Capital Structures in Developing Countries

This study uses a new data set to assess whether capital structure theory is portable across countries with different institutional structures. We analyze capital structure choices of firms in 10 developing countries, and provide evidence that these decisions are affected by the same variables as in developed countries. However, there are persistent differences across countries, indicating that specific country factors are at work. Our findings suggest that although some of the insights from modern finance theory are portable across countries, much remains to be done to understand the impact of different institutional features on capital structure choices.     

Is Comprehensive Income Value Relevant and Does Location Matter? A European Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the relative and the incremental value relevance of Comprehensive Income (CI) and Other Comprehensive Income (OCI) across European countries after the mandatory adoption of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) standards. This topic, which has already been analysed in other countries, drew the attention of academics and practitioners in Europe after the issuance of International Accounting Standard 1-revised, which requires entities to prepare a statement of comprehensive income (SOCI) in which both CI and OCI components are disclosed. The investigation of the value relevance of accounting amounts is important in order to evaluate their usefulness, because it highlights whether they reflect information investors use in making economic decisions. This study analyses a sample made of all the European listed entities of countries belonging to the EU at the date of issuance of EU Regulation 1606/2002. Our analysis involves a period from 2006 to 2011 and includes 16,511 firm-year observations. Our results show that Net Income (NI) is more value-relevant than CI, even though the total OCI of the period adds relevant information to those already disclosed in other accounting items such as NI and Book Value. In this regard, we found that the coefficient of the total OCI of the period is lower than that of NI, a result to be expected because of its transitory nature. Our findings also suggest that the requirement to issue an SOCI has not produced a significant change in the value relevance of both CI and the total OCI of the period leading to the conclusion that its location does not affect the value relevance of these items. Finally, we found significant differences in the incremental value relevance of the total OCI of the period across European countries, differences that seem to be caused by the countries' characteristics, such as the source of funds (credit/equity and insider/outsider) and the legal systems.     

Changes in the value relevance of research and development expenses after IFRS adoption

We investigate whether the nature of differences between national GAAP and IFRS is associated with differential changes in the value relevance of R&D expenses after the adoption of IFRS across countries. Using a difference-in-differences study on a sample of public companies in nine countries that covers pre-IFRS and post-IFRS periods during 1997–2012, we find that the value relevance of R&D expenses declines after IFRS adoption in countries that previously mandated immediate expensing or allowed optional capitalization of R&D costs. On the contrary, there is no change in the value relevance of R&D expenses for countries that switched from the mandatory capitalization rule to IFRS. We also investigate the moderating effects of national institutions on the changes in the value relevance of R&D expenses after IFRS adoption. We find that in countries with stronger investor protection, the changes in the value relevance of R&D expenses are larger. In addition, changes in the value relevance of R&D expenses are smaller for countries whose national culture is characterized by higher uncertainty avoidance. Our findings highlight the importance of both accounting standards and national institutions in explaining the changes in the value relevance of accounting information after IFRS adoption.     

Accounting diversity and firm valuation

We examine accounting numbers and stock prices across three countries: Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom (UK). The accounting systems in the three countries differ in faithfulness to clean surplus accounting and in conservatism. We address three questions. First, are there systematic differences across countries in the value relevance of accounting? Second, are there systematic differences in the incremental and relative value relevance of book values and earnings per shape (EPS) across the countries? Third, do future earnings realizations (proxies for expected earnings) explain current stock prices? We find that accounting book value and EPS are significantly related to current stock prices across all three countries. German accounting numbers have the lowest relation with stock prices (R² ≈ 40%) and UK accounting numbers the highest (R² ≈ 70%), while Norwegian accounting numbers are in between (R² ≈ 60%). Second, the incremental and relative explanatory power of book value and of EPS differs across time and across countries. Book values explain more than earnings in Germany and Norway, but less in the UK. Finally, future income realization explain little about market prices not already explained by current book value and EPS.     

Accounting standards and value relevance of financial statements: An international analysis

Using 17,743 firm-year observations of industrial companies in 21 countries from 1991 to 1997, this paper finds that the use of accrual accounting (versus cash accounting) negatively affects the value relevance of financial statements in countries with weak shareholder protection. This negative effect, however, does not exist in countries with strong shareholder protection. These findings are consistent with the belief that shareholder protection improves the effectiveness of accrual accounting, and suggest the importance of considering shareholder protection when formulating accounting policies related to accruals.     

