Disclosure incentives when competing firms have common ownership

This paper examines whether common ownership – i.e., instances where investors simultaneously own significant stakes in competing firms – affects voluntary disclosure. We argue that common ownership (i) reduces proprietary cost concerns of disclosure, and (ii) incentivizes firms to “internalize” the externality benefits of their disclosure for co-owned peer firms. Accordingly, we find a positive relation between common ownership and disclosure. Evidence from cross-sectional tests and a quasi-natural experiment based on financial institution mergers help mitigate concerns that our results are explained by an omitted variable bias or reverse causality. Finally, we find that common ownership is associated with increased market liquidity.     

Disclosure policy choices under regulatory threat

This article shows that firms “voluntarily” increase their disclosures in response to the threat of more stringent disclosure regulations. These disclosures are mostly just sufficient to deter regulation. However, when investment risk is low, both managers and investors might strictly prefer the regulation deterring equilibrium. We further find that in many cases, regulation can only be deterred by asymmetric disclosure behavior of the firms. This suggests that coordination issues and free‐riding may be important reasons why self‐regulation may fail. The results also indicate the importance of considering political pressure and regulatory threats to explain observed symmetric and asymmetric voluntary disclosure behavior.     

Costs of voting and firm performance: Evidence from RegTech adoption in Chinese listed firms

Employing the 2014 mandatory adoption of online shareholder voting in China, we show that the reduction of voting costs through online voting is positively related to participation in shareholder meetings and future firm performance. Our mechanism analysis suggests that the improved firm performance is mainly driven by the enhanced governance role played by informed investors and institutional investors. Further analysis shows that online shareholder voting makes the firms more attractive to mutual fund managers who are far away from the firms. Moreover, we find that the improved firm performance is concentrated in firms with low controlling shareholder ownership, and that online shareholder voting is associated with an increased likelihood of vetoing proposals and lower tunneling.     

The impact of the Multi-jurisdiction Disclosure System on audit fees of cross-listed Canadian firms

The Multi-jurisdiction Disclosure System (MJDS), a treaty between Canada and the United States (U.S.), was intended to facilitate the cross-listing of a firm's securities in the neighboring country. Under this system, eligible Canadian companies are allowed to use home-country documents to meet U.S. disclosure requirements and these documents are generally not reviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We posit that the single-reporting requirement and lower SEC scrutiny may result in lower audit fees for MJDS firms. Based on audit-fee disclosures mandated by the SEC rule-making authority granted by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, we find a negative association between audit fees paid by U.S. cross-listed Canadian companies and their use of the MJDS. This result suggests that the lower audit fees provide an economic incentive to use the MJDS. Thus, our study provides evidence that the implementation of the MJDS may help facilitate cross-border listings by reducing audