The Relation between Abnormal Main Fund Movements and Subsequent Earnings Management: Political Costs and Political Connections

Movement of major fund1 flows has great impact on capital markets, especially in China. This study investigates the relationship between abnormal main fund movements and firm’s earnings management behavior, specifically, whether the abnormal main fund movements cause firms to keep a low profile for “self-protection” from being detected by the government. The empirical results of this study suggest that: (1) The mandatory disclosure of the “Top-ten circulating stockholders” requirement does not only reduce information asymmetry between investors and listed firms, but also strengthens and improves the efficiency of related government regulations in detecting disclosure of false information. This, in turn, increases the risk of being detected for firms with earnings management activities. (2) After abnormal main fund movements, relevant firms significantly reduce the level of earnings management to avoid attention from the public and regulatory agencies. (3) Using political connections as a proxy for the “shield effect” to mask political cost, we show that the negative relation between abnormal main fund movements and earnings management exists only for the subsample of firms without political connections. This paper provides a new angle for political cost study, and suggests that traditional political cost hypothesis should be further generalized.     

Exploring the Impact of Internal Corporate Governance on the Relation Between Disclosure Quality and Earnings Management in the UK Listed Companies

This study investigates the impact of internal corporate governance on the relation between disclosure quality and earnings management in the UK listed companies, in particular whether governance mechanisms have deterrent effect on earnings management similar to firms’ disclosure quality. Unlike prior literature, we measure a number of board and audit committee-related governance instruments, three disclosure quality proxies (i.e. Investor Relation Magazine Award, Forward-Looking Disclosure and Analyst Forecast Accuracy) and the Modified Jones Model to test the hypotheses of the study on a matched-pair sample data of Investor Relation Magazine Award winning and non-winning firms. Our findings in the OLS and sensitivity analyses using Heckman Procedure and 2SLS regressions consistently report a significant negative association between earnings management and disclosure quality for all proxies in restraining earnings management. In contrast, corporate governance variables are mostly insignificantly related to earnings management. This provides an emerging trend of the outperformance of disclosure quality over internal governance mechanisms in lessening earnings management. These findings warrant due attention of the policy makers, investors, corporate firms and other stakeholders in shaping a high-quality disclosure and governance regime in corporate settings to mitigate managerial manipulations of earnings across the countries in the world.     

客户重要性与审计质量：基于投资者保护视角

本文探讨投资者保护条款的完善与执行、客户重要性与审计质量之间的关系,利用我国证券市场2003~2005年的数据研究发现：（1）客户重要性对审计质量并没有产生负面影响,事务所审计质量普遍有所提高;（2）随着法律责任的加重,法律保护条款的完善与盈余管理空间显著负相关,然而法律执行越严的省区,上市公司的盈余管理却越强烈,这表明中国证券市场出现了法律条款的完善与执行逆向起作用的＂背驰效应＂;（3）审计师对盈余管理方向的关注与国外文献的发现不一致,审计师能够关注重要客户操纵盈余减少的行为,但却无法控制重要客户操纵盈余增加的行为;（4）相对于规模较小的事务所而言,投资者保护条款的完善对规模较大的事务所提高审计质量具有更明显的促进作用。     

The effect of voluntary and mandatory corporate social responsibility on earnings management: Evidence from India and the 2% rule

Utilizing the natural experiment presented by India's Companies Act of 2013, this paper investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and earnings management. India's Act includes provisions designed to improve governance and financial audits, as well as a unique mandate requiring firms that satisfy size or profitability criteria to spend a minimum of 2% of reported income on CSR initiatives. We examine the earnings management behavior of firms that voluntarily reported CSR expenditures prior to the Act's implementation as well as those firms that began to report CSR spending as a consequence of the mandate. Results indicate that firms which voluntarily reported CSR expenditures before the Act also engaged in more earnings management than other firms, consistent with CSR being used manipulatively in the pre-Act period. Once the Act was in effect, evidence indicates that on average firms engaged in less earnings management. However, the results suggest the CSR mandate did not have a significant marginal impact on earnings manipulations, implying that the observed decrease in earnings management in the post-Act period was primarily due to other provisions of the Act, such as those related to corporate governance.     

Audit quality in common-law and code-law emerging markets: Evidence on earnings conservatism, agency costs and cost of equity

This study focuses on firms that are audited by a big auditor and examines the differentiation in the earnings management potential and the level of conservatism. It also investigates whether being audited by a big auditor would lead to lower agency costs and lower cost of equity. The study focuses on emerging common-law South Africa and code-law Brazil, and seeks to identify whether there are material differences given their dissimilar institutional characteristics. The study reports that even though firms may be audited by high quality auditors, their institutional differences influence significantly firms' earnings conservatism, agency costs and cost of equity. Client firms of big auditors in both common-law South Africa and code-law Brazil exhibit lower discretionary accruals. The study has found evidence of more conservative earnings for South Africa but insufficient levels for Brazil. For common-law South Africa, the presence of effective corporate governance mechanisms reduces agency costs. For code-law Brazil, the corporate governance mechanisms generally display an insignificant impact on reducing agency costs. For common-law South Africa, firm-level performance, growth and market determinants tend to lead to a lower cost of equity. For code-law Brazil, it is found that significant discretionary accruals, market beta and analyst forecast dispersion would result in higher uncertainty and would consequently raise the cost of equity.     

