Stuck in the middle with who? (Belatedly) engaging with Laughlin while becoming re-acquainted with Merton and middle range theorising

The paper engages with Laughlin's 1995 and 2004 contributions to the literature on accounting research methodology, seeking to critique and thereby extend his insights. It does so at a time when the discussion of methodological issues appears less important to many empirical accounting researchers than demonstrating a familiarity with the growing range of theoretical perspectives available to pursue such enquiries. The paper initially outlines Laughlin's original and revised frameworks, following which a number of the resultant attributions of specific schools of thought are questioned. The original categorisation exercise is concluded still to offer an insightful basis on which to compare and contrast empirical research approaches. For this reason, the same exercise is extended to locate three further, currently popular ways of seeing: institutional theory, actor network theory and practice theory. The focus then shifts to a more detailed exploration of the relationship that exists between Laughlin's idea of middle range thinking and Merton's characterisation of middle range theory and theorisation. Informed by the resultant insights, the middle range or substantive theory credentials of a range of schools of thought currently widely subscribed in interdisciplinary accounting research are then examined.     

Tax strategy control: The case of transfer pricing tax risk management

This paper examines how a functional tax strategy impacts the management control system (MCS) in a multinational enterprise (MNE) facing transfer pricing tax risks. Based on case study findings it is argued that the MCS in a multinational setting is contingent upon the MNE's response to its tax environment. Moreover, the paper extends existing contingency-based theory on MCS by illustrating the role of inter-organisational network collaboration across MNE transfer pricing tax experts. This collaboration, caused by a widely dispersed tax knowledge base, fuels the formal interactive control system and reduces tax uncertainty. The paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach for explaining findings, using contingency-based theory and network theory at the inter-organisational level.     

Tax incentives for inefficient executive pay and reward for luck

I study the economic consequences of tax deductibility limits on salaries for the design of incentive contracts. The analysis is based on an agency model in which the firm’s cash flow is a function of the agent’s effort and an observable random factor beyond the agent’s control. According to my analysis, limiting the tax deductibility of fixed wages has two consequences. The principal rewards the agent on the basis of the observable random factor and adjusts the amount of performance-based pay in the optimal incentive contract. The new contract can have weaker or stronger work incentives than without the tax. The theoretical findings have implications for empirical compensation research. First, the analysis shows that reward for luck can be the optimal response to recent tax law changes, whereas earlier empirical literature has attributed this phenomenon to managerial entrenchment. Second, I demonstrate that a simple regression analysis that fails to control for separable measures of luck is likely to find an increased pay for performance sensitivity as a response to the introduction of tax deductibility limits on salaries even if the pay for performance sensitivity has actually declined.     

An attribution theory analysis of tax evasion related judgments

Traditional economic theory often has been utilized to explain tax evasion behavior. However, while economic consequences are important factors in the understanding of tax evasion behavior, they alone do not appear adequate to describe and predict the phenomenon [Lewis, The Psychology of Taxation (New York: St Martin's Press, 1982)]. This paper reports the results of two studies of tax evasion related judgments which builds upon tenants of attribution theory. Specifically, we examined the association between subjects' causal attributions for other's evasion behavior and their own behavioral intentions to evade. A significant association was found. The implications for tax evasion are discussed.     

MARX AND ACCOUNTING

Does Marx's political economy provide a theoretical foundation for understanding accounting in modern capitalism? The commentators dispute my Marxism, and contest whether my accounting is more objective than the FASB's. I show they have misunderstood Marx and the purpose of my accounting. Underlying their views is a failure to take seriously Marx's social relations of production and traditional accountability. I conclude the commentators have not challenged my claim that Marx's analysis of the circuits of industrial capital could provide a general theory of accounting.     

税收学:方位与发展--关于拓展我国税收理论研究领域的思考

当前,西方经济学下的税收学研究还存在微观基础不充分的问题,同时税收学的跨学科研究仍需加强。因此,在继续关注当前研究热点的前提下,税收理论研究还应当向企业税收学、税收法律运行及税收伦理学等研究领域拓展。     

When Peer Recognition Backfires: The Impact of Peer Information on Subsequent Helping Behavior*

Peer recognition systems (PRS) have gained popularity in recent years as a means for organizations to promote employee helping behavior. However, there are theoretical reasons to believe that peer information that is publicly disclosed in PRS may reduce subsequent helping behavior, and I use an experiment to test my theory. Specifically, I examine a three-employee setting where an employee (the worker) receives no recognition for helping a coworker (the recognizer) but another coworker (the helper) does. I predict and find that the worker's willingness to subsequently help the recognizer/helper is lower when the worker perceives that the worker's initial help exceeds (vs. subceeds) the helper's. I also find that the worker's perception of fairness mediates the process, and the worker's willingness to help the recognizer has a spillover effect on the worker's willingness to help the helper. My study provides the first empirical evidence of the negative impact that PRS have on helping behavior.     