Domestic and foreign institutional investors’ behavior in China

This paper compares the investment characteristics between foreign funds operating under Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) in China and domestic Chinese funds and analyzes the firm-level drivers that influence their allocation choices. The analysis reveals that foreign funds have a preference for a range of sectors such as transportation, metals and non-metals, and machinery, as opposed to industries with a requirement for local knowledge. The portfolios of domestic Chinese funds are distributed more evenly than those of the foreign funds. The comparative analysis indicates that foreign funds invest in firms that are significantly different from those favored by domestic funds in terms of size, profit, and compensation of management. Finally, we find that when making investment decisions, foreign funds tend to rely on some corporate governance indicators, which is not consistent with the results obtained from previous studies examining developed markets. In particular, foreign funds have a preference for firms with a high percentage of state-owned shares, while the reverse is the case for domestic funds. These empirical findings highlight the differences between QFII and domestic fund investment preferences and will be of value to policy-makers in emerging markets, and China, in particular, in gauging the important drivers of foreign investment.     

International Financial Reporting Standards and the value relevance of R&D expenditures: Pre and post IFRS analysis

This study examines the value relevance of research and development (R&D) expenditures in the pre and post International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) periods in the UK. It also examines firm size and sector-based differences in the value relevance of R&D during the sample period between 2001 and 2011. The results indicate that capitalized R&D has value relevance during the 11 years sample period. However, the value relevance of capitalized R&D does not appear to have improved in the post-IFRS period. Large firms present higher value relevance of capitalized R&D than small firms which suggest that firm size has significantly different valuation effects on the value relevance of R&D expenditures. Sectors, however, do not appear to present valuation differences across manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms. The overall findings of this study report no difference in the value relevance of expensed R&D in the pre and post-IFRS periods; however, the value relevance of capitalized R&D appears to decrease from pre to post-IFRS period. We thus argue that these findings have implications for the regulators and accounting professionals.     

The effect of earnings quality and country-level institutions on the value relevance of earnings

This study investigates the relationship between the value relevance of earnings and earnings quality across countries. We find that there is a stronger relationship between earnings quality and the value relevance of earnings in countries with high investor protection than in countries with weak investor protection. We also find that the association between the value relevance of earnings and earnings quality is higher when a country’s information environment is less opaque. Overall, our study documents evidence on international differences in the ability of stock prices to capture useful accounting information, consistent with the notion that the returns-earnings association reflects not only the quality of accounting earnings but also the informativeness of stock prices.     

How creditor rights affect the value of cash: A cross-country study

We examine how legal protection of creditors affects the value of cash across countries. We find that the marginal value of cash is considerably higher in countries with weak creditor rights. Creditor rights are at least as relevant as shareholder rights, which other studies have found to be an important factor affecting various corporate policies. In addition, we find that marginal investment is more valuable for firms in countries with weak creditor rights. This combines the findings of previous studies that weak creditor protection makes firms financially constrained and that cash is more valuable for financially constrained firms. Subsample analysis suggests that financial constraints generated by weak creditor rights create underinvestment among cash starved firms but alleviate agency conflicts among cash rich firms. Further analysis reveals that good country governance complements laws protecting creditors in cash valuation.     

The impact of national GAAP and accounting traditions on IFRS policy selection: Evidence from Germany and the UK

The adoption of IFRS in the European Union in 2005 aimed to increase the comparability of publicly traded companies’ consolidated accounts. However, previous literature questions whether IFRS are applied consistently across countries with differing institutional environments, and therefore, whether de facto harmony has been achieved. We further examine this question by investigating IFRS accounting policy choices of listed companies in Germany and the UK between 2005 and 2009. We find that most firms, when choosing IFRS options, tend to retain accounting policies required by national rules. We also investigate national accounting traditions in the case of options under national GAAP and find that most companies continue these after adopting IFRS. Moreover, there appears to be little significant change in accounting choices over time from 2005 to 2009. Given the differences in accounting rules and practices that exist across countries, our results suggest that international differences in financial reporting are likely to continue under IFRS.     

Value relevance of earnings: Evidence from Middle Eastern and North African Countries

Researchers as well as regulators are increasingly more interested in enhancing their understanding of the factors that influence value relevance of reported earnings in financial statements. In the light of globalization and increased exposure to international accounting practices, a better comprehension of factors contributing to or reducing value relevance of earnings is essential. This paper investigates the value relevance of earnings and its components for a number of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. Additionally, the paper examines how differences in levels of mandated disclosures, source of accounting standards, and legal systems moderate the informativeness of earnings to investors. We find that mandated disclosure and source of accounting standard, (especially non-governmental source) are positively associated with earnings informativeness. Additionally, MENA countries with French civil law and systems have lower value relevance relative to countries in our sample with English and related legal codes. Further, the firms that have adopted international financial reporting standards have higher value relevance than firms in MENA countries which adhere to local standards.     

Accounting Practices and the Market Valuation of Accounting Numbers: Evidence from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand

This study examines the relation between stock prices and accounting earnings and book values in six Asian countries: Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. The analysis is based on a residual earnings model that expresses the value of the firm in terms of book value and residual income. The model holds for any clean surplus accounting system. However, for finite time horizons, biased accounting may affect model estimates. The six countries examined in this study differ in faithfulness to clean surplus accounting as well as bias (conservatism). The study addresses two questions. First, are there systematic differences across countries in the value relevance of accounting, and are these differences related to accounting differences? Second, are there systematic differences in the incremental and relative information content of book value per share (BVPS) and abnormal (residual) earnings per share (REPS) across the countries, and are such differences related to accounting differences? We find differences across the six countries in the explanatory power of BVPS and REPS for firm values. Explanatory power for Taiwan and Malaysia is relatively low while that for Korea and the Philippines is relatively high. These differences are generally consistent with differences in accounting practice; however, since Korean accounting practice is strongly influenced by tax law, we did not expect the high association for Korea. Second, with respect to the incremental and relative explanatory power of BVPS and REPS, we find BVPS to have high explanatory power in the Philippines and Korea but little in Taiwan. In all six countries REPS has less explanatory power than BVPS in most years. Again, the evidence may be interpreted as suggesting accounting practice affects valuation (with Korea again as the exception). Finally, we provide evidence on the sensitivity of the timing of comparisons of stock prices and accounting values. We find that comparing prices at year-end (even though annual accounting information has not been released at that time), in general, provides the highest correlation between market and accounting numbers.     

The impact of the institutional environment on the value relevance of fair values

Most prior studies attribute valuation discounts on certain fair valued assets to measurement error or bias. We argue that institutional differences across countries (e.g., information environment or market sophistication) affect investors’ ability to process and impound fair value information in their valuation. We predict that the impact of the institutional environment on value relevance is particularly pronounced for reported fair values of assets designated at fair value through profit or loss (hereafter, “FVO assets”), for which investor experience is lowest and complexity is highest. Using a global sample of IFRS banks, we find that FVO assets are generally less value relevant than held-for-trading assets (HFT) and available-for-sale assets (AFS). By partitioning countries into market- and bank-based economies to proxy for institutional differences, we find that the valuation discount on FVO assets is more pronounced in bank-based economies. Additional tests suggest that this valuation discount is attenuated by a richer firm-level information environment and the presence of institutional investors with fair value experience.     

Disentangling the Incentive and Entrenchment Effects of Large Shareholdings

This article disentangles the incentive and entrenchment effects of large ownership. Using data for 1,301 publicly traded corporations in eight East Asian economies, we find that firm value increases with the cash-flow ownership of the largest shareholder, consistent with a positive incentive effect. But firm value falls when the control rights of the largest shareholder exceed its cash-flow ownership, consistent with an entrenchment effect. Given that concentrated corporate ownership is predominant in most countries, these findings have relevance for corporate governance across the world.     

Discovering the ‘international’ in accounting and finance

As higher education in accounting and finance moves increasingly in the direction of internationalisation of degree programmes and student populations, this paper reflects on the ways in which contemporary research contributes to the academic community's understanding of the rich potential of evidence available on international convergence and diversity.Reviews of research published in recent years have pointed to strong parochiality in the research questions and data choices of many researchers. This paper looks for a meta-structure of cross-sectional international comparisons across a range of papers at one point in time. Research papers of 2005 are selected from eight journals giving a broad coverage of subject matter.A cultural framework is proposed as a basis for an ethnographic view of the data and findings of empirical research papers. Cultural diversity is found as an explicit discussion in some papers but others are silent or even apologetic for cultural differences.Country-specific studies reveal the potential for comparative studies on a wider geographical basis but the achievement of such an aim will require the academic research community (editors, reviewers and authors) to show flexibility in dealing with smaller data sets and greater uncertainty about the nature of accounting information. Most importantly this review shows the considerable wealth of interest waiting for those who take time to peruse academic journals.     

