上市公司关联交易与会计稳健性——基于分离均衡的视角

以我国上市公司2001～2003年798个观测点发生的资金占用事件为样本,对我国上市公司会计稳健性区分关联交易的性质进行了理论分析和实证检验。研究结果表明,会计稳健性与资金占用与否之间存在反向关系,会计稳健性与资金占用程度之间存在显著的负相关关系。在会计准则由国际接轨转向国际趋同的大背景下,会计稳健性在关联交易问题上具有实现分离均衡的作用,这种分离均衡作用可以区分不同类型关联交易,从而为保护投资者利益提供有效的途径。     

会计稳健性与资本投资效率的实证研究

选取2001年-2008年我国A股上市公司为研究样本,检验会计稳健性与公司资本投资效率之间的关系,进而考察会计稳健性的治理价值.实证研究发现,会计稳健性与资本投资无效率水平以及投资过度(不足)都显著负相关,这对我国上市公司而言,会计稳健性水平有助于缓解经理人与股东之间的代理冲突、降低投资者面临的信息不对称、抑制公司的过度投资或投资不足行为,进而改善公司的资本投资效率.     

现金分红、债务政策稳健性与公司业绩

上市公司现金分红和债务决策是资本市场关注的热点问题。文章以我国A股上市公司为研究对象,考察了现金分红与债务政策稳健性及其对企业业绩的影响关系。研究发现上市公司现金分红行为对公司债务政策稳健性有着显著的影响,相对于无现金分红公司而言,现金分红公司有着更高的债务政策稳健性;现金分红公司的业绩水平显著高于无现金分红公司的对应水平,说明上市公司现金分红行为对公司业绩的提升具有促进作用;在现金分红与公司业绩的关系中,债务政策稳健性具有显著的中介效应。上述研究结论对规范我国上市公司现金分红行为、揭示其对债务政策稳健性与公司业绩的影响具有一定的理论和实践意义。     

会计稳健性与投资效率研究综述——基于三类不同代理成本的视角

会计稳健性作为一项有效的治理机制对投资效率产生了重要的影响。在委托代理的基础上将代理成本细分为监督成本、担保成本和剩余损失,从这3个层面对会计稳健性与非投资效率的关系进行梳理、总结以及分析。研究发现,会计稳健性与投资过度的关系较为明确,即稳健性可通过作用于3类不同代理成本来缓解股东与经理人以及股东与债权人的冲突,进而抑制投资过度,降低非效率投资。对于会计稳健性与投资不足的关系,现有研究并未达成一致结论。     

Does accounting conservatism improve the corporate information environment?

This study investigates whether and how accounting conservatism improves the corporate information environment. We argue that conservatism facilitates the flow of firm-specific information from corporate insiders to outsiders and leads to a high-quality information environment. Using the Basu (1997) model to capture the extent of accounting conservatism and firm-specific return variation to proxy for the quality of information environment, we find that conservatism is positively associated with the improvement of the corporate information environment in our sample of 43 countries. We also find that the information role of conservatism is more pronounced in countries with weaker protection of private property rights, suggesting that conservatism substitutes for legal institutions in ensuring the quality of information environment.     

Accounting Conservatism and the Cost of Capital: An International Analysis

This paper examines the role of conditional accounting conservatism in mitigating the cost of equity and debt capital in an international setting. The findings are that firms domiciled in countries with more conservative financial reporting systems have lower cost of equity and debt capital. The paper further explores the cross‐sectional variation of the above relationships, finding that the negative association between conditional conservatism and the cost of equity and debt capital is more pronounced in countries with stronger legal enforcement, suggesting a complementary role between conservatism and legal institutions in capital markets. In addition, the paper finds that conservatism only reduces the cost of debt in countries where accounting‐based covenants are widely used, consistent with the argument that conditional conservatism improves the efficiency of debt contracts via accelerating covenant violations.     

Conditional conservatism and persistence of accrual components

We examine whether conditional conservatism affects the persistence of accrual components associated with varying degrees of reliability. Using a sample of 102,416 firm‐year observations from 1968 to 2006, we found that conservatism reduces the persistence of more reliable accruals, but not less reliable accruals. Our evidence suggests managers' discretion in practicing conservatism convention may have caused the low persistence of less reliable accruals. Our results inform capital market participants, such as financial analysts, that managers may incorporate more bad news into more reliable accruals than in less reliable accruals, leading to lower persistence of more reliable accruals than less reliable accruals. We expect that analysts can improve forecasting efficiency by understanding the differential implications of accounting conservatism on different accrual components. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

S&P 500 Membership and Managers’ Supply of Conservative Financial Reports

Our study is motivated by economic theory and the debate among practitioners, standard setters, and academics on the role of conditional conservatism in financial reporting. We find that managers provide less conditionally conservative financial reports after their firms are added to the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 index. S&P 500 membership is expected to reduce information asymmetry between managers and outside stakeholders due to an increased flow of public and private information. As a result, the contracting benefits of conservative accounting choices are reduced, and managers are less willing to provide conditionally conservative reports. In contrast, we find that managers provide more conditionally conservative financial reports after their firms are deleted from the index. Firms being deleted from the S&P 500 index probably incur an increase in information asymmetry. Overall, our results provide evidence consistent with conditional conservatism being a response by managers to the information needs of financial statements users.     

The Effect of Accounting Conservatism on Corporate Investment during the Global Financial Crisis

This paper examines the effect of accounting conservatism on firm‐level investment during the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. Using a differences‐in‐differences design, we find that firms with less conservative financial reporting experienced a sharper decline in investment activity following the onset of the crisis compared to firms with more conservative financial reporting. This relationship was stronger for firms that were financially constrained, faced greater external financing needs, or had higher information asymmetry. We also find that more conservative firms experienced lower declines in both debt‐raising activity and stock performance. The evidence suggests that accounting conservatism reduces underinvestment in the presence of information frictions.     

The Effect of Religion on Accounting Conservatism

This paper investigates whether religiosity, a key informal institutional factor, strongly influences a firm’s adoption of accounting conservatism. Using a sample from the U.S. stock market, we find that firms located in geographic areas with higher levels of religiosity tend to exhibit greater accounting conservatism. Further tests show that this effect is through the channel of engaging managers in activities that emphasize firms’ long-term growth, concern stakeholder interests, and avoid the risk of litigation. Moreover, we demonstrate that it is the religious environment in an area rather than the personal religious belief of a CEO that drives our baseline results. Finally, a supplementary test suggests that religiosity increases not only the conditional (ex post) conservatism of firms but their unconditional (ex ante) conservatism as well.