企业盈余管理行为对信贷融资的影响

文章以2011年至2014年沪深A股主板上市公司为研究对象,基于信息不对称理论,实证检验了盈余管理行为与信贷资源可获性的关系。结果显示,企业通过盈余管理行为上调利润越多,获取的银行信贷额越大。结合企业产权性质和金融市场化程度进一步深入探究盈余管理行为对信贷融资特征的影响,研究结果表明,国有企业偏向于通过应计盈余管理获取更多的信贷资源,非国有企业偏向于通过真实盈余管理获取更多的信贷资源;金融市场化强度高的地区企业偏向于通过真实盈余管理获取更多的信贷资源,金融市场化强度低的地区企业偏向于通过应计盈余管理获取更多信贷资源。     

Ownership structure and earnings management in emerging markets—An institutionalized agency perspective

Previous earnings management research has largely focused on firm-level governance mechanisms in single countries or on macro-level variables in multiple countries. Building on this research, we incorporate firm ownership predictors along with national institutional dimensions to explore why firm decision makers in emerging markets vary in their earnings management behavior. Our theoretical framework integrates agency and institutional theories proposing that firm-level ownership mechanisms do not function in isolation, but are reinforced or attenuated by elements of the institutional governance environment. The multilevel empirical analysis of 1200 firms in 24 emerging markets indicates that controlling ownership is positively related to earnings management. We find that the level of minority shareholder protection in a country weakens this positive relationship. We also find that regulatory quality strengthens the negative relationship between institutional ownership and earnings management activity. It is hoped that awareness of how firm ownership structures interact with national-level institutions in affecting firm-level behavior will help managers and investors develop skills and practices to better cope with business norms in emerging economies.     

Sectoral shifts Impact on Hong Kong workers

This paper documents the accelerating rate of economic transformation in Hong Kong during the 1980s and its impact on the labour market. Earnings in expanding sectors have risen faster than earnings in declining sectors. The magnitude of the effect, however, is small and variable. Sectoral shifts have also had negligible effects on aggregate unemployment and unemployment in declining sectors. It is found that the degree of earnings inequality has increased contemporaneously with the rising rate of economic transformation. The earnings of less well-educated workers have fallen relative to other workers. The earnings of elderly workers, however, have not fallen relative to other workers. The reallocation of labour from low-wage sectors to high-wage sectors has resulted in a substantial growth in earnings for most workers involved.     

Value relevance,earnings management and corporate governance in China

This study investigates whether earnings management reduces the level of value relevance and whether good corporate governance restrains earnings management. Using hand-collected data comprising 1012 firm-year observations from all companies listed on the Shanghai SSE 180 and the Shenzhen SSE 100, the results show that the negative impact of value relevance for the companies engaged in earnings management is greater than the companies that have not engaged in earnings management engagement. Furthermore, the companies with good corporate governance practices are more likely to constrain earnings management than those without.     

董事会特征、盈余管理动机与非流动资产处置

本文以沪深两市2007-2014年发生非流动资产处置损益的A股上市公司为样本,分析处置非流动资产的盈余管理动机以及公司董事会特征对真实盈余管理的抑制作用。研究结果表明：上市公司为了实现扭亏的目标,存在利用非流动资产处置收益实施盈余管理的行为;董事会治理机制中,董事长与总经理两职合一、独立董事比例和董事会开会次数与真实盈余管理水平显著负相关;相对于民营上市公司,国有上市公司真实盈余管理动机更强,其董事长与总经理两职合一和独立董事比例抑制盈余管理的功能优于民营上市公司,而民营上市公司的董事会开会次数的监督功能更为有效。     

Being good or being known: corporate governance,media coverage,and earnings announcements

Based on a sample of banking firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, we examine the impact of corporate governance and media coverage on the market reaction to unexpected earnings announcements. This study finds that positive media reports prior to bad earnings announcements have a positive short-term impact on the market's response to unexpected negative earnings, but the impact is reversed in the long term. In contrast, a better corporate governance quality has a persistent positive impact on market's reaction to unexpected negative earnings, especially when the quality of corporate governance is measured by pledge ratios. The study finding provides one central implication for managements: Yes, being good would pay off.     

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Strategic Shield Against Costs of Earnings Management Practices

We highlight how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be strategically used against the negative perception from earnings management (EM). Using international data, we analyse the effect of CSR and EM on the cost of capital and corporate reputation. Results confirm that CSR strategy is positively valued by investors and other stakeholders. Contrary to EM, CSR has a positive effect on corporate reputation and lowers the cost of capital. In addition, we also find that the favourable effect of CSR on cost of capital is consistently more intense in firms that show signs of EM indicating that the market does not identify when CSR practices are used as a strategy to mask EM. We also demonstrate how institutional factors influence the above relationship.     

