定向增发、代理冲突与中小投资者保护

以2006-2010年上市公司定向增发事件为样本,系统研究了定向增发过程中大股东对中小投资者的利益侵害问题.实证研究发现:面向大股东发行的折价率最高,面向大股东和机构投资者发行的折价率居中,面向机构投资者发行的折价率最低.大股东通过定向增发提高了股权集中度,进一步巩固了控制权地位,通过低价发行侵占了中小投资者权益.降低大股东的认购比例、降低资产认购比例、降低增发后与增发前股权集中度之差、减少增发规模、提高公司规模可以有效地制衡大股东在定向增发过程中侵害中小投资者的程度.提高增发前的股权集中度、聘请“十大”券商作为主承销商、改善治理环境、实际控制人为国有机构都没有起到约束大股东进行利益侵占的作用.     

投资者异质信念与定向增发股价长期市场表现

近年来,基于异质信念的行为金融理论已经成为国际学术界的重要研究前沿。本文结合中国资本市场特殊制度背景,首次从投资者异质信念视角实证检验了上市公司定向增发后股价长期市场表现。研究结果表明:投资者异质信念越大,上市公司实施定向增发后公司股价长期市场表现越差;当发行对象为机构投资者时,异质信念对定向增发后股价的负向作用更加显著。此外,本文还进一步发现公司定向增发后的经营业绩变化也与投资者异质信念呈显著负相关关系。本文的研究结论丰富了投资者异质信念假说在公司股权再融资领域中的研究范畴。     

上市公司定向增发方式选择:基于投资者异质信念视角

本文以2006-2011年在沪深两市通过定向增发实现再融资的A股上市公司为研究对象,首次在全流通背景下理论分析和实证检验了投资者异质信念对上市公司定向增发方式选择的影响。研究结果表明:对于实施定向增发的上市公司来说,投资者异质信念越大,越倾向于选择向机构投资者增发新股;投资者异质信念与定向增发规模负相关;当大股东参与定向增发时,投资者异质信念越大,大股东越有动机利用资产认购新增股份。本文的研究拓展了行为金融理论在企业融资特别是增发融资方面的研究视野。     

定向增发对象对发行定价影响的实证研究

根据发行对象将实行定向增发的公司分为三组:完全向大股东的发行、向大股东和机构投资者的发行和完全向机构投资者的发行.通过对比三组之间的发行相对价格,发现机构投资者的参与显著提高了发行价格.而完全向大股东进行定向增发的发行相对价格最低,这可能损害了其他股东的利益.     

机构投资者的治理效应研究述评:盈余管理视角

本文在综合分析了国内外学者对公司治理、机构投资者和盈余管理三者关系的基础上,认为机构投资者在一定程度上参与了公司治理,其持股比例越高则在公司治理中发挥的作用越大,越有助于提高公司治理水平。在公司治理水平高的公司,盈余管理行为受到有效的监督;而公司治理水平低的公司则为盈余管理提供了环境和机会。     

定向增发整体上市、机构投资者与短期市场反应

整体上市的优越性早已引起关注,但关于机构投资者的参与对整体上市影响的研究仍较为缺乏。本文以2004—2013年通过定向增发实现整体上市的公司为研究样本,系统分析机构投资者的认购情况与短期市场反应之间的关系。研究发现:(1)定向增发整体上市的市场反应显著为正,且有机构投资者参与的公司市场反应更好;(2)券商、基金、投资公司等相对独立的机构投资者的认购比例与定向增发整体上市市场反应之间存在倒U形关系,信托、保险等公司与上市公司可能存在一定商业关系,其参与程度对市场反应不产生规律性影响。     

信息不对称、研发支出与关联股东认购定向增发股份——来自中国证券市场的经验数据

本文以2013年至2015年间公告的上市公司定向增发新股公司为研究对象,研究了上市公司的研发支出与关联股东认购定向增发新股股份的关系。研究发现,定向增发新股公司研发支出的强度越大,关联股东认购本公司定向增发股份的比例越高;定向增发新股公司费用化的研发支出越大,关联股东认购的比例越高;并且当定向增发新股公司信息不对称程度越高时,定向增发新股公司研发支出的强度、费用化的研发支出与关联股东认购本公司定向增发股份的比例之间的正相关关系越显著。这一研究反映了我国会计准则中关于研发费用的处理仍然存在缺陷,并揭示了关联股东利用研发费用的资本化与费用化达到低价认购本公司发行的定向增发新股股份的现象。     

