disclosed until 2015. We find no significant difference in the impact of comment letters on auditor conservatism between pre- and post-disclosure periods. Further, the size of auditor firms has no significant effect on the impact of comment letters in post-disclosure periods. We interpret our results as supporting the regulation risk hypothesis.     

Do employee-friendly firms invest more efficiently? Evidence from labor investment efficiency

We investigate the impact of employee treatment on labor investment efficiency. We provide evidence that employee-friendly treatment is significantly associated with lower deviations of labor investment from the level justified by economic fundamentals, i.e., higher labor investment efficiency. The effect of employee treatment on labor investment efficiency is stronger for firms that are human-capital-intensive, with more skilled labor and knowledge capital, and those that face higher product market competition. Using the 2008–2009 financial crisis as an external shock and applying the difference-in-difference method, we also show that employee-friendly firms have higher labor investment efficiency in the post-financial crisis period, but experience more inefficient labor investments during the crisis. Our results are robust to placebo tests, selection bias, propensity score matching, alternative explanations, alternative proxies for both employee treatment and labor investment efficiency as well as the adjustment for using residuals as dependent variables, additional control variables, and various approaches in addressing endogeneity issues.     

Analyst forecast,accounting conservatism and the related valuation implications

This study investigates whether financial analysts incorporate accounting conservatism into their earnings forecasts and whether it is more difficult for them to forecast earnings for less conservative firms, and then examines the impact of the findings on the return predictability of the value‐to‐price (V/P) ratio. After controlling for the other factors affecting forecast accuracy, such as earnings predictability and information uncertainty, I find that analysts incorporate accounting conservatism into their earnings forecasts and that forecasting earnings is more difficult for less conservative firms. Consequently, the return predictability of the V/P ratio is stronger for more conservative firms, and previously reported return predictability of the V/P ratio is an average across firms with differing levels of conservatism.     

Managerial conservatism and corporate policies

This paper investigates how conservative managers make corporate decisions. Motivated by psychology research, we use handwritten signatures (i.e., emotionally restraint disclosure styles) as a proxy for CEO conservatism. We find that firms with conservative CEOs engage more with safer investments (capital expenditures), engage less with risky policies (Research & Development expenses and debt financing), hold more cash, are less likely to pay cash dividends, and more likely to use stock repurchase schemes. We use the same proxy for CFO conservatism. We find that CFO conservatism is a better determinant than CEO conservatism for cash holding and financing policies, but the reverse is true for investment policies. Conservative CFOs prefer long-term debt to short-term debt.     

Asset value management in the Portuguese real estate sector

This paper analyzes whether real estate investment fund managers use asset valuation discretion strategically to achieve financial reporting objectives. Portuguese real estate investment funds represent a unique opportunity to investigate executive behavior regarding accounting choice, as fund managers may choose to use historical cost, fair value or a mixed system (historical cost with internal revaluations) to value fund properties. We also investigate the factors that influence this strategic behavior. Empirical results confirm that fund managers manage asset valuations in order to avoid net asset value declines, particularly in a period of financial distress. We also observe that funds with a higher level of past unconditional conservatism are more likely to manage asset values. With respect to corporate governance issues, we conclude that audit quality reduces managerial discretion and that the conflicts that may arise between fund management company shareholders and fund participants due to management fees do not seem to have impact on fund managers’ opportunistic behavior.     

Does incorporating non-linearity into discretionary accrual models improve their performance?

Using a large sample of firms that restated earnings, this study investigates whether incorporating non-linearity (conditional conservatism) into discretionary accrual models improves their performance in detecting earnings management. The findings of this study are important because discretionary accrual models play a prominent role in several streams of accounting research and the models' ability to isolate the discretionary (managed) component from the non-discretionary (unmanaged) component of total accruals is critical. If the conventional linear discretionary accrual models are mis-specified, it is likely to result in misleading inferences about earnings management behavior. The findings indicate that the non-linear specification improves the performance of most linear models. The findings also indicate that a more sophisticated linear model that incorporates a performance measure and a future growth measure outperforms other simple models.     

Employee firing costs and accounting conservatism: Evidence from wrongful discharge laws

This paper identifies the causal effect of a firm's employee firing costs on its conditional conservatism, using the staggered adoption of US state wrongful discharge laws (WDLs) that increase a firm's cost of firing employees. We find that the adoption of WDLs leads to a significant increase in conditional conservatism. This result is greater for firms that are more labor-intensive, have higher propensities to fire employees, make more firm-specific investments and have greater risk. Overall, our findings support the view that higher firing costs lead to greater demand for conditional conservatism to decrease investment inefficiencies because higher firing costs make inefficient investments (including overinvestment in negative-net present value (NPV) projects and delays in disinvesting poorly performing projects) costlier for the firm.