Dividend policy in Nordic listed firms

In this paper we analyze the results from a survey among all publicly listed Nordic firms on their dividend payout policy. The results show that 72% of the Nordic companies have a specified dividend policy. Larger and more profitable companies are more likely to have a defined dividend policy in place. The dividend policy is mostly influenced by capital structure considerations and the outlook of future earnings. We also find that the likelihood for a firm having an explicit dividend policy is positively related to ownership concentration as well as to the presence of large long-term private or industrial owners. Our results support the use of defined dividend policies for agency or monitoring reasons rather than signaling reasons.     

Analysts’ earnings forecasting behavior surrounding uncertain regulatory events: evidence from the Tax Reform Act of 1986

This study examines analysts’ forecasting behaviour in the presence of significant tax policy uncertainty. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) was preceded by a lengthy debate, allowing us to investigate how tax policy uncertainty evolves over time. Our results are generally consistent with the intuition that uncertainty precedes the enactment of a proposed tax law while complexity manifests afterwards. Using the repeal of the investment tax credit to identify highly impacted firms, we find that the onset of disagreement among analysts during the debate occurred sooner for highly impacted firms than other firms. We also find that disagreement among analysts was concentrated among highly impacted firms before and after enactment. Given that our sample period precedes Regulation Fair Disclosure, our evidence suggests that analysts relied on private information from management to resolve the uncertainty associated with TRA86 but only for highly impacted firms.     

Oil price shocks,policy uncertainty,and stock returns of oil and gas corporations

This paper investigates the effects of oil price shocks and economic policy uncertainty on the stock returns of oil and gas companies. We find that an oil demand-side shock has a positive effect on the return of oil and gas companies on average, whereas shocks to policy uncertainty have a negative effect on the return. Historical decomposition shows that the effects of oil shocks on the stock return are amplified by the endogenous policy uncertainty responses. These results are consistent with those for major integrated oil and gas companies. The return responses, however, show heterogeneous effects of structural shocks on upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas companies, suggesting that a well-diversified portfolio is obtainable.     

Evidence of a bank lending channel in the UK

Using balance sheet data for a panel of UK listed firms, we find evidence of a bank lending channel of monetary transmission. A higher interest rate induces more bank lending to listed companies, but this effect diminishes if monetary policy becomes tight enough to impose severe constraints on bank loan lending. The dynamic behaviour of bank debt versus non-bank debt shows that the lending channel works through cutting back loan supplies to small, bank-dependent firms while restricting the bank’s ability to provide financial assistance to other firms. We see cross-sectional differences between bank-dependent and non-bank-dependent listed companies, and between listed and non-listed companies: Both can contribute to the size effect of investment. Small firms bear most of the reductions in bank loan supplies, and since they do not have many alternatives to bank finance, they suffer more from monetary tightening than big firms. This is consistent with inventory behavior. Furthermore, we have found that big, non-bank-dependent firms can benefit more from the bank–firm relationship than small, bank-dependent firms.     

The Impact of Supervisory Stress Tests on Bank Ex-Ante Risk-Taking Behaviour: Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment

We use the Federal Reserve's stress-testing regime as a quasi-natural experiment to examine the impact of supervisory stress tests on bank ex-ante risk taking behaviour. Using a sample comprising large U.S. bank holding companies over the period from 2003Q1 to 2016Q4, we find that banks which are subjected to annual supervisory stress tests tend to reduce their overall risk by choosing asset portfolios of lower risk exposures. Nevertheless, this risk reduction happens mainly because stress-tested banks reduce the holding of low-risk assets rather than risky assets. We also find that stress-tested banks tend to reduce their on-balance sheet exposures rather than off-balance sheet exposures. Overall, our finding implies that, while supervisory stress tests can help to reduce the banks' overall risks, policy makers should also have a closer look at the mechanisms in which banks allocate risk to mitigate moral hazard and regulatory arbitrage behaviour.     

公司治理、管理者过度自信与企业股利政策

文章基于公司行为财务学视角,以2008—2010年间在上海、深圳证券交易所上市的公司为样本,对我国上市公司的高管人员过度自信、公司治理与股利政策进行了实证检验。研究结果表明,管理者过度自信与股利政策正相关,有效的公司治理能抑制管理者过度自信对股利政策的影响。     

CAP Forum on E‐Business: The Management of Financial Disclosure on Corporate Websites: A Conceptual Model*

This paper addresses the impact of Internet financial reporting (IFR) on financial accounting theory by incorporating it into the general Gibbins, Richardson, and Waterhouse (GRW) (1990) disclosure‐management framework. The GRW model assumes that the firm has a relatively stable process of disclosure management. This process varies between two positions: one ritualistic and the other opportunistic. These dimensions can coexist in the same firm but, on average, the policy of a firm will be either more ritualistic or more opportunistic. Our survey of the financial information disclosed in traditional financial reporting (TFR) as compared with the website disclosures of a random sample of Canadian companies documents a significant difference between TFR and IFR, as well as a wide variability among the sample firms in their use of IFR content, format, and technology. We interpret this variability in the incremental difference of IFR over TFR as an indication that a firm's ritualistic or opportunistic behaviour under IFR is not different from its behaviour under TFR. Thus, the adapted GRW (1990) conceptual model appears to have the potential to support future research in the management of financial disclosure on corporate websites.     