Investor protection and capital structure: International evidence

Institutions, environments, and firm characteristics are important determinants of capital structure. From a sample of firms across 45 countries, we find that investor protection plays an important role in the determinants of capital structure: firms in countries with better creditor protection have higher leverage, while firms in countries where shareholder rights are better protected use more equity funds. The other differences in institutions and environments also explain the cross-sectional variation in the aggregate capital structure across counties. Furthermore, firm characteristics identified by previous studies, as correlated in a cross-section with capital structure in developed markets, are similarly correlated in the present sample of countries. The evidence presented herein indicates that institutional differences are as important as firm characteristics in determining capital structure.     

The Value Relevance of Mandatory Non‐GAAP Earnings

This paper examines the value relevance of earnings components where there is a mandatory requirement to report generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings and non‐GAAP earnings, and where the items to be eliminated from GAAP earnings are defined in detail. The setting is different from non‐GAAP earnings disclosures presented in the United States and elsewhere, where managers have discretion over whether to report a non‐GAAP earnings number, and what to exclude from GAAP earnings. Our mandatory setting enables us to report value relevance results that are not confounded by managers' discretionary choices regarding non‐GAAP earnings exclusions. We use price‐level regressions, based on the Ohlson (1995) model, to test for incremental and relative value relevance. The results show that non‐GAAP earnings reported under a mandatory regime have higher value relevance than GAAP earnings. The disaggregation of these items is useful to investors in a setting where managerial motivations are minimized.     

Dividends,research and development expenditures,and the value relevance of book value for UK loss-making firms

We extend prior research on the value relevance of accounting information for loss-making firms by allowing the coefficient of book value to vary across three distinct set of loss-making firm observations in our valuation model. Our key findings are, first, that book value is a less important determinant of equity value for either high R&D-intensive firms or dividend-paying firms, relative to firms with low R&D-intensity and zero dividends. Prior literature suggests that book value is a strong indicator of firm value for loss-making firms. This reasoning stems from book value's role as: (i) a proxy for the value of the possibility of abandoning or adapting the firms' net assets; and/or (ii) a proxy for expected future normal earnings. Our work suggests that this prior literature does not fully capture the valuation role of book value for loss-making firms. Second, we also find that dividends are value relevant, but generally only when the valuation role of book value is contextualised by allowing its coefficient to vary across high R&D-intensive firms, and dividend-paying, loss-making firms.     

IFRS implementation in the European Union and the survival of accounting families

This study examines eight IFRS implementation choices available to European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) member countries under the EU's 2002 IAS Regulation. Great disparities in IFRS implementation exist among the countries covered under the Regulation, including statistically significant differences in the IFRS elections for financial and non-financial firms. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, a classification of EU and EEA member countries according to similarities and differences in their IFRS implementation is developed, which identifies an IFRS antagonistic, an IFRS leaning, and an IFRS integrated group. These groupings may provide a springboard for future studies on effects of IFRS implementation differences. Following Meek and Thomas (2004) call to study the continuing relevance of taxonomies of accounting systems in the IFRS era, the study also provides evidence for a survival of the traditional micro-based vs. macro-uniform, strong vs. weak equity market, and outsider vs. insider economy classifications of accounting systems into the IFRS implementation decisions of EU and EEA member countries. These results suggest that traditional accounting system classifications remain important in the post-IFRS era.     

Reviewing IFRS Goodwill Accounting Research: Implementation Effects and Cross-Country Differences

We review 42 studies from 2008 to early 2017 about IFRS goodwill accounting choices for recognition, impairment, and disclosure of goodwill, focusing on cross-country evidence of implementation effects. We develop a model of application of goodwill accounting based on IFRS 3, IAS 36, and country- and firm-level influences to analyze the research and to summarize existing evidence about goodwill accounting choices. We report evidence in support of IFRS accounting for goodwill recognition, impairment, and disclosure from many countries. However, evidence regarding value relevance is mixed. Overall, there is a lack of cross-country evidence regarding factors affecting goodwill accounting. Many studies show goodwill recognition, impairment, and disclosure are associated with economic and firm factors, and there is some evidence about the impact of managerial incentives and a lack of timeliness in impairment recognition. There is scope for more cross-country studies showing how institutional factors affect the application of IFRS 3 and IAS 36.