Audit pricing and nature of controlling shareholders: Evidence from France

This study examines whether auditors are employed as a monitoring mechanism to mitigate agency problems arising from different types of controlling shareholders. In a context of concentrated ownership and poor investor protection, controlling shareholders can easily expropriate wealth from minority shareholders and profit from private benefits of control. However, this agency conflict has been rarely studied, as the most commonly assumed agency conflict occurs between managers and shareholders. Using an audit fee model derived from Simunic (1980), we study the impact of the nature of controlling shareholders on audit fees in French listed firms. Our results show: (1) a negative relationship between audit fees and government shareholdings; (2) a positive relationship between audit fees and institutional shareholdings; and (3) no relationship between audit fees and family shareholdings. These results illustrate the mixed effects of the nature of ownership on audit fees.     

Intrinsic bubbles and Granger causality in the S&P 500: Evidence from long-term data

Results of research on whether changes in earnings can predict future stock returns are inconclusive. We add to this debate by using long-term data from 1871 to 2004 to examine the predictive power of changes in earnings in periods of intrinsic bubbles and in periods absent intrinsic bubbles. Our results show that accounting for bubbles is important in whether changes in earnings can predict future stock returns. In periods of no bubble, we find that changes in earnings Granger-cause future returns, whereas in periods of bubble, this Granger causality from changes in earnings to future returns cannot be found. We conclude that changes in earnings can predict future stock returns, but only in periods absent bubbles.     

The scope of application of management accounting methods in Polish enterprises

The transformation of Poland’s economic system in the 1990s as a result of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-based system involves significant changes in the regulatory context and in accounting practice and education.This paper presents the scope of application of management accounting concepts and methods in 60 Polish enterprises covered by a questionnaire survey carried out by the author between November 1998 and December 1999 in enterprises located in central and southern Poland. The selected companies were interviewed by means of a postal survey, with inquiry forms delivered in person in some cases.The detailed analyses carried out in this paper and the conclusions presented are also based on information obtained from documentary evidence kept by the enterprises and from direct interviews conducted in the course of work in teams engaged in analysis and assessment of cost accounting practices and in management accounting system design in a number of large and medium Polish enterprises.The empirical research carried out is aimed at verification of a number of hypotheses including the following: • modification of cost accounting systems and implementation of management accounting tools in Polish enterprises is brought about by many different factors, the most important being growth of competition and ownership changes in business entities, • Polish enterprises mostly implement the methods and techniques of operational management accounting, • short-term budgeting for cost centres is the most widely used method of management accounting.     

Biases in Accounting and Nonaccounting Information: Substitutes or Complements?

This paper studies how bias in nonaccounting and in accounting information should be related. Bias in accounting information is modeled, as in some recent literature, as an alteration in the relative information content of accounting numbers. The optimal bias in one type of information is shown to be a complement of the bias in the other type. This result can be applied in various settings to explain a number of phenomena.     

Competition and stability in the credit industry: Banking vs. factoring industries

Over the last decade, most credit-industries registered a decline in lending volumes, while factoring industries instead registered a substantial growth in terms of turnover. Surprisingly, only a handful of papers so far investigate factoring companies. Do factoring firms display the same stability levels of banks? Is the competition similar in factoring and banking industries? Is the relationship between competition and stability the same in these industries? Focusing on Italy (one of the largest factoring and banking markets in Europe) and using a unique dataset, we show three main results: factoring companies are (on average) more stable than banks; 2) the stability of factoring companies increase when competition declines (competition-fragility view); 3) the competition-fragility view is weaker in the factoring industry than in the banking industry. Our findings indicate that competition in the Italian credit industry was greater in factoring than in banking.     

Stakeholder demands and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from the Olympic Games

We propose that stakeholder demand can explain firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and empirically test our proposition using 2002–2016 panel data from multiple countries. We select the Olympic Games as our experimental context and use a difference-in-differences design. We find that firms domiciled in countries that host the Olympic Games subsequently experience a significantly smaller increase in CSR commitment than firms in countries that unsuccessfully bid to host the Olympics. We also find that firms domiciled in cities that host the Olympic Games exhibit a significantly smaller increase in CSR than those domiciled in other cities in the same country. Additional tests indicate that firms in host countries with greater increases in the levels of happiness tend to experience an even smaller increase in CSR. Our findings are consistent with the stakeholder demand explanation, as stakeholders are less likely to require local firms to invest in CSR if utilities, such as those from environmental improvement, increase.Running head: Olympic Games and CSR.     

The Earnings of Real Estate Salespersons and Others in the Financial Services Industry

This study explores the determinants of earnings of salespersons in financial services using nationwide data from the 1990 U.S. Census. The study reveals that security and insurance salespersons earn substantially more than do persons in real estate sales. The returns to K through 12 schooling are highest in the insurance and securities areas, while the returns to college are highest in security sales. For males, the returns to graduate education are negative in real estate and insurance. For females in these same areas, returns are large and positive in insurance and negative in real estate. In all areas of financial services, earnings are higher in larger, more wealthy, homogenous cities.     

