The relations among accounting conservatism,institutional investors and earnings manipulation

Most scholars have indicated corporations using accounting conservatism to reduce earnings manipulation, although certain scholars believe that firms have more incentive to increase earnings manipulation. Institutional investors play an important external monitoring role, and affect firm's earnings manipulation. Previous studies adopted accruals as an earnings manipulation proxy to detect the relationship among accounting conservatism, institutional investor shareholdings, and earnings manipulation. We further investigate the relationship among accounting conservatism, institutional investor shareholdings, and earnings manipulation by using Benford's law. Our results indicate that firms with more conservative financial reporting have less probability of engaging in earnings-manipulative activities. We also find the negative association between earnings management and institutional investor shareholdings. However, if corporate financial statements tend toward conservatism, institutional investor shareholdings could increase managers' incentive to manage earnings. Our findings have important implications for investors to make investment decisions.     

Portfolio Choice and Liquidity Constraints*

We study the infinite‐horizon model of household portfolio choice under liquidity constraints and revisit the portfolio specialization puzzle. We show why the puzzle is robust to several model variations, and argue that positive correlation between earnings shocks and stock returns is unlikely to provide an empirically plausible resolution. We find that relatively small fixed costs for stock market entry are sufficient to deter stockholding because, for a plausible range of parameter values, households can achieve desired consumption smoothing with small or zero holdings of stocks. Such costs could arise from informational considerations, sign‐up fees, and investor inertia.     

投资者情绪、股票市场流动性和经济增长

采用2000—2009年的GDP、股票市场流通市值以及交易值的季度数据,从实证角度对此时段的投资者情绪、股票市场流动性和资本化率进行计量分析,通过ADF单位根检验、Johansen协整检验及Granger因果检验研究投资者情绪、股票市场流动性和股票市场发展之间的关系,进而揭示了投资者情绪影响经济增长的途径。结果显示,投资者情绪和股票市场流动性是经济增长的格兰杰原因。     

Liquidity and investor confidence in the turn-of-the-month regularity

Ogden (1990) offers a compelling explanation for the ubiquitous turn-of-the-month (TOM) seasonality. He hypothesizes and shows that the clustering of payment dates at the end of the month results in a stock return regularity that is related to increased liquidity and monetary policy. This article introduces investor behaviour into Ogden’s TOM liquidity hypothesis where higher TOM returns depend not only on the availability of increased liquidity but also on investors’ willingness to invest new funds. The empirical evidence is consistent with the argument. When confidence is high, investors’ willingness to invest the increased liquidity results in a TOM regularity. But when confidence is low, a TOM regularity is absent as investors park the increased liquidity. This additional measure of investor confidence provides a more complete explanation of Ogden’s liquidity hypothesis.     

The frequency and magnitude of earnings management in China

Earnings management is an indicator of the corporate governance quality and investor protection standard. We study the frequencies and magnitudes of earnings management under two different thresholds, zero earnings and prior earnings, in the Chinese market from 1997 to 2004. We model earnings as a mixed-normal distribution and obtain parameter estimators that measure the frequency and magnitude of earnings management. We show that the practice of earnings management has gone up both in frequency and magnitude during the post-2000 period. We also find that the frequency and magnitude of earnings management are higher when firms try to avoid negative earnings than when firms try to report earnings increase. Our findings reflect the current economic environment in China and caution investors on the low-disclosure quality in the Chinese stock market.     

CROSS‐MARKET TRADING IN CHINA'S LARGE STATE‐OWNED COMMERCIAL BANKS, 2006–2011

This paper examines the differential between the share prices of China's large state‐owned commercial banks traded in Shanghai versus prices observed in Hong Kong. We find a significant role for investor sentiment, as reflected in relative price‐earnings ratios, in explaining these price differentials for all four banks. The share price in Shanghai tends to move ahead of the share price in Hong Kong when more positive sentiment in Shanghai makes local investors willing to pay more for the same predicted earnings. We also identify common trends in relative bank price‐earnings ratios and price differentials across the two markets. (JEL G14, G15)     

资本市场流动性研究综述

对资本市场流动性的研究有助于解释流动性溢价问题,提高投资者的流动性风险意识。系统回顾了国内外有关资本市场流动性的研究现状,从流动性测度、流动性与资产定价以及市场之间的流动性相关性等问题进行梳理和总结,对今后的研究方向做出了展望。     

