Exploring the ethical behavior of managers: A comparative study of four countries

Donaldson and Dunfee's (1994) social contracts theory of economic ethics was subjected to empirical scrutiny to determine whether it can explain differences in behavior between cultures. Data collected utilizing a series of vignettes developed by Fritzsche and Becker (1984) were examined for differences in indicated ethical behavior among American, Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese managers. Rationale for the behavior was classified according to hyper and community norms which were supported or violated. The results suggest that the three East Asian countries do not neatly cluster together in relation to the U.S. in terms of their patterns of ethical behavior. Nonetheless, when we examined the specific rationale for the decisions provided by the managers, the effects of Asian cultural characteristics became more notable. We also found that the social contracts theory provided a much needed bridge between ethical universalists and relativists. The specific reasons underlying their decisions are discussed in the light of cultural and social differences.This research project was partially supported by a research grant from the School of Business and Management, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.     

Ownership Structure,Business Group Affiliation,Listing Status,and Earnings Management: Evidence from Korea*

Using a large sample of both publicly traded and privately held firms in South Korea (hereafter “Korea”), we investigate whether, and how, the deviation of controlling shareholders' control from ownership, business group affiliation, and listing status differentially affect the extent of earnings management. Our study yields three major findings. First, we find that as the control‐ownership disparity becomes larger, controlling shareholders tend to engage more in opportunistic earnings management to hide their behavior and avoid adverse consequences such as disciplinary action. The result of our full‐model regression reveals that an increase in the control‐ownership wedge by 1 percent leads to an increase in the magnitude of (unsigned) discretionary accruals by 1.3 percent of lagged total assets, ceteris paribus. Second, we find that for our full‐model regression, the magnitude of (unsigned) discretionary accruals is greater for group‐affiliated firms than for nonaffiliated firms by 0.8 percent of lagged total assets. This result suggests that business group affiliation provides controlling shareholders with more incentives and opportunities for earnings management. Finally, we find that for our full‐model regression, the magnitude of (unsigned) discretionary accruals is greater for publicly traded firms than for privately held firms by 1.2 percent of lagged total assets. This result supports the notion that stock markets create incentives for public firms to manage reported earnings to satisfy the expectations of various market participants that are often expressed in earnings numbers.     

The impact of product market competition on earnings quality

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of product market competition on earnings quality. Based on a sample from the US manufacturing sector for the period 1996–2005, we find consistent evidence showing a positive relation between product market competition and earnings quality. Additional tests also confirm a positive relation between product market competition and the precision of public and private information held by investors and analysts. We also provide evidence that firms competing in concentrated and heterogeneous industries are associated with a number of earnings attributes and information quality not shared by those competing in concentrated but homogeneous industries. These findings are consistent with the intuition that firms enjoying a monopolistic advantage tend to avoid the attention of their competitors and politicians by creating a more opaque information environment.     

Does auditor designation by the regulatory authority improve audit quality? Evidence from Korea

In Korea, the regulatory authority designates external auditors for firms that are deemed to have strong incentives and/or great potential for opportunistic earnings management, and mandates these firms to replace their incumbent auditors with new designated auditors and to retain them for a certain period, typically one to three years. We call this regulatory regime ‘auditor designation’. This paper investigates whether the auditor designation rule in Korea is effective in deterring managers from making income-increasing earnings management. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the level of discretionary accruals is significantly lower for firms with designated auditors than firms with a free selection of auditors. We also find that firms with mandatory auditor changes (i.e., auditor designation) report significantly lower discretionary accruals compared to firms with voluntary auditor changes. The above findings are robust to a battery of robustness checks. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that the auditor designation enhances audit quality and thus the credibility of financial reporting.     

PILL,PATCH, OR SHOT? SUBJECTIVE EXPECTATIONS AND BIRTH CONTROL CHOICE*

When choosing a contraception method, women base their decisions on their subjective expectations about the realizations of method‐related outcomes. Examples of outcomes include getting pregnant and contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD). I combine innovative data on probabilistic expectations with observed contraceptive choices to estimate a random utility model of birth control choice. The availability of expectations data is essential to identify preferences from beliefs. Effectiveness, protection against STDs, and partner's disapproval are found to be the most important factors in the decision process. The elicited expectations and inferred preference parameters are used to simulate the impact of various policies.     