The Impact of Trust-Preferred Issuance on Bank Default Risk and Cash Flow: Evidence from the Debt and Equity Securities Markets

Trust‐preferred stock is a debt‐equity hybrid that offers the tax deductibility of dividends but is treated as equity capital by bank regulators and rating agencies. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether holders of bank debt securities benefit from trust‐preferred issuance in the form of lower default premia and whether bank shareholders benefit from the tax deductibility of trust‐preferred dividends. Using daily returns surrounding the Federal Reserve's announcement that trust‐preferred securities would be included as a component of commercial banks' Tier I equity capital, we find evidence to support both hypotheses.     

托宾税政策研究评述与展望

面对全球金融动荡加剧和国际投机资本冲击对各国经济的负面影响,有关托宾税 政策的研究已经成为国内外近些年来的一个热点问题。同时,在托宾税有效性这个问题上也一 直没有达成共识性结论。本文从詹姆斯·托宾的学术思想出发,重新审视托宾税的内涵,对托 宾税相关争论、有关托宾税理论模型和实证研究等方面的国内外最新研究文献展开评述,并指 出托宾税政策研究的发展方向。     

River stories: Genealogies of a threatened inland river system

Most people now living in Australia's “bread basket”, the much-degraded Murray Darling Basin, are like my family, descendants of convicts or free settlers who came to the inland in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Our legacy includes the dispossession of indigenous peoples, species extinction and the ongoing degradation of the ecological communities which now sustain us. My own family's river stories which “begin” with a pair of impoverished Gaels who migrated with their offspring from the Scottish Highlands, can be considered paradigmatic. I re-narrate it in this essay in response to philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre's challenge—I can only answer the question ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’Some of these family stories I find myself part of, especially those that have been enacted within the catchment of the now-threatened Lachlan River, are very discomforting, but where do they “truly” begin? In seeking to understand my relationship with the river and its catchment, and with the indigenous peoples “my mob” displaced, I explore several possible “beginnings” and ask a further question: what stories do I want to be part of as co-author, co-narrator and protagonist. I then offer my own yet-to-be enacted “truth and reconciliation” stories about the future of the inland plains I love.     

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF AMBIGUITY IN ACCOUNTING AND EVERYDAY LIFE: THE SELF-PERPETUATION OF ACCOUNTING

This research study seeks to demonstrate accounting's autopoietic capacities in social enactments of change such as a preferencing tribal-based corporatisation. The paper, through a form of critical ethnography, underscores the argument that accounting self-reproduces through a complex interplay between: (a) the political effecting of ambiguity in a controversial and sensitive policy of change; (b) assumptions about accounting's ability to reduce ambiguity; and, (c) the inherent ambiguities in the accounting language. The research suggests that in order to be more appreciating of accounting's self-reproducing capacities, we need to be more conscious of the interplay between the politics of ambiguity in society and the aesthetics of ambiguity in accounting. In the process, the paper highlights the general applicability of accounting as an act of self-replication, and the way in which perceived “meaningless[ness]” and time “eating” notions of accounting, ironically contemplate more of it.     

Voice and power: Do institutional shareholders make use of their voting power?

I investigate the role of voting power – the ability to influence a vote's outcome – in the voting behavior of institutional shareholders. Using hand-collected data from Israel, an environment with concentrated ownership, I employ a power index borrowed from the political science literature to examine the voting power wielded by institutional shareholders and the voting patterns they display. I find that institutional shareholders' voting power is negatively related to their tendency to vote against management: the stronger the shareholder, the higher the probability they will vote in favor of a management-sponsored proposal. Based on evidence obtained here, this behavior is attributable to pre-vote negotiations as well as to the voting strategy of “counting on my vote not counting.” Next, I use detailed data on shareholders' votes to identify the channel through which a voting rule affects minority shareholder protection. I find that powerful institutional shareholders almost never use their voting power to vote against management, not even when signals of poor governance are discernible. I conclude that the effect of a voting rule on minority shareholder protection operates through proposal selection, rather than through direct voting.     

