Earnings quality at initial public offerings

We show that, contrary to popular belief, initial public offering (IPO) firms report more conservatively. We attribute this to the higher quality reporting demanded of public firms by financial statement users and consequentially higher monitoring by auditors, boards, analysts, rating agencies, press, and litigants, and to greater regulatory scrutiny [Ball, R., Shivakumar, L., 2005. Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness. Journal of Accounting and Economics 39, 83–128]. We also question the evidence of Teoh et al. [1998b. Earnings management and the subsequent market performance of initial public offerings. Journal of Finance 53, 1935–1974] supporting the alternative hypothesis that managers opportunistically inflate earnings to influence IPO pricing. We conjecture that upward-biased estimates of “discretionary” accruals occur in a broad genre of studies on earnings management around similar large transactions and events.  

内部控制鉴证对会计盈余质量的影响研究——基于沪市A股公司的经验证据

内部控制鉴证产生与发展的主要目标是提高财务信息质量,因此会影响盈余质量。我国目前的内部控制鉴证是否有效地提高了会计盈余质量?内部控制鉴证的执行如何影响会计盈余质量?本文通过实证分析沪市A股公司2006—2008年内部控制鉴证的经验证据,发现内部控制鉴证提升了公司会计盈余质量,在控制了管理层信号传递动机以后结论仍然稳健。最后,本文根据实证分析结果和我国上市公司内部控制鉴证业务现状,提出了完善内部控制鉴证的若干政策建议。  

签字注册会计师强制轮换制度提高了审计质量吗?——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

本文分析了我国签字注册会计师强制轮换制度对审计质量的影响,并检验了影响制度效果的主要因素。研究发现,强制轮换制度总体上没有显著提高审计质量,其原因一是强制轮换制度执行中存在规避行为,导致审计师变更频繁和过渡审计师的出现,其对应审计质量较低;二是强制轮换制度实施后,新任审计师的平均专业胜任能力下降,导致审计质量下降。而具有原客户审计经验的审计师在被强制轮换后重新审计该客户的审计质量较高,这能在一定程度上抑制上市公司审计质量的整体下滑。本文的发现对进一步完善签字注册会计师强制轮换制度有较好的参考意义。  

Sustained Earnings and Revenue Growth, Earnings Quality, and Earnings Response Coefficients

We show that firms reporting sustained increases in both earnings and revenues have (1) higher quality earnings and (2) larger earnings response coefficients (ERCs) in comparison to firms reporting sustained increases in earnings alone. With respect to earnings quality, firms with revenue-supported increases in earnings have more persistent earnings, exhibit less susceptibility to earnings management, and have higher future operating performance. With respect to response coefficients, firms with revenue-supported increases in earnings have both higher ERCs and lower book value response coefficients, consistent with the implications of the Ohlson (1995, Contemporary Accounting Research 12, 661–687) model.JEL Classification: G12, M41  

Earnings management and earnings quality

Viewing the detection of earnings management from the perspective of a crime scene investigator sheds new light on prior research on earnings management and its close relative, earnings quality. The works of Ball and Shivakumar [2008. Earnings quality at initial public offerings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, in press.] and Teoh et al. [1998. Earnings management and the subsequent market performance of initial public offerings. Journal of Finance 53, 1935–1974.] are used to illustrate the application of seven components of a crime scene investigation to earnings management research.  

审计意见和年报披露会影响盈余质量吗?

本文使用沪深两市A股上市公司的面板数据,分析了审计意见和年报披露及时性与盈余质量的关系,认为二者与盈余质量之间存在显著的相关性:首先,年度财务报告被出具非标类型审计意见的上市公司,盈余质量较低;其次,年报披露越及时的公司,盈余质量越高。另外我们的研究结果还表明年报被出具非标审计意见的公司,会更晚披露财务报告,验证了变更年报预约披露日期(延迟披露)的公司则更容易被出具非标审计意见。  

盈余质量对会计信息报酬契约有用性的影响及股权特征的交互作用分析

本文以盈余可靠性维度作为盈余质量的替代,检验管理者报酬契约中的会计监督作用是否存在、其受到公司股权特征制约或促进的程度以及对企业未来业绩的影响。研究发现:(1)从整体情况看,上市公司盈余的低可靠性对管理者报酬—会计业绩的敏感性产生显著负向影响,说明盈余质量影响了管理者报酬契约中的会计业绩度量。(2)政府机构直接控制的上市公司控股股东缺乏监督经理人的剩余索取权激励,在管理者报酬契约制定中对盈余质量的评价监督重视不足。(3)第一大股东对董事会的控制增强了盈余可靠性影响管理者报酬—会计业绩敏感性的程度,在一定程度上说明大股东与上市公司之间在监督激励管理者方面的“治理协同效应”。(4)第一大股东与第二大股东之比对盈余可靠性影响报酬—会计业绩的敏感性程度产生削弱的影响。(5)盈余的低质量使管理者现金报酬的激励效果受到制约,在管理者报酬契约中针对会计信息的可靠性进行会计监督,增强了对管理者进行激励的效果。  

Disclosure of fees paid to auditors and the market valuation of earnings surprises

We investigate if the SEC’s recently mandated disclosure of fees for audit and nonaudit services paid by firms to their incumbent auditors affected the market’s perception of auditor independence and earnings quality. Following the initial fee disclosures in 2001, we find that the market valuation of quarterly earnings surprises (earnings response coefficient) was significantly lower for firms with high levels of nonaudit fees than for firms with low levels of such fees. In contrast, in the year prior to the new fee disclosures, there was no reduction in earnings response coefficients for firms that subsequently reported high nonaudit fees. Our evidence suggests that mandated fee disclosures provided new information that was viewed by the market as relevant to appraising auditor independence and earnings quality.

Earnings attributes and investor-protection: International evidence

This study explores the effects of investor-protection on reported earnings quality assessed on the basis of four accounting-based earnings attributes (accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness). We test the hypothesis that favorable values of each earnings attribute (considered individually) occur in countries whose institutional characteristics provide relatively strong investor-protection. The results based on K-means cluster analysis of institutional characteristics are mixed. Earnings smoothness is less prevalent in strong investor-protection countries, as hypothesized. However both accruals quality and earnings predictability are better in countries whose institutional characteristics are relatively weak. No association is found between investor-protection and earnings persistence, except that countries with low ownership concentration appear to have high earnings persistence. The results based on regression analysis are consistent with those based on the cluster analysis. These results imply that conclusions about the impact of institutional characteristics on earnings quality depend on how earnings quality is measured.  

上市公司违约风险、盈余质量与银行信用借款——基于沪深A股市场的经验研究

本文从静态和动态两个层面研究了会计信息的银行债务契约有用性。实证研究发现,上市公司基于会计信息的违约风险越大,银行信用借款比例越低;盈余质量越差则会显著降低违约风险与信用借款之间的关系;而在区分了长短期信用借款后,上述关系仅存在于短期信用借款之中。进一步研究发现,银企关系的好坏会显著影响长期信用借款的比例。这表明会计信息能降低银行债务契约决策中的信息不对称,但其有用性却受到盈余质量和债务期限的影响。