审计师变更、时机选择与投资者评价

文章从投资者评价的角度对我国证券市场中审计师变更事件的经济后果进行考察。研究发现,在我国证券审计市场中,审计师变更事件具有显著为正的市场反应;市场总体正的累计超额回报主要是由晚变更样本的公告信息引起,晚变更公司在变更公告日附近的累计超额回报为正,并且显著大于早变更的公司;总体来看,审计师变更会显著降低公司的财务盈利可信度,并且在审计师变更以后,晚变更公司盈利可信度的下降程度显著大于早变更的公司。     

过度自信、流动性和资产定价

本文研究了过度自信的投资者在一个多阶段金融市场中是如何影响均衡价格和投资者要求的期望收益的.结论表明,由于投资者过度自信,容易低估风险,从而在一段时期内会使得价格急剧上升.投资者人数实际上是股票市场流动性的一个表征,我们的结论表明,由于过度自信的投资者的存在,他们实际上充当了流动性提供者的角色,从而使得一段时期内即使对理性投资者来说,依然导致了风险的暂时降低,他们也会接受比较高的资产价格,要求相对比较低的期望收益.     

The tradeoff between risk sharing and information production in financial markets

The production of information in financial markets is limited by the extent of risk sharing. The wider a stock's investor base, the smaller the risk borne by each shareholder and the less valuable information. A firm which expands its investor base without raising capital affects its information environment through three channels: (i) it induces incumbent shareholders to reduce their research effort as a result of improved risk sharing, (ii) it attracts potentially informed investors, and (iii) it may modify the composition of the base in terms of risk tolerance or liquidity trading. Implications for individual firms and the market as a whole are derived.     

Two-period trading sentiment asset pricing model with information

We present a dynamic asset pricing model with investor sentiment and information, which shows that the investor sentiment plays a systematic and important role in the asset prices and the information is gradually incorporated into prices. The model has an analytical solution to the sentiment equilibrium price. We find that sentiment trading quantity not only increases the market liquidity, but also causes the asset prices' overreaction if the intensity of sentiment demand is more than a constant value. Therefore, the continuing overreactions result in a short-term momentum and a long-term reversal. The model could offer a partial explanation to some financial anomalies such as price bubbles, high volatility, asset prices' overreaction and so on.     

Short Selling Pressure,Reporting Transparency,and the Use of Real and Accruals Earnings Management to Meet Benchmarks

Abstract

Prior literature finds that short selling is beneficial to the market because it increases liquidity and helps to discipline optimistic market prices. The authors use 2 controlled experiments to examine the potential for an unintended consequence of allowing short selling or easing short selling restrictions. Because prior research identifies short sellers as sophisticated market participants who have the ability to see through accrual earnings management choices, we predict and find that, when reporting is transparent, managers are more likely to use real earnings management relative to accrual earnings management when short selling restrictions are relaxed. This is consistent with the idea that real earnings management activities are more defensible as the result of legitimate operating decisions and are therefore more likely to hold up to scrutiny from short sellers. Overall, the results suggest that regulations that are unrelated to financial reporting can affect how managers respond to the transparency that arises from financial reporting regulations.     

How pervasive is the effect of culture on stock market linkages? Evidence across regions and economic cycles

We conduct a comprehensive study on the effect of culture on stock market linkages. With data on 25 national stock markets, a quantile regression model is used to estimate the determinants of market linkages using culture variable/s such as language, religion and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions while controlling for distance, economic and legal variables. Further, we test whether these effects hold across regions and if changes are detected during periods of market crisis. We also test if market liquidity, an indicator of market efficiency, diminishes the impact of culture on market linkages. The main conclusion is that culture preferences shape investor choices, which affects integration between stock markets. The equity markets with similar cultural traits tend to increase market linkages; however, we observe differences across regions. Furthermore, liquidity and economic uncertainty fail to have an impact on the significance of culture variable/s as determinants of market linkages.     

Ownership structure and investment finance in transition economiesA survey of evidence from large firms in Hungary and Poland1

Using survey data on 157 large private Hungarian and Polish companies this paper investigates links between ownership structures and CEOs’ expectations with regard to sources of finance for investment. The Bayesian estimation is used to deal with the small sample restrictions, while classical methods provide robustness checks. We found a hump‐shaped relationship between ownership concentration and expectations of relying on public equity. The latter is most likely for firms where the largest investor owns between 25 percent and 49 percent of shares, just below the legal control threshold. More profitable firms rely on retained earnings for their investment finance, consistent with the ‘pecking order’ theory of financing. Finally, firms for which the largest shareholder is a domestic institutional investor are more likely to borrow from domestic banks.     