Mortality investigation among persons whose applications for insurance have heen rejected

Abstract

Extract

Life insurance companies are interested III investigations of the mortality among that group of applicants whose applications for insurance, for health reasons, have not been accepted. The compa. nies thereby obtain material enabling them to decide whether their rejection policy during a period has been too strict or not, and on which points, if any, the selection of risks can be liberalized.     

Hedge accounting and its influence on financial hedging: when the tail wags the dog

We analyse the application of hedge accounting and its influence on hedging behaviour in German and Swiss non-financial corporations. Of our sample companies, 72% apply hedge accounting. The likelihood of its use is associated with frequency of derivatives usage, size, IFRS experience, perceived importance of reduced earnings volatility and low growth opportunities. More than half of the companies using hedge accounting indicate that the accounting rules influence their hedging behaviour. Companies are more likely to be affected if they use derivatives only occasionally, are smaller, are highly leveraged, have dispersed shareholding, have fewer growth opportunities and hedge selectively.     

Market reactions to a cross-border carbon policy: Evidence from listed Chinese companies

The effects of cross-border carbon policy have attracted increasing attention worldwide. We investigate the reaction of the Chinese stock market to the announcements of 12 legislative events associated with the European Union Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (EU CBAM). Our results, based on all industrial companies listed on China's Shenzhen or Shanghai Stock Exchanges, show that Chinese companies that export their products to the EU experience a more negative cumulative abnormal return around EU CBAM events than their counterparts (non-export companies and non-EU export companies). A cross-sectional analysis reveals that negative stock market reactions to the legislative events are greater when companies have greater carbon emissions intensity. Our further analyses show that being listed in both A-share and H-share markets, participating in a carbon emissions trading scheme, and having intensive cross-border collaboration mitigate the adverse market reactions. Our results show that the Chinese market is sensitive to legislative announcements associated with this cross-border carbon policy.     

长期资产减值:公允价值的体现还是盈余管理行为

长期资产与流动资产相比,由于其使用期限长,公允价值更难寻觅,因此其减值政策的应用不仅对公司业绩的影响深远,而且主观性更强。那么《企业会计制度》出台后长期资产减值政策的执行状况如何,其追溯调整政策给公司减值行为会产生什么样的影响,公司长期资产减值是真实反映了长期资产未来收益能力的变化,还是盈余管理的行为,本文对此进行了研究。研究结果发现,我国上市公司在长期资产减值政策实施当年,普遍进行了长期资产的减值,并且证实不仅减值总额真实反映了长期资产未来收益能力的下降,而且追溯调整后计入当年损益的减值数额也真实反映了长期资产未来收益能力的下降。这一研究结果说明追溯调整政策为公司夯实长期资产,如实反映长期资产的公允价值提供了政策途径,并未演化成公司盈余管理的工具。     

The impact of declined social insurance contribution rate on enterprise total factor productivity: Evidence from China

This paper examines the effect of declined social insurance contribution rate on total factor productivity. Taking listed companies in China as observation samples, we show a positive association between the social security payment rate decrease and total factor productivity. Further, we find that financing constraints play a strengthening role in diminishing social insurance contribution rate to increase firm productivity, and the effect is more pronounced for companies with higher financing constraints. This results also suggest that the reduction of social insurance contribution rate on the change of total factor productivity varies from different regions, ownership and industries, among which the central and western regions, state-owned enterprises and manufacturing enterprises have a relatively stronger effect on the improvement of productivity. Our study empirically tests the policy effect of lowering the social insurance contribution rate, and provides important implications related to the government formulating the phased social insurance fee reduction policy.     

Firm Size and National Profiles of IFRS Policy Choice

Previous research on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) policy choices of large listed companies found a very strong association between policy choice and country. Nationally based pre‐IFRS practices largely explain IFRS policy choices. Nevertheless, some of the policy choices appear to be influenced from abroad, perhaps chosen in order to increase comparability. It has been suggested that smaller companies might be less influenced from abroad, and therefore might display even clearer national profiles of IFRS practice. This paper examines the accounting policy choices made within IFRS financial statements by small listed companies in five major countries. We find highly significant differences between the policies of small and large companies. We also find that small companies make more homogeneous choices, within a country, than large companies do. As a result, the previously published national profiles of the IFRS practices of large companies are misleading in the context of smaller ones.     