发行对象、市场行情与定向增发折扣

定向增发股票的发行折扣的影响因素已经引起国内外财务学界和实务界的关注，取得了很多对现实具有一定解释力的研究成果，但是由于各国证券市场不同的发展阶段以及独特的制度文化环境使得具有普适性的解释理论的可能性力大为减弱。本文研究了大股东和机构投资者认购股票的价格折扣之间的关系，在对中国证券市场各种特征进行分析的基础上，提出在排除“同股不同价”样本后大股东的发行折扣与机构投资者发行折扣不存在显著差别这一与现有理论相左的假说；在分析中国特殊的市场环境和制度背景的基础上，提出了“牛”市定向增发折扣大于“熊”市定向增发折扣的假说；系统实证研究了定向增发折扣、市场行情以及发行对象之间的关系。本文进一步分析指出，不同发行对象发行折扣存在差异的原因来自于“同次发行不同价格”的定向机制，2006年-2007年的牛市行情所引起的二级市场投资者非理性的乐观情绪是我国定向增发高折扣的主要根源之一，而核准制下的我国定向增发存在发行周期长是导致这一现象存在的深层制度背景，并在此基础上对中国上市公司定向增发定价政策提出了建设性对策。     

定向增发与上市公司长期业绩下滑

本文以2006-2009年我国A股市场上市公司定向增发事件为研究样本,从经营业绩的角度考察了上市公司定向增发后的长期业绩状况。本文的研究发现我国上市公司定向增发前的长期业绩呈上升趋势,在定向增发实施当年达到峰值,随后在增发后出现下滑趋势,特别是定向增发后一年内的下降幅度在统计上显著为负。本文从盈余管理假说、自由现金流假说和发行对象类别等角度检验了上市公司定向增发后长期经营业绩下滑的影响因素,发现上市公司定向增发前的盈余管理行为和自由现金流水平、定向增发后的过度投资以及大股东及其关联方的认购是造成定向增发后长期经营业绩下滑的重要原因。     

机构投资者、信息披露与盈余管理

本文以反映公司治理效率的信息披露与盈余管理作为关注要点,深入研究了机构投资者持股的治理效果问题.本文研究表明,机构投资者持股公司的盈余管理程度显著低于无机构投资者持股公司,并且盈余管理程度随着机构投资者持股的增加而显著降低.本文还检验了机构投资者持股能否有效提高公司信息披露的质量,发现机构投资者持股公司的信息披露质量显著高于无机构投资者持股公司,而且信息披露质量随着机构投资者持股的增加而提高.本文还发现,机构投资者持股公司信息披露对于盈余管理的监控作用更为显著,并且随着机构投资者持股的增加促进作用更为明显.以上发现意味着目前我国机构投资者已经参与到公司治理中,并在一定程度上发挥了积极的治理作用.     

Dissecting and connecting the growth and accounting distortion components of accruals

This study refines the accrual decomposition approach in Richardson et al. (Account Rev 81:713–743, 2006) and introduces a growth measure that is free from accounting distortions. My evidence indicates that the lower persistence of accruals extends to accruals that are unrelated to accounting distortions. I, however, find that the growth and accounting distortion components of accruals are not isolated. Growth may provide a context where firms have more incentives to manipulate earnings. I provide evidence that the persistence of both the growth and accounting distortion components of accruals is affected by firm growth and agency cost factors, such as free cash flows, leverage, and overvalued equity. I also document high accounting distortions for relatively high-growth firms that are close to reporting positive earnings, and negative accounting distortions for relatively low-growth firms that are far from the potential to report positive earnings.     

Cash from operations and earnings management in Korea

Our study investigates the relationship between the operating performances of Korean industrial firms and the behavior of discretionary accruals during the period 1994-1997. We hypothesize that the degree of earnings management will depend on the firm operating performances. We construct 10 “cash from operations (CFO)” portfolios to test if there are systematic differences in discretionary accruals across portfolios.Four test methods (a mean accrual test, a correlation test, a regression analysis, and a sign-change test) are used to investigate if operating performances affect discretionary accruals differently. We compare three accrual estimation approaches (two discretionary accruals and total accruals) in testing the earnings management hypotheses.The results support the hypothesis that Korean industrial firms manage earnings. When operating performance is poor, the firms tend to choose income-increasing strategies. In addition, when operating performance is extremely poor, some firms tend to take a big bath, while some of the exceptionally well-performing firms tend to select income-decreasing strategies.     

Accruals and the Conditional Equity Premium

Accruals correlate closely with the determinants of the conditional equity premium at both the firm and the aggregate levels. The common component of firm‐level accruals, which cannot be diversified away by aggregation, explains the positive relation between aggregate accruals and future stock market returns. The residual component, which accounts for most variation in firm‐level accruals, is responsible for the negative cross‐sectional relation between firm‐level accruals and future stock returns. Consistent with the risk‐based explanation, aggregate accruals, as a proxy for the conditional equity premium, forecast changes in aggregate economic activity. Moreover, we document a similar comovement of earnings with the conditional equity premium at both the firm and the aggregate levels, which helps explain the negative relation between changes in aggregate earnings and contemporaneous market returns.     

