Playing for keeps: local government distortion of depreciation accruals in response to high-stakes public policy-making

Use of discretionary accounting accruals has long been recognized as a vehicle for earnings management in the private sector. More recently, evidence has emerged suggesting that public officials may similarly manipulate discretionary accruals in order to achieve ‘balanced’ operating results. This paper extends the previous literature on the manipulation of depreciation accruals to the realm of high-stakes public policy-making.     

折旧方法、心理感知和资本投资决策研究

本文采用模拟实验的方式通过问卷调查研究企业折旧方法、心理感知和管理者资本投资决策的关系机理。为此,进行了如下试验：管理者必须决定是继续使用现有的资产还是重置资产。研究结果表明：一、固定资产采取直线折旧法比采用加速折旧法被重置的可能性要小些。二、使用直线法折旧的资产比使用加速法折旧的资产所提供的追溯效用要小。三,由折旧方法引起的管理者追溯效用感知差异影响他们的预期效用感知,进而影响管理者的资产重置决策,心理感知在折旧方法和资本投资决策之间起部分中介作用。     

The effect of a decision aid on risk aversion in capital investment decisions

In this study we examine whether a decision aid is an effective means of reducing risk aversion within a capital investment decision context, and under what conditions. Participating in the experiment were 78 working adults (mid management) with a mean age 30 and enrolled in a leading U.S. MBA program. We predict and find that a decision aid will be most effective among individuals intolerance of ambiguity and exhibiting high negative affect.     

A New Approach to Depreciation

This paper presents a new 'matching' based approach to depreciation that incorporates interest adjustments and generates accounting measurements that are consistent with the ex post Net Terminal Values of fixed assets. The method has been developed from the concept of Earned Economic Income by the application of concepts drawn from the existing literature. The calculations and ledger entries involved are illustrated in the appendices.     

Controlling Investment Decisions: Depreciation- and Capital Charges

This paper examines a multiperiod principal-agent model in which a divisional manager has superior information regarding the profitability of an investment project available to his division. The manager also contributes to the periodic operating cash flows of his division through personally costly effort. We demonstrate that it is optimal for the principal to delegate the investment decision and to base the manager's compensation on the residual income performance measure. Our analysis points to a class of depreciation rules and to a particular capital charge rate which together ensure that a profitable (unprofitable) project makes a positive (negative) contribution to residual income in every period. As a consequence, the compensation parameters for each period can be chosen freely so as to address the moral hazard problems without impacting the manager's investment incentives.     

Is heterogeneous capital depreciation important for estimating firm-level productivity? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

This paper contributes to the existing literature on estimating firm-level production functions. Using Chinese manufacturing survey data, we employ the firm-level heterogeneous capital depreciation rate to measure firms’ investment and assess its role using Olley and Pakes (1996) (OP) production function estimation technique. Although there is some ongoing debate on the econometric soundness of the OP technique, we argue quantitatively that the heterogeneous depreciation rate muffles the measurement error associated with the key input demand investment. In our sample, it significantly narrows the gap of total factor productivity (TFP) estimates between the OP technique and a state-of-the-art estimation method that works without investment. We further reveal that the improved performance primarily originates from the dynamic evolution in the distribution of the capital depreciation rate.     

Depreciation: A Stochastic Approach

This paper introduces a rationale for modelling physical depreciation under uncertainty and compares two variants of it. The first variant leads to a model, the 'gamma' model which has been discussed in the literature, while the second variant leads to a model, the 'binomial' model, which has not been investigated before. The binomial model is shown to approach a deterministic limit (the reducing balance method) as the depreciated asset becomes infinitely divisible. In contrast it has been demonstrated in the literature that the gamma model approaches a particular statistical distribution under these circumstances. The paper goes on to investigate the useful lives of assets under the two models, by reporting results on waiting times, none of which have appeared in the literature before.     

Hedge fund leverage

We investigate the leverage of hedge funds in the time series and cross-section. Hedge fund leverage is counter-cyclical to the leverage of listed financial intermediaries and decreases prior to the start of the financial crisis in mid-2007. Hedge fund leverage is lowest in early 2009 when the market leverage of investment banks is highest. Changes in hedge fund leverage tend to be more predictable by economy-wide factors than by fund-specific characteristics. In particular, decreases in funding costs and increases in market values both forecast increases in hedge fund leverage. Decreases in fund return volatilities predict future increases in leverage.     

Do Investors Perceive the Link Between Equity Method Earnings and Future Earnings? The Role of Supplemental Disclosures

Equity method investments are commonly a material component of a firm's corporate structure, yet these investments are presented to financial statement users through opaque financial reporting. This study demonstrates that the link between equity method earnings and future earnings is stronger than the link between consolidated earnings and future earnings, consistent with the synergistic and diversification benefits of equity method investments. Next, this study demonstrates a limitation in the opaque reporting of equity method investments by revealing that the market fails to fully incorporate into prices the link between equity method earnings and future earnings. Further, this study contributes to the active debate among practitioners and regulators about the usefulness of supplemental disclosure requirements related to equity method investments. Results indicate that supplemental equity method investment disclosures aid the market in impounding the persistence of equity method earnings into share price.     