我国金融控股公司发展模式研究

在全球金融混业经营的发展背景下，金融控股公司得到很大发展。本从比较国外金融控股公司模式入手，在分析我国金融控股公司的发展、现状及其存在的诸多问题的基础上，提出了我国金融控股公司的最优发展模式和进一步发展我国金融控股公司的政策建议。     

Corporate lobbying in the UK: an analysis of attitudes towards the ASB's 1995 deferred taxation proposals

This paper models corporate lobbying behaviour with respect to the ASB's 1995 discussion paper on deferred taxation. The study makes improvements to the methodology applied in prior studies. It expands the definition of lobbying beyond the submission of comment letters. It extends the analysis to control for past lobbying behaviour. It uses multinomial logistic regression to consider those companies lobbying in favour, those lobbying against, and those that did not lobby. The findings suggest that size and past lobbying behaviour are key determinants of the decision to lobby. In addition, companies that lobbied against the proposals were more likely to have debt covenants than were those that lobbied in favour. Debt covenants, however, did not explain the difference between non-lobbyists and lobbyists against. Companies that lobbied in favour were more likely to experience incentive compensation effects than were those that lobbied against. There was some evidence of the influence of US listing.     

Do auditors constrain intertemporal income shifting in private companies?*

This study investigates the association between private company auditing and intertemporal income shifting. Using a large reduction in the Finnish corporate tax rate as a strong incentive for income shifting and financial statement data coupled with proprietary information from the tax authorities, we analyse accruals and cost stickiness of small private companies. Our results reveal significant differences in accrual income shifting between audited and unaudited companies, but only among companies that on average could anticipate the tax reduction the most. Further, we find auditors to restrict sticky selling, general, and administrative cost behaviour that we hypothesise is associated with illegal actions. Additional tests expose a nontrivial number of incorrectly unaudited companies which are the ones mostly associated with income shifting. Taken together, our study highlights the effects of audit exemption and the importance of enforcement while also suggesting that the audit process is value adding for the tax authorities.     

Dividend Consistency: Rewards,Learning, and Expectations

The fact that many companies have a long track record of consistent dividend increases suggests that managers believe there is some benefit to establishing and maintaining such a pattern. Many companies, for example, follow a perennial policy of increasing the dividend in a particular quarter, maintaining it at the same level for the next three quarters, and then increasing it in the same quarter of the following year. But does the capital market reward companies for maintaining a consistent dividend policy? Do companies with a history of repeated dividend increases earn long‐term positive abnormal returns; and if so, how long do the returns persist? The authors find that companies earned significantly positive abnormal returns following each of the first five annual dividend increases, over and above the positive announcement‐month returns. Nevertheless, the reward decreases as the track record of dividend increases becomes longer. After the first dividend increase, companies enjoy significantly positive returns for the next two years. Companies that increase the dividend in the same quarter of the following year also enjoy significant positive returns, but returns that are smaller (and less statistically significant) than in the case of first‐time dividend increases. And as the dividend‐increase track record further lengthens, the size and statistical significance of the abnormal returns continues to shrink; and after the sixth dividend increase, the abnormal returns in the next twelve months are statistically indistinguishable from zero. In sum, although there is some support for maintaining a consistent dividend policy, the market response diminishes over time, and investors do not earn abnormal returns by buying stocks whose annual dividend has already been increased six or more times.     

论地方资产管理公司的运作与发展

本文通过地方资产管理公司与四大资产管理公司的对比研究发现,地方资产管理公司的设立有助于加快地方金融机构不良资产处置,维护区域金融稳定;但同时也存在与四大资产管理公司业务重合、地方资产管理公司竞争优势不足、监管乏力等问题。对此,本文提出了明确金融属性、完善法律法规、建全监管体系等相关建议。     

印度小额贷款公司危机爆发对广西小额贷款公司发展的警示——以广西玉林、百色、来宾为视角

目前,小额贷款公司在全国范围内蓬勃兴起,小额贷款公司在经营过程中还存在诸多制约因素,小额贷款公司的政策制度、监管方式、运营模式、资金成本还没有太多可靠的经验可以借鉴。本文以广西壮族自治区小额贷款公司的发展为例,引入印度小额贷款公司爆发危机的经验教训,警示当前小额贷款公司经营发展过程中存在的问题,并据此提出了现实可行的政策建议。     

产业政策与企业资本结构调整速度

本文以2006-2015年我国沪深A股上市公司为研究样本,在“十一五”与“十二五”产业规划所处的时间区间内,考察了产业政策对企业资本结构调整速度的影响以及作用路径。结果显示,产业政策与企业资本结构调整速度显著正相关,且分别在非国有、小规模和融资约束较严重的企业中更加显著。区分调整方向后发现,产业政策能提高资本结构向上调整的速度,但只有重点产业政策能提高固定资产比例较低的企业向下调整的速度。基于作用路径的分析发现,产业政策提高了企业选择增加债务的方式来调整资本结构的概率;重点产业政策提高了特定类型企业以增加权益方式向下调整资本结构的概率。上述结果表明,产业政策主要通过债务融资方式影响资本结构调整速度,而只有受到重点产业政策支持的特定类型的企业能够通过权益融资方式提高资本结构调整速度。