相得益彰抑或掩人耳目:盈余操纵与MD&A中非财务信息披露

本文以2007-2012年之间的盈余重述公司为样本,研究了高管是否利用管理层讨论与分析(MD&A)中非财务信息来为其盈余操纵行为做掩盖。研究发现,非财务信息披露的一个动机是为了隐藏盈余操纵,在隐藏期间(被重述年度与重述年度之间),进行盈余重述的公司会披露更多的MD&A中非财务信息。进一步,我们发现盈余操纵与MD&A中非财务信息披露的关系在隐藏动机较大(例如有股权激励)的公司当中更强,由此验证了我们的隐藏动机假说。本文提供了一个策略性的进行非财务信息披露的情景,补充了有关信息披露动机的文献。本文提请投资者更加清晰的辨别非财务信息和盈余信息;也提请监管层能够更加严格的监管信息披露,尤其是非财务信息披露。     

试论财务重述与管理层盈余预测

财务重述涉及财务报告的质量,而财务重述通常被认为是管理层事前进行盈余操纵的证据。财务重述后,公司的自愿披露政策受到产生于透明度和诉讼两方面压力的影响,旨在增加透明度或者降低诉讼风险的政策和决定显示在管理者盈余预测行为的变化中。管理者将会在透明度动机的推动下提供更多更好的预测。披露的改进可以采取不同的形式,例如更加频繁、及时和准确的信息。相比而言,财务重述会引起诉讼风险的意识增强,会使公司为此减少自愿披露,加长披露期间,降低披露精度。     

关于我国央行财务信息披露相关问题的探讨

随着国际经济金融的不断融合,国内金融改革的不断深化,央行作为中央预算单位,财务预算、财务支出等信息披露等问题受到国内外社会的广泛关注.财务信息披露对于中央银行履职来说是重要依据,也是履职结果的直接反馈.中央银行财务信息披露在国内外都有很强的特殊性和影响力,如何完善财务信息披露机制,增加财务信息透明度,对央行财务改革和财务信息的使用具有重要研究价值.     

我国上市公司财务预测信息披露中存在的问题及对策

财务预测信息是以企业未来可能发生的事项和可能采取的行动为基础的关于企业未来财务状况、经营成果以及现金流动等方面的信息。由于它能直接体现企业的发展前景,因而是会计信息使用者所需要的重要信息之一。但是,我国上市公司在财务预测信息披露上依然存在许多问题,不仅降低了财务预测信息的质量,抑制了投资者对财务预测信息的需求,而且也降低了上市公司主动披露财务预测信息的愿望。一、 我国上市公司财务预测信息披露存在的问题1. 财务预测信息不能真实反映公司的未来发展趋势。由于财务预测信息的披露是建立在企业未来可能发生的事项和…     

企业数据资源信息披露影响审计收费吗?——基于文本分析的经验证据

近年来，数据资源已成为驱动企业发展的重要引擎，充分披露数据资源信息十分必要。但企业数据资源的信息披露可能带来潜在的审计风险，并影响审计收费。通过挖掘我国A股上市公司的数据资源文本信息，研究发现：企业数据资源信息披露显著提高了审计收费。进一步分析表明，在以下情形下时数据资源信息披露提高审计收费更为显著：管理层与大股东实施信息操纵的倾向更强；企业存在向上的盈余管理行为；企业受到市场参与者更多关注。研究还发现，当期数据资源信息披露频率越高的企业，其下期审计投入越多。研究结论对完善会计、审计准则规范，提升审计机构对企业文本信息运用效率等具有重要启示。     

新公共管理与政府财务信息披露思考

随着我国市场经济体制的逐步完善以及加入WTO的影响 ,新公共管理在我国经历了从理论到实践的发展过程。我国新公共管理的聚焦点在于建设高效率的政府、民主的政府和公开的政府 ,这一实践特点对我国政府财务信息披露提出了新的挑战。如何改进政府财务信息披露是本文探讨的主题 ,但不容忽视的是政府财务信息披露的改进面临着政治成本与经济成本的压力 ,所以政府会计信息披露的发展与完善只能是一个渐进的过程     