Gender differences and managerial earnings forecast bias: Are female executives less overconfident than male executives?

This study examines whether firms with female executives forecast company earnings more conservatively. Consistent with the selectivity hypothesis, the results reveal firms with female CEOs tend to make conservative earnings forecasts in a perceived positive situation and firms with a higher percentage of female directors on the board are more likely to forecast earnings conservatively in a perceived negative situation. The conservativeness of female executives is not caused by lower management ability. This conservative behavior is not caused by personal factors such as military status, level of education, or area of study.     

Does family involvement explain why corporate social responsibility affects earnings management?

We investigate how family involvement in the ownership, management, or governance of a business affects its engagement in earnings management both directly and indirectly through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Using a sample of S&P 500 companies, we find that family firms tend to have higher CSR performance, which can help them to maintain legitimacy and preserve socio-emotional wealth. Family firms also engage in less accrual-based earnings management, although they are indistinguishable from non-family firms in terms of real earnings management. In contrast to previous research, we find that CSR performance is not significantly associated with either accrual-based or real earnings management behavior after we account for the effect of family involvement. Our findings suggest that the association between CSR performance and family involvement is the primary driver of the relation between CSR performance and earnings management documented in previous research.     

Corporate Governance and the Cost of Capital: An International Study

This study shows that firms with good corporate governance are consistently associated with both lower cost of equity and cost of debt capital in an international setting. The association between corporate governance and the cost of equity is more pronounced in countries with strong legal systems, extensive disclosure practices, and good government quality. However, the relation between corporate governance and the cost of debt is stronger in countries characterized by weak legal protection, low transparency, and poor government quality. The differential relations can be attributed to asymmetric payoffs received by creditors and shareholders.     

Bankruptcies,firm size and unemployment: A big bang theory of economic cycles

This paper analyses the impact of bankruptcies on unemployment in an economy characterised by no substitutability of labour. A computer simulation model is used to analyse its properties. Spectral analysis reveals the existence of cycles in unemployment. It is found that average unemployment tends to be lower the more flexible are wages and interest rates, provided both move anticyclically, and the more rapid is the speed with which existing firms expand. An economy characterised by small firms is found to be more stable with a tendency to a longer cycle than one characterised by large firms. However, given the assumptions we have made, it is also likely to be characterised by higher average unemployment.     

HIRING STANDARDS AND LABOUR MARKET CLEARING

Consider a labour market with heterogeneous workers. When recruiting workers, firms set a hiring standard and make a wage offer. A more demanding hiring standard necessitates a better wage offer in order to attract enough qualified applicants. As a result, an efficiency wage effect is obtained. An equilibrium emerges which does not clear the labour market. The wage level depends on structural characteristics of labour supply, such as heterogeneity and mobility of the workers, but—in contrast to other efficiency‐wage models—not on the level of unemployment and is, thus, compatible with increasing unemployment as observed, e.g. in Germany.     

LABOUR SUBSIDIES: A NEW LOOK

This paper reexamines the case for subsidizing employment. One superficially promising approach, based on the idea that government cofinancing of unemployment benefits could induce firms to lay off too many workers in bad times, turns out to be an unsatisfactory argument for employment subsidies when worker-firm contracts are optimal. But efficiency wage explanations for unemployment offer considerable scope for a revenue-neutral combination of a specific labour subsidy and ad valorem wage tax. When pitched low enough, unemployment must fall under a wide set of conditions.     

中国亏损上市公司资产减值准备计提行为研究

Economic factors, such as the adverse change of the industry and performance of firms, are associated with the impairment of assets reported by these firms. Listed firms with negative earnings were more likely to write off substantial assets in consecutive years, but not in the initial years of loss. However, the relationship between the impairment of assets and economic factors is insignificant after the individual effect of the firms is taken into consideration, while earnings management factors still have a significant effect on the impairment of assets, yet the difference between loss years and profitable years is insignificant. Translated from Caijing Yanjiu 财经研究 (Journal of Finance and Economics), 2005, (7): 71–82     

Do firms manipulate earnings after winning public-private partnership bids? Evidence from China

We examine whether firms manipulate their reported earnings after winning investment project bids. China's adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) provides a unique setting for our analysis. Using the PPP announcements to identify the firms participating in PPP projects, we find that firms conduct both accrual-based and real earnings management after PPP participation. Our findings survive difference-in-differences design with different matching methods. We document that PPP-participating firms have strong incentives to manipulate earnings because of abnormal administrative expenditure and greater short-term performance pressure than non-PPP-participating firms. The auditors respond by charging higher audit fees due to the increased risk. Moreover, government subsidies relieve performance pressure and decrease the likelihood of earnings management among PPP-participating firms. Overall, this study documents the unintended consequences of PPP participation.