Managers: Their Effects on Accruals and Firm Policies

This paper investigates whether top executives have significant individual‐specific effects on accruals that cannot be explained by firm characteristics. Exploiting individual executive and firm data from a period of 37 years, we find that individual executives play a significant role in determining firms’ accruals. We examine whether executives’ effects on accruals are related to their personal styles on firm policies, investment, financing and operating decisions. Our results show that individual executives’ effects on accruals are more correlated with their operating decisions than investment and financing decisions. We next investigate whether managers themselves also have a personal style for directly affecting accruals. We compare effects exerted by CEOs to CFOs. We find CEOs are more likely to affect accruals through firm policy decisions and CFOs are more likely to affect accruals through accounting decisions. CFOs tend to report more ‘solid’ earnings than CEOs, i.e., CFOs are more likely to push accruals to zero.     

Do seasoned industry specialists provide higher audit quality? A re-examination

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the recent findings in Gaver and Utke (2019) (GU) who find that seasoned industry specialist auditors provide higher audit quality. We first illustrate how the magnitude of residuals from the accruals model can vary significantly by industry, thus highlighting the importance of including industry fixed effects when the dependent variable is discretionary accruals. We next replicate GU’s findings. We first attempt to replicate prior literature after including industry fixed effects in the audit quality (discretionary accruals) models. This is an important control, as the relevant benchmark for a firm with an industry specialist auditor is a peer firm in the same industry with a non-specialist auditor. We find that after including industry fixed effects, there is no association between seasoned industry specialist auditors and discretionary accruals. We also find that the association between industry specialization and discretionary accruals is very sensitive to the way in which the researcher calculates specialization. Our findings are informative for shareholders of public companies who vote on auditor ratification.     

Innate and discretionary accruals quality and corporate governance

This paper extends previous research on the association between corporate governance mechanisms and accruals quality. We derive measures of the discretionary and innate components of accruals quality and regress them against corporate governance characteristics. For discretionary accruals, we find use of a Big 4 audit firm and a larger audit committee as the primary governance mechanisms associated with higher accruals quality. For innate accruals quality, we find that higher quality is associated with an independent board of directors, a larger, more independent and more active audit committee, and use of a Big 4 audit firm. Our findings suggest a stronger relation between sound governance mechanisms and innate accruals quality than discretionary accruals quality.     

Asset Growth and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

We test for firm-level asset investment effects in returns by examining the cross-sectional relation between firm asset growth and subsequent stock returns. Asset growth rates are strong predictors of future abnormal returns. Asset growth retains its forecasting ability even on large capitalization stocks. When we compare asset growth rates with the previously documented determinants of the cross-section of returns (i.e., book-to-market ratios, firm capitalization, lagged returns, accruals, and other growth measures), we find that a firm's annual asset growth rate emerges as an economically and statistically significant predictor of the cross-section of U.S. stock returns.     

A Reexamination of the Persistence of Accruals and Cash Flows

We reexamine prior studies' conclusion that accruals are less persistent than cash, focusing on two aspects of persistence that are crucial to determining its properties. The first (time specificity) refers to the fact that persistence describes how current‐period shocks to income translate into next‐period income. Traditional measures of accruals are, however, functions of current‐ and non‐current‐period transactions. We show that the inclusion of non‐current‐period transactions leads to a downward (upward) bias on the persistence of accruals (cash flows). We develop alternative measures of accruals and cash flows that are not misaligned and show that the differential persistence of cash flows over accruals is more than 70% smaller using these measures. The second aspect of persistence is firm‐specificity. Specifically, we evaluate persistence using firm‐specific estimations and find that more than 85% of firms show no evidence that accruals are less persistent than cash flows.     

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.     

Inventory policy, accruals quality and information risk

This paper provides evidence consistent with firms with Last-in-first-out (LIFO) inventory policy being priced by the market as having lower information risk than First-in-first-out (FIFO) firms. Furthermore, the paper shows that this pricing differential is sustained after controlling for accruals quality, suggesting that the inventory policy signals some information risk characteristics that are not captured by accruals quality measure. We investigate the relation between inventory policy and accruals quality and find that accruals quality is systematically worse for FIFO firms than for LIFO firms after controlling for correlated omitted variables and known firm attributes. These findings complement the currently established relationship between the cost of capital, market pricing and accruals quality by focusing on the need for understanding the incremental effects of individual accounting policies.