政府部门财务信息披露质量及影响因素研究

本文在西方已有研究的基础上,结合中国制度背景,研究了政府部门财务信息披露质量的测度方法,包括DI值与Cook统计量的计算,并通过政府部门的公开数据,探讨了政府部门财务信息披露质量的影响因素。研究发现:(1)政府部门的财务信息披露质量逐年提升;(2)社会监督有利于提升政府部门财务信息披露质量;(3)审计监督能够发现政府部门财务信息披露中可能存在的问题,并有利于提升财务信息披露质量。本文的研究将可能有助于决策部门制定政府部门财务信息披露的相关规范,并引导公众、媒体、审计机构等信息使用者识别政府部门财务信息的披露质量与数据合理性,便于其作出科学决策。     

国内商业银行与香港银行财务信息披露制度的对比及借鉴

我国银行风险管理能力低,其中一个重要的原因就是缺乏完善的财务信息披露制度.香港作为国际金融中心,银行财务信息披露制度相当完善,对正在进行银行改革的我国有重要的借鉴意义.本文首先介绍了香港银行财务信息披露制度的出台背景、基本披露要求、制度变迁的主要内容和原因,然后对我国商业银行现有披露制度进行了分析,最后指出香港银行财务信息披露制度对我国的借鉴意义更主要的表现为一种方法的借鉴.     

对盈余管理有关理论问题的探讨

在会计学术界，盈余管理早期一般被理解为旨在有目的地干预对外财务报告过程，以获取某些私人利益的“披露管理”（disclosure　management）。Sehlpper（1989）认为，盈余管理是一种“披露管理”的概念，即企业管理层为获取一定的私人利益，在进行对外披露时，有目的地对财务报告进行控制的过程。这种观点从信息观的角度对盈余管理进行界定，因此被称为“信息观”下的盈余管理。虽然盈余管理行为最终要反映到信息披露上，但将盈余管理等同于信息披露中的操纵，却有含混不清之嫌。     

政府干预、盈余管理与信息披露质量——来自深圳股票市场A股上市公司的经验证据

通过以深圳证券交易所2006-2010年信息披露质量评级报告结果及3185家上市公司的A股数据为研究样本,从政府干预的角度分析了盈余管理与信息披露质量之间的内在关系。实证表明,政府干预与盈余管理呈负相关关系;政府干预与信息披露质量显著负相关;盈余管理与信息披露质量呈负相关关系,且政府干预行为影响其负相关关系。这说明在政府干预的情况下,上市公司可能通过降低信息披露质量来配合其盈余管理,从而使信息使用者与上市公司信息不对称。     

Disclosure strategies among S&P 500 firms: Evidence on the disclosure of non-GAAP financial measures and financial statements in earnings press releases

This paper examines the prominence of non-GAAP financial measures in press releases, testing whether managers emphasize these adjusted performance measures relative to GAAP numbers in four different settings where their disclosure helps managers reach strategic earnings benchmarks on a pro forma basis when they would otherwise fall short using GAAP numbers. Moreover, this research investigates the information content of disclosures reconciling non-GAAP to GAAP earnings (and other financial statements). The data is hand collected from quarterly earnings press releases of a sample of S&P 500 firms during the 2001–2003 period. In this particular sample, the disclosure of non-GAAP financial measures is frequent. The results suggest that managers strategically give more prominence to non-GAAP measures than to GAAP figures when the GAAP earnings number falls short of a benchmark but the non-GAAP earnings number does not. This disclosure strategy may influence the perception of the firm's financial results. Furthermore, the results suggest that both the reconciliation and the non-GAAP income statement contain information useful for users.     