Search and endogenous concentration of liquidity in asset markets

We develop a search-based model of asset trading, in which investors of different horizons can invest in two assets with identical payoffs. The asset markets are partially segmented: buyers can search for only one asset, but can decide which one. We show the existence of a “clientele’’ equilibrium where all short-horizon investors search for the same asset. This asset has more buyers and sellers, lower search times, and trades at a higher price relative to its identical-payoff counterpart. The clientele equilibrium dominates the one where all investor types split equally across assets, implying that the concentration of liquidity is socially desirable.     

Exploring Ambiguity and Familiarity Effects in The “Earnings Game” Between Managers and Investors

Prior evidence suggests that managers and investors play an earnings game in which managers bias their earnings forecasts downward as the earnings announcement date approaches. Knowing managers’ incentives to provide biased guidance, investors still revise their expectations downward helping to create “positive earnings surprises.” Using a 2 (ambiguity) × 2 (familiarity) between subject randomized experimental design where MBA students playing the roles of manager and investor answer a series of questions related to earnings guidance, we investigate whether earnings environment ambiguity and manager-investor familiarity influence behavior during the “earnings game.” In general, results from this study suggest that ambiguity contributes to managers’ propensity to mislead and investors’ propensity to follow, and a false sense of familiarity may amplify investors’ reliance on managers’ guidance.     

Portfolio choice with high frequency data: CRRA preferences and the liquidity effect

This paper suggests a new approach for portfolio choice. In this framework, the investor, with CRRA preferences, has two objectives: the maximization of the expected utility and the minimization of the portfolio expected illiquidity. The CRRA utility is measured using the portfolio realized volatility, realized skewness and realized kurtosis, while the portfolio illiquidity is measured using the well-known Amihud illiquidity ratio. Therefore, the investor is able to make her choices directly in the expected utility/liquidity (EU/L) bi-dimensional space. We conduct an empirical analysis in a set of fourteen stocks of the CAC 40 stock market index, using high frequency data for the time span from January 1999 to December 2005 (seven years). The robustness of the proposed model is checked according to the out-of-sample performance of different EU/L portfolios relative to the minimum variance and equally weighted portfolios. For different risk aversion levels, the EU/L portfolios are quite competitive and in several cases consistently outperform those benchmarks, in terms of utility, liquidity and certainty equivalent.     

盈余管理程度的估计模型与经验证据:一个综述

盈余管理是一个与投资者保护和会计准则制定紧密相关的重要问题,它已经成为会计乃至金融、经济领域的重要研究课题。要研究在经济上具有意义的盈余管理,其前提是估计盈余管理的程度。本文对盈余管理程度的估计方法及其相应的经验证据进行评述,文献评述结果表明,非预期应计利润模型能够估计出单个公司的盈余管理程度,但它无法估计经济上具有意义的盈余管理程度;盈余分布法是目前估计盈余管理程度的核心方法,它能够估计出整体上的盈余管理程度,但它假设真实盈余分布是光滑的。盈余管理程度估计的未来研究,需要剔除盈余指标选择以及标准化方法选择等因素的影响,解决在同时存在多个阈值情况下不同阈值之间相互关联的影响问题,并放宽模型的假设或者给假设提供直接的证据。     

中国上市公司盈余管理的频率与幅度

盈余管理频率和幅度是投资者保护程度在现实经济中的具体体现。然而,已有文献在盈余管理频率或者幅度方面所提供的证据还远远不足以揭示客观事实。本文运用所有研究样本的报告盈余信息,通过假设报告盈余服从混合正态分布,运用参数估计的方法对阈值处的盈余管理频率和幅度进行推断。研究结论表明,中国上市公司从1995年至2003年间都存在为避免报告亏损而进行的盈余管理。1996年、1997年以及2001年至2003年的盈余管理频率和幅度较高,并且2001年至2003年逐年呈上升趋势。2001年至2003年平均有64·4%的亏损公司在阈值0点上进行盈余管理并达到避免报告亏损的目的,平均盈余管理幅度为提高ROA数据0·065。研究还发现2001年至2003年期间的盈余管理更加具有隐蔽性。     

内幕交易监管、投资者交易策略与市场利益分配

当证券市场实施内幕交易监管后,投资者的交易策略可能会发生改变,市场利益的分配也会发生相应的改变。文章在一个实施内幕交易监管的框架下,对内部人的利益分配进行了研究,发现内部人的利益不仅与内幕交易监管力度和执行能力有关,还与市场流动性、交易者类型、信息准确度和市场波动性等因素密切相关。同时,由于监管有效性幻觉和内部人分层现象的存在,内部人利益在一定时期内还可能出现反常变动。