Bank Lending and Inflation in Malaysia: Assessment from Unrestricted Error-Correction Models

The paper estimates inflation models for Malaysia by considering the influence of bank lending. The unrestricted error-correction model (UECM) proposed in Pesaran et al. (2000) was employed as being appropriate for small sample analysis such as the present study which covered annual data from 1973 to 1997. The results of 'bounds' tests confirmed a long-run equilibrium relationship between inflation and its determinants, namely import price, money supply (M3), bank credit and real income. The estimated UECMs revealed that the important factors in the Malaysian inflation process are import price and real-income variables. It was found that concurrent fiscal policies had a major influence on the impact of the depreciation of the naira on inflation. The UECMs appear to perform well and to provide an appropriate framework for forecasting the Malaysian inflation behaviour.     

Advertising Spending Efficiency of Beauty-Care Product Companies: Comparison Between Local Companies and Multinational Companies in the U.S. Market

ABSTRACT

In this study, the authors apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the financial efficiency of U.S. beauty-care companies and foreign companies based on their media advertising expenditures in eight key media outlets (i.e., magazines, newspapers, outdoor, network TV, spot TV, syndication TV, cable TV, and radio) and their revenues in the U.S. market. The analyses revealed that 47.4% of the companies examined advertised efficiently. Companies that advertised inefficiently could save, on average, 75% of their advertising spending. The results also indicated that although U.S. companies are more efficient overall than are non-U.S. companies in terms of advertising spending, the competitiveness of non-U.S. companies should not be underestimated because some of them advertised efficiently (e.g., Kao Corporation from Japan) or almost efficiently.     

A REASSESSMENT OF AGGREGATE IMPORT DEMAND FUNCTION IN THE ASEAN-5: A Cointegration Analysis

This study aims to reinvestigate the empirical evidence on the long-run relationship of aggregate import demand behavior for the ASEAN-5 founding nations. This study adopts the import demand equation that has been developed by Xu (2002). The results of bounds test (Pesaran et al., 2001) show the volume of imports, activity variable (national cash flow), and relative price of imports are cointegrated in Malaysia and Singapore. However, no empirical evidence supports that these variables are cointegrated in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. This study provides a relevant implication specifically that devaluation strengthens the balance of trade. Following the Marshall-Lerner condition, exchange rate policies such as devaluation, can used to improve trade balance in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand, but not in Indonesia.     

Equity and fixed income markets as drivers of securitised real estate

This paper re-examines the sensitivity and importance of interest rates and stock market price behavior on securitised property by decomposing their long-run impact between transient and permanent effects. This is achieved in a framework that accounts for endogenously determined structural breaks within the data. The results provide a different perspective on the relationship securitised property has with these markets and sheds new light on their long-run interaction. Once structural breaks are accounted for the results show that securitised property is driven by both interest rate and stock market changes, regardless of the type of securitised property being examined. Evidence also points to companies with increased debt-to-asset ratios and companies that are tax-exempt entities are still all influenced by both the equity and fixed income markets over the long-run period, although the influence these factors have do vary across time.     

Foreign Direct Investment,Merchandise and Services Trade in a Transition Economy: The Case of Cambodia

Since the liberalization of trade and investment in the 1990s, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) has been seen to play a greater role in forging trade flows, integration into the regional and international markets and economic development for a transition economy such as Cambodia. Despite her recent progress in attracting FDI and fostering trade, the direction of causality between inward FDI, exports and imports of merchandise as well as services has not been empirically explored. The findings show that inward FDI not only can promote both merchandise and services exports but also indicate the presence of backward and forward linkages, which could result in positive externalities. However, based on the impulse response analysis, it seems that merchandise exports are more vulnerable than services exports to an unanticipated shift in FDI inflows in the medium run.