Mitigating political uncertainty

This study examines whether firms that establish political connections gain differential access to relevant information over legislative developments, thereby mitigating the negative consequences of uncertainty. I find that political connections (partially) offset the negative relation between investment and political uncertainty documented in prior research. My results do not appear to be driven by connected firms pursuing investments that are insensitive to uncertainty. I perform additional tests to address concerns over correlated omitted variables. First, I identify a setting around a tax policy development designed to provide new investment incentives to firms. In this setting, I predict and find that reduced information asymmetry for connected firms results in delaying investment in anticipation of future lucrative tax incentives. Second, I perform a falsification test and document that political connections do not mitigate the effects of general economic uncertainty. Finally, I continue to find support for my hypothesis within a propensity matched sample.     

Voluntary disclosures and the exercise of CEO stock options

We examine voluntary disclosures around the exercise of CEO stock options. Previous research shows that managerial incentives depend on the intended disposition of the exercised options' underlying shares. When CEOs intend to sell the underlying shares of exercised options, they have an incentive to increase stock prices in the pre-exercise period. In contrast, when CEOs intend to hold the underlying shares, they have a tax incentive to decrease stock prices in the pre-exercise period. Consistent with these private incentives, we find a significant increase in the frequency and magnitude of good (bad) news announcements in the pre-exercise period when CEOs implement exercise-and-sell (exercise-and-hold) strategies. We provide some evidence that CEOs' propensities for opportunistic disclosures are positively related to the value of their exercised stock options. Lastly, we find that the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) generally reduces, but does not eliminate, this type of managerial opportunism.     

Measuring, explaining, and controlling tax evasion: lessons from theory, experiments, and field studies

In this paper, I assess what we have learned about tax evasion since Michael Allingham and Agnar Sandmo launched the modern analysis of tax evasion in 1972. I focus on three specific questions and the answers to these questions that have emerged over the years. First, how do we measure the extent of evasion? Second, how can we explain these patterns of behavior? Third, how can we use these insights to control evasion? In the process, I illustrate my own answers to these questions by highlighting various specific examples of research. My main conclusion is that we have learned many things but that we also still have many gaps in our understanding of how to measure, explain, and control tax evasion. I also give some suggestions—and some predictions—about where promising avenues of future research may lie.     

税务会计计量属性及其与财务会计计量属性的比较

文章在借鉴财务会计计量属性的基础上,结合对税法的理解与认识,初步界定出税务会计的计量属性,进而分析税务会计计量属性与财务会计计量属性之异同。在会计理论与实务中,既要重视财务会计计量属性,又应重视税务会计计量属性,而税务会计计量属性散见于税法之中,需要进行归纳、提炼。对税务会计计量属性的研究,既是税务会计理论与实务的需要,又是对会计理论与实务的丰富与拓展。     

公司并购税制的理论与实践

公司并购市场的蓬勃发展,促使对这一领域法制规范的研究成为当前的理论热点。作为调整并购市场法律体系的重要组成部分,税收政策在并购激励和并购能力、并购融资和支付、并购资源整合与绩效等方面都具有深刻影响。本文以法经济学的交易费用及产权分析为理论工具,在借鉴世界公司并购税制,尤其是美、欧公司并购税制成功经验的基础上,审视我国公司并购税制的有效性,并对其完善和改进提出政策建议。     

我国税法在执行过程中为何出现扭曲——来自博弈论的证据

税务机关内部部门利益膨胀的问题目益彰显,导致税法在执行层面出现扭曲。从公共选择理论的政府为理性经济人的前提入手,采用博弈论的方法,建立一个博弈模型,对部门之间有关税法的执行行为展开分析,展现各个博弈主体的策略和行为。探寻政府部门税收政策扭曲产生的原因,为依法治税问题提供一个新的研究视角及理论解释。     

AN INDIRECT TEST FOR DIVIDEND RELEVANCE

This paper provides an indirect test of dividend relevance conducted in periods that straddle the tax law changes effected by the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Using the abnormal ex-dividend day return to proxy for the tax penalty of dividends, I find a negative relation between changes in this tax penalty and changes in dividends paid. This result is consistent with corporations' equating, at the margin, the costs of dividend payout to its benefits. Hence, this is indirect evidence of dividend relevance.