Can third-party online sales disclosure help reduce earnings management? Evidence from China

Alternative data plays an increasingly important role in investment and commodities market analysis. This study empirically investigates the effect on earnings management of disclosure of third-party online sales as a type of alternative data. We show that earnings management is reduced with the public disclosure of a firm’s third-party online sales data in a well-known Chinese financial database. Our results are robust to a series of endogeneity corrections and robustness checks. We also find that the negative association between third-party online sales disclosure and earnings management is more pronounced in firms with an opaque external information environment, weaker corporate governance, a higher proportion of online sales relative to total sales, and when sales are more likely to be the target of manipulation. Our results indicate that third-party online sales disclosure reduces earnings management by decreasing its benefits and increasing the risk of its detection. Our findings yield important implications for regulators and policy makers.     

“Big Bang” Accounting Reforms in Japan: Financial Analyst Earnings Forecast Accuracy Declines as the Japanese Government Mandates Japanese Corporations to Adopt International Accounting Standards

The mandated adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS) for Japanese corporations did not result in improved earnings that forecast predictability. These findings contradict the research findings of Ashbaugh and Pincus (2001). Herrmann, Inoue, and Thomas’ (2003) research findings support the need for mandating the adoption of IAS. They found that Japanese managers were “manipulating” reported earnings by managing the sale of fixed assets and marketable securities. Adoption of IAS decreases the availability of this practice and it was and is expected to increase disclosure and transparency. Increased disclosure and transparency are expected to decrease financial analyst forecast errors, which did not decrease for 139 firms examined in this study for the timeframe of 1999–2002. This research finding does not support the idea that adoption of IAS improves financial information used in decision making relative to forecasting earnings. Assuming that increased predictability indicates higher quality reported earnings and enhanced usefulness of financial information, the mandated adoption of IAS did not result in these. Assuming that adoption of IAS in Japan increased the level of transparency and disclosure by Japanese firms, which made it harder for Japanese firms to manage their earnings in order to meet the managerial earnings forecasts that these firms must make. Thus, after the adoption of IAS in Japan, forecast errors for managerial forecasts of earnings increased. This evidence is new to the literature.     

信息过载是否影响投资者对公开信息的使用——来自季度盈余的实证证据

首季季报之所以可能导致投资者的信息过载原因有二 :一是许多公司在同一天披露其季报 ;二是公司的年报和季报有可能同时披露。我们的结果说明了信息的集中披露本身并不妨碍投资者对信息的及时利用 ,这些发现对我国资本市场上信息披露监管机构有着直接的政策性含义。     

The Timeliness of Restatement Disclosures and Financial Reporting Credibility

This study investigates whether prompt discovery and disclosure of earnings restatements is associated with greater post‐restatement financial reporting credibility. We measure the timeliness of restatement detection by the length of time between the end of the misstated period and the subsequent restatement announcement. We document that shorter detection periods are significantly associated with high‐quality corporate governance characteristics and executive and/or auditor turnover, but not with characteristics of restatements. We also find that firms with shorter detection periods exhibit a more moderate decline in the information content of earnings following restatement announcements relative to firms with longer detection periods, and that detection period length has an incremental effect on the information content of earnings relative to executive and/or auditor turnover alone. In addition, we find that restatement disclosures are more timely following the implementation of the SOX‐era reforms, and that only firms with shorter detection periods experience more moderate post‐restatement declines in the information content of earnings following the implementation of the SOX‐era reforms. The results from this study suggest that the timeliness of restatement detection and disclosure is associated with greater financial reporting credibility following restatements.     

The Value Relevance of Management Forecasts and Their Impact on Analysts' Forecasts: Empirical Evidence From Japan

A major financial disclosure feature in Japan is that stock exchanges require firms to provide next year's earnings forecasts. This study investigates the value relevance of Japanese management earnings forecasts and their impact on analysts' earnings forecasts. First, the value relevance of management forecasts is investigated using a valuation framework provided by Ohlson (2001 ), in which firm value is expressed as a function of book value, current earnings and next year's expected earnings. The analysis yields that of the three accounting variables examined, management forecasts have the highest correlation and incremental explanatory power with stock price.
Next, the impact of management forecasts on analysts' forecasts is examined. The results show that more than 90% of changes in analysts' forecasts are explained by management forecasts alone. Further analysis reveals that the heavy dependence of financial analysts on management forecasts in formulating their own forecasts may partially be attributed to the relatively high accuracy of management forecasts. At the same time, financial analysts also somewhat modify management forecasts when certain financial factors indicate that the credibility of management forecasts is in doubt.
Overall, this study presents empirical evidence that Japanese management forecasts provide useful information for the market and have a significant influence on analysts' forecasts.     

Disclosure of GAAP line items in earnings announcements

We provide new evidence on the disclosure in earnings announcements of financial statement line items prepared under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). First, we investigate the circumstances that might provide disincentives generally for GAAP line item disclosures. We find that managers who regularly intervene in the earnings reporting process limit disclosures at the aggregate level and in each of the financial statements so as to more effectively guide investor attention to summary financial information. Specifically, this disclosure behavior obtains when managers habitually cater to market expectations, engage in income smoothing, or use discretionary accruals to improve earnings informativeness. Second, we predict and find that the specific GAAP line items that firms choose to disclose are determined by the differential informational demands of their economic environment, consistent with incentives to facilitate investor valuation. However, these valuation-related disclosure incentives are muted when managers habitually intervene in the earnings reporting process.     

我国上市公司信息披露质量对其财务绩效影响的实证研究——基于非线性和非对称性的视角

本文以2006-2010年的深市A股上市公司为样本,以每股收益为上市公司财务绩效的替代变量,以深交所对上市公司信息披露考评结果作为信息披露质量的替代变量,研究了我国上市公司信息披露质量对其财务绩效的影响。结果表明：上市公司信息披露质量对其财务绩效的影响是非线性的,具体表现为正u型;上市公司信息披露质量的变动对其财务绩效的影响是非对称的。最后,本文根据回归分析结果提出了相应的政策建议。     

Causal language intensity in performance commentary and financial analyst behaviour

We use automated techniques to measure causal reasoning on earnings‐related financial outcomes of a large sample of MD&A sections of US firms and examine the intensity of causal language in that context against extent of analyst following and against properties of analysts’ earnings forecasts. We find a positive and significant association between a firm's causal reasoning intensity and analyst following and analyst earnings forecast accuracy respectively. Correspondingly, analysts’ earnings forecast dispersion is negatively and significantly associated with causal reasoning intensity. These results suggest that causal reasoning intensity provides incremental information about the relationship between financial performance outcomes and its causes, thereby reducing financial analysts’ information processing and interpreting costs and lowering overall analyst information uncertainty. Additionally, we find that decreases in analyst following are followed by more causal reasoning on performance disclosure. We also find that firms with a considerable increase of causal disclosure especially attract new analysts who already cover many firms. Overall, our evidence of the relationship between causal reasoning intensity and properties of analyst behaviour is consistent with the proposition that causal reasoning is a generic narrative disclosure quality characteristic, able to provide incremental information to analysts and guide analysts' behaviour.     

信息披露与国有股权私有化中的盈余管理

国有股权私有化是我国国有企业改革的重要措施。国有股权私有化过程中是否存在影响国有股权转让价格的盈余管理行为,以及如何抑制这种盈余管理,是我国国有企业改革中需要予以回答的重大问题。本文以我国通过控制权转移进行私有化的上市公司为样本,研究了国有股权私有化过程中的盈余管理以及信息披露对盈余管理影响的问题。研究发现,国有企业在国有股权私有化前1年和当年的操控性应计项目显著小于0,而私有化后的第1年显著大于0;及时披露国有股权私有化信息的公司在私有化前的操控性应计项目显著大于滞后披露信息的公司。以上结果表明,国有企业在国有股权私有化前存在降低收益的盈余管理行为,信息及时披露对私有化前的盈余管理有显著的抑制作用。本文的研究结论对规范我国国有企业改制和国有产权转让行为具有重要启示。