Corporate Governance and the Information Content of Earnings Announcements: A Cross‐Country Analysis

Using firm‐level data from 23 developed markets, we document a positive association between overall firm‐level governance quality and the informativeness of earnings announcements measured by abnormal stock return variance. This finding is robust after controlling for the potential endogeneity of firm‐level corporate governance. Further analyses reveal that firms with strong governance show little evidence of earnings management, appoint Big 4 auditing firms, and attract analyst following, implying a positive link between strong corporate governance and the information quality of earnings announcements. Finally, there is some evidence that the relation between firm‐level governance and market reactions around the announcements exists only in countries characterized by a transparent information environment and strong legal investor protection.     

Financial Liberalization and Stock Market Efficiency: Causality Analysis of Emerging Markets

This paper studies the long- and short-run relationship between financial liberalization and stock market efficiency. It expands the extant body of knowledge by investigating Granger causality relationship applying mean group, common correlated effect mean group and common correlated effect pooled estimator to balanced panel data for 27 emerging markets over the period 1996–2011. We find evidence of financial liberalization Granger causes stock market efficiency, which is consistent with liberalization leads to efficiency hypothesis. Subsequently, our work makes a fresh contribution to the literature by focusing on informational efficiency of stock markets rather than financial development. Furthermore, we find that a negative long-term relationship between financial liberalization and stock return autocorrelation coexists with a positive short-term relationship between the two. The findings that financial liberalization, which has a deteriorated effect on stock market efficiency in the short-run, but positive impact in the long-run, allow us to draw an analogy similar to the J-curve hypothesis.     

Identifying design values across countries through adaptive comparative judgment

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ) has proven to be a valid, reliable, and feasible method for assessing student performance in...     

Fulfilling its promise? Strategic public procurement and the impact of equality considerations on employers’ behaviour in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Public administration is an important force influencing equality in today’s society. Like budgetary choices, public procurement has increasingly gained attention as a means to promote equality. Yet, there are important gaps in knowledge, especially regarding how equality requirements in public procurement affect company behaviour. This paper sheds first light on the impact strategic public procurement has on employers’ behaviour. Based on empirical research, this paper highlights that companies perceive a limited prevalence of equality stipulations in Scottish public procurement practices and raises doubts about the impact of public procurement practices to create a successful business case for equality.     

Directors' attributes and corporate governance effectiveness in Hong Kong

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of Hong Kong (HK) legal practitioners on how the major attributes of knowledge, continuous education, and qualification among directors in HK relate to their board of directors' corporate governance effectiveness. The results revealed that the respondents perceived directors' attributes in HK to be not good enough for discharging their legal obligations to their companies. The results also suggested that a company was more effectively governed if its directors were more qualified for their jobs and more familiar with company law and/or corporate governance.     

Guangdong Companies Talk Wages

Wages are on the rise again in Guangdong, a big exporting province, and across much of the rest of China. In recent months, there has been much anecdotal evidence of labour shortages and wage hikes on the southern and eastern coasts. We showed a while ago that the labour market had made a surprising V-shaped recovery in coastal areas and was also strengthening in central and western China,     

Human resource practices and firm performance of multinational corporations: influences of country origin

Drawing from a cultural values perspective, we investigate the effects of country origins on HR (human resource) practices of firms from the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Hong Kong operating in Hong Kong. In general, results supported hypothesized differences in HR practices of firms from different countries. In addition, results indicated that HR practices, specifically structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation, were related to various measures of firm performance. Of further interest was the finding that country origin moderated relationships of HR practices with firm performance; in general, relationships of structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation were stronger for Hong Kong firms. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Accuracy and Reliability Considerations of Option Pricing Algorithms

A wide variety of computational schemes have been proposed for the numerical valuation of various classes of options. Experiences in numerical computation have revealed that the details of the implementation of the auxiliary conditions in the numerical algorithms may have profound effects on numerical accuracy. Difficulties in designing algorithms that deal with the path‐dependent payoffs, monitoring features, etc., have been well reported in the literature. In this article, the theoretical issues on the assessment of numerical schemes with regard to accuracy of approximation of auxiliary conditions, rate of convergence, and oscillation phenomena are reviewed. In particular, the oscillation phenomena in bond‐price calculations and the intricacies in implementing the auxiliary conditions in barrier options, proportional step options, and lookback options are discussed. With different types of options and modes of monitoring (continuous or discrete), the optimal method of placing the lattice nodes with reference to the boundary (absorbing or reflecting) are examined in order to achieve linear temporal rate of convergence. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 21:875–903, 2001     

Immigration and Informal Labor

We develop state‐level proxies for informal employment using differences between measures of self‐reported employment and officially sanctioned employment. In construction and landscaping, industries associated with under‐the‐table labor, we develop proxies for informal work based on productivity per officially sanctioned worker. We relate each set of proxies for informal employment to changes in immigrant population and composition. We find some evidence that immigration is associated with informal employment generally and in the construction industry when prevailing wages are low. States with high concentrations of low‐skilled male immigrants have higher levels of informal employment in the landscaping industry.     

Measuring Heterogeneous Preferences for Cattle Traits among Cattle-Keeping Households in East Africa

This study employs mixed logit and latent class models to examine preferences for cattle traits with a focus on heterogeneity among cattle keepers, using choice experiment data of 506 cattle-keeping households in Kenya and Ethiopia. The findings indicate the existence of preference heterogeneity based on cattle production systems. Highly valued cattle traits for the cropping systems include traction fitness and trypanotolerance, while traits associated with herd increase are considered important in pastoral systems. Considering heterogeneity within population segments provides a framework for adapting breeding policy interventions to specific producer segments, by integrating preferred traits in a breed improvement program.