The historical significance of the revaluation of fixed assets in Japan's state-owned railway system, 1955-6

The Government Railways of Japan (GRJ) established a fixed assets accounting system on the accruals basis after the Second World War. The revaluation of tangible fixed assets was indispensable for GRJ's introduction of depreciation in 1948. GRJ scheduled the revaluation to secure a reasonable depreciation expense, because the company had applied the replacement method to all tangible fixed assets since its foundation in 1869. At the same time, GRJ assumed the balance of the revaluation reserve account to be a means of dealing with possible future accumulated losses.     

The Earnings Smoothing Potential of Systematic Depreciation

Ample evidence exists that managers attempt to use 'artificial' choices concerning alternative accounting procedures for classification, valuation and allocation of transactions to smooth reported periodic income or earnings series. However, the actual smoothing effect of such choices and their influence on the properties of earnings numbers is unknown. This study analyses the smoothing potential of depreciation when systematically applied. It exploits an idea regarding the effects of inclusion of expectations information in earnings calculations due to Willett (1988, 1991b), theoretically elaborated by Gibbins and Willett (1997) and applied analytically by Lane and Willett (1997). Using a statistical activity cost theory (SACT) framework, we quantify the smoothing (variance reduction) potential of straight-line and reducing-balance depreciation methods and compare the potential with an analytically derived depreciation method which optimizes variance reduction. We also evaluate the effects of conditioning factors such as accuracy of managers' expectations and relative asset acquisition and disposal values upon smoothing potential. We find that systematically depreciating assets can smooth undepreciated earnings numbers. Straight-line depreciation can exploit virtually all of this potential and reducing-balance depreciation a substantial proportion. However, realising this potential varies greatly depending on conditioning factors. The investigation is practical and policy oriented but complementary to theoretical extensions of the sort suggested by Butler et al. (1994). While the article focuses on depreciation, the SACT framework is completely general and may be extended to any choice of method for smoothing earnings series.     

Alternative beta applied—an introduction to hedge fund replication

Motivated by the surge in popularity of passive hedge fund investments, the present article discusses the concept of “alternative beta” and its implications for the hedge fund industry. The article covers a variety of topics, ranging from the basic rationale for hedge fund replication to replication methodologies and products to the academic and financial market environment. We find that with their radical departure from the hedge fund hallmark of alpha delivery, passive replication products represent the next generation of hedge fund investing, and offer the catalyst for further development of the matured hedge fund industry. Further, we show how the alternative beta concept contributes to a proper separation of alpha, and thus enhances the overall efficiency and quality of hedge fund returns. The article also demonstrates that hedge fund replication can take several different forms. In conclusion, we believe that passive hedge fund products have the potential to consistently outperform mediocre (funds of) hedge funds on an after-fee basis.

谈资本结构的定量决策方法

资本结构是指企业总资本即长期资金中长期负债与所有者权益之间的比例关系 ,一般以长期负债占总资本的比重来表示。资本结构是企业财务结构的核心内容。研究资本结构 ,实质上是研究企业是否要利用长期负债筹资方式 ,如何确定最佳的资本结构。资本结构决策的方法包括定量分析法和定性分析法。本文主要研究定量决策 ,结合实例具体阐述了四种分析方法并进行了扼要评价。     

Evidence on the Usefulness of Capital Expenditures as an Alternative Measure of Depreciation

Investment professionals often suggest that accounting earnings is a more useful indicator of share value if adjusted by substituting current capital expenditures for reported depreciation. We investigate the usefulness of this alternative depreciation measure by comparing the ability of reported earnings and adjusted earnings to explain the cross-sectional distribution of stock prices for a large sample of manufacturing firms. We find that adjusted earnings explains a much smaller fraction of the variation in share prices than earnings based on reported depreciation, and provide evidence on the reasons for this difference.     

我国当前通货膨胀的国际因素研究

本文在美元持续贬值和全球性通货膨胀的背景下,分析了我国此轮通货膨胀的原因。通过脉冲响应分析、方差分解及协整检验,得出了国际商品价格的持续上涨和我国外汇储备的快速增加都对我国的消费者价格水平带来正的和持久的冲击的结论。     

Informational leverage: the problem of noise traders

The literature suggests that security design can be used to manipulate the information content of securities prices [what is referred to as the “informational leverage effect” in Boot and Thakor (J Finance 48, 1349–1378, 1993)]. The informational leverage effect arises in this literature in a market microstructure environment in which noise trade is exogenous, which is a fairly standard assumption dating back to the framework developed in Grossman and Stiglitz (Am Econ Rev 70, 393–408, 1980). This assumption is relaxed in our paper, and we show that the informational effects described in the related literature become less clear cut when noise trading activity is endogenous. We find that the intensity and direction of these effects depends crucially on the parameters describing the modeling environment. The elegant point of the informational leverage literature is that these effects arise largely independently of such parameters, but with endogenous noise trading that is no longer true. This literature may, therefore, lead to too strong conclusions being drawn about the relationship between information revelation and security design. We are very grateful for the helpful comments made by an anonymous referee.     

The Effects of Labour on Accounting Choice in Canada

This study examines the effects of labour considerations on accounting choice in Canada. Two potential labour‐related incentives are considered: ability to pay and employee attraction and retention. Measures of these incentives are developed based on Canadian data: unionization for ability‐to‐pay incentives, and labour intensity and the percentage of white‐collar employees for the attract and retain incentives. Our results indicate that ability‐to‐pay incentives, measured by unionization, are not associated with depreciation policies in Canada. In contrast, the findings provide mixed support for the attract‐and‐retain perspective, because labour intensity was significantly correlated with these choices, while the percentage of white‐collar employees was marginally significant.