Effects of Advice on Effectiveness and Efficiency of Tax Planning Tasks

Supervisory advice is generally given to tax professionals in public accounting firms before they commence tax planning tasks. The objectives of giving advice are to achieve effectiveness and efficiency in tax planning, as well as for training tax professionals. An experiment with 54 tax professionals, from accounting firms across Canada, was conducted to determine the effects of supervisory advice on effectiveness and efficiency in performing tax planning tasks of different complexity. Advice results in lower effectiveness in lower‐complexity tasks, as evidenced by more technically inadequate tax plans, signs of confusion and overdetermined solutions (i.e., unnecessary information in the tax plans). In higher‐complexity cases, the results suggest a limited improvement in effectiveness, as evidenced by more technically adequate plans, but at a cost of limiting insightful judgment. On the other hand, advice results in limited gains in efficiency for both the lower and higher‐complexity tasks. This study extends the advice and tax literatures by investigating the role of advice in the performance of tax planning tasks of different complexity, which has not been examined in other research. This study also contributes to tax practice, as public accounting firms should consider the limited gains in efficiency with the decrease in effectiveness for lower‐complexity tasks and the potential to limit insightful judgment for higher complexity tasks. The results of this study suggest that firms face trade‐offs in achieving efficiency, effectiveness and the training objective.     

The impact of the introduction of the Euro on foreign exchange rate risk exposures

This paper tests whether significant changes in stock return volatility, market risk, and foreign exchange rate risk exposures took place around the launch of the Euro in 1999. The experiment analyzes weekly returns for 3220 nonfinancial firms from 18 European countries, the United States, and Japan. We find that though the Euro's launch was associated with an increase in total stock return volatility, significant reductions in market risk exposures arose for nonfinancial firms both in and outside of Europe. We show that the reductions in market risk were concentrated in firms domiciled in the Euro area and in non-Euro firms with a high fraction of foreign sales or assets in Europe. The Euro's introduction led to a net absolute decrease in the foreign exchange rate exposure of nonfinancial firms, but these changes are statistically and economically small. We interpret our findings in the context of existing theories of exchange rate risk management.     

构建上海银行业优质服务体系的对策措施

银行业的竞争在某种意义上来讲就是服务的竞争。本文针对上海银行业服务存在问题,分析了构建上海银行业优质服务体系的方向与突破口,并提出构建上海银行业优质服务体系的对策措施。     

2011年前三季度国内金融形势评述

2011年前三季度国内金融运行的主要特点是：各层次货币供应量增速继续回落;社会融资规模少于上年同期;贷款投放额少于上年同期,主要是中长期贷款少增较多;存款增速连续三个月下降;银行间市场交易活跃,市场利率比上月上升较多;与上年末比,人民币汇率升值4．21％,海外市场对人民币汇率的预期由升值转为贬值。     

Inequality in Mortality: Updated Estimates for the United States,Canada and France*

This study provides comparisons of inequalities in mortality between the United States, Canada and France using the most recent available data. The period between 2010 and 2018 saw increases in mortality and in inequality in mortality for most age and gender groups in the United States. The main exceptions were children under 5 and adults over 65. In contrast, Canada saw a further flattening of mortality gradients in most groups, as well as further declines in overall mortality. The sole exception was Canadian women over 80 years old, who saw small increases in mortality rates. France saw continuing improvements in mortality rates in all groups. Both Canada and France have distributions of mortality that are much more equal than those in the United States, demonstrating the importance of public policy in the achievement of equality in health.     

Liquidity,liquidity risk,and information flow: Lessons from an emerging market

This paper examines the role of public and private information flows in intraday liquidity and intraday liquidity risk in the Tunisian stock market. Our empirical results are based on ARMA and GARCH-type models and show that, for major Tunisian stocks, gradually elapsed public information together with gradually elapsed private information in the market is the dominant factor in liquidity improvements in the Tunisian stock market. Liquidity improvements are generated by a decrease in the bid-ask spread accompanied by an increase in the depth at best limit. Our results clearly indicate that the arrival of public information in a sequential manner is the dominant factor generating increases in liquidity risk related to the bid-ask spread, while the advent of private information in a contemporaneous manner is the dominant factor generating increases in liquidity risk related to the depth at best limit. Additionally, our results show that liquidity risk persistence disappears when trading volume and order imbalance are included as explanatory variables in the conditional variance equation.     

Responsiveness of Auditors to the Audit Risk Standards: Unique Evidence from Big 4 Audit Firms

We examine the effect of changes in audit risk standards on the conduct of financial statement audits in a European setting. We investigate this by analysing the audit hours and audit fees for clients of Big 4 audit firms in Finland in 1996 and 2010. Our results show that audit firms became more sensitive to clients’ business risk due to the introduction of the new audit risk standards, with more audit hours allocated to owner-managed companies in 2010 than in 1996, and fewer audit hours allocated to low-risk clients in 2010 than in 1996. Also, the labour mix in the audit team changed for owner-managed companies, with a greater work load carried by junior auditors in 2010 than in 1996. Regarding the price of audit, we find an increase in audit fees for clients with high business risk, while audit fees remained at roughly the same level for low-risk clients. These findings should be of interest to the auditing profession and those involved in the development of auditing regulations.     

Monetary policy and macroeconomic stability in Latin America: The cases of Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico

In 1999, new monetary policy regimes were adopted in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, combining inflation targeting with floating exchange rates. These regime changes have been accompanied by lower volatility in the monetary stance in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, despite higher inflation volatility in Brazil and Colombia. This paper estimates a conventional New Keynesian model for these four countries and shows that: i) the post-1999 regime has been associated with greater responsiveness by the monetary authority to changes in expected inflation in Brazil and Chile, while in Colombia and Mexico monetary policy has become less counter-cyclical, ii) lower interest-rate volatility in the post-1999 period owes more to a benign economic environment than to a change in the policy setting, and iii) the change in the monetary regime has not yet resulted in a reduction in output volatility in these countries.     

Predictive power of web search behavior in five ASEAN stock markets

This paper investigates the predictive ability of web search behavior in connection with stock market returns and trading volume in five emerging economies in the ASEAN region using econometric and signal-processing techniques. More specifically, we use Vector Error Correction Model in conjunction with Wavelet analysis and find consistently low predictive ability of search activity in Google. In fact, investors in nearly all five markets appear to be interested in searching terms related to the market after high returns or high trading activities occur. In other words, high returns or high activities precede search interest. Our findings are at odds with the general results reported in earlier studies conducted in developed countries. Additionally, our analysis in the time-frequency domain detects a two-week lead-lag phenomenon in the association between search behavior and market returns for all markets but the Philippines.     

Accessibility of flood risk insurance in the UK: confusion,competition and complacency

Flood risk insurance can be an effective tool in assisting the restoration of damaged property after a flood event and sustaining communities through difficult times. It can also form part of a wider flood risk management strategy. In the light of recent flood events in the UK and in the context of changing property insurance markets, the universal cover previously enjoyed by floodplain residents has been called into question. Conflicting media and industry views leave the floodplain resident and the wider community in confusion. A survey of floodplain residents in England regarding their experience with flooding and flood insurance in England has been undertaken. The results reveal that some floodplain residents do indeed encounter difficulties when seeking insurance for their homes. However, despite the risk‐averse policies of some insurers, availability of insurance is still strong in both at‐risk and previously flooded locations. Success in gaining insurance may lead to complacency among residents who see no advantage in pursuing other, more costly, damage mitigation actions. As a tool in risk management, therefore, the market is prevented from realising its potential by competition, which results in a lack of a consistent approach, rewards homeowners' search strategies and reduces information flow.     

《孙子兵法》与现代商战纵横谈

《孙子兵法》是我国也是世界上最早、最完整、最卓越的军事理论著作,是中华民族数千年灿烂文明长河中,令世界叹为观止的闪烁着真理光芒的文化瑰宝,一直为世人所推崇。《孙子兵法》为世界第一“兵学盛典”,已在世界范围内广泛传播,应用领域极为广泛,更倍受商界青睐。日本企业家将其奉为至宝,美国商人视其为“金科玉律”。军队是在战场上拼杀,企业是在市场上作战,二者有相当的相似性,《孙子兵法》是伟大的商战博弈论,故可为现代商战所用。《孙子兵法》中“上兵伐谋”的战略思想、“五事七计”的决策思想、不战而胜的“全胜”思想、“以利制权”的“权变”思想,则是现代商战的制胜法宝。     

实物期权在项目信贷评估中的运用

近20年来,众多国内外学者对实物期权进行了大量研究并得出结论:决策灵活性确实增加了项目整体评估价值。但这些研究基本上是从项目管理者角度进行分析的。本文着重从银行角度探讨了实物期权在信贷评估过程中的作用,结果表明:在传统的以折现现金流法(DiscountedCashFlow,DCF)为主导的项目评估过程中融入实物期权思想,将使对高科技类项目的评价更加客观、全面。对项目投资决策选择权的分析可以加强信贷工作人员对项目贷款风险趋势的事前判断,对项目在未来运行中的不确定性进行评估,并通过在合同中增加约束性条款,实现项目权利向银行权利的转化,以降低银行信贷风险。     

A tale of two cities: Economic development,corporate governance and firm value in Vietnam

This study examines the moderating effect of financial and economic development on the relation between corporate governance and firm value in Vietnam, which has two exchanges, one located in the business center in the South, and the other located in the center of government in the North. This unique setting allows an investigation of corporate governance dynamics controlling for legal jurisdiction. The results show a positive relation between corporate governance and firm value in Ho Chi Minh City but not in Hanoi. The finding suggests that financial and economic development play critical roles in enhancing the benefits of corporate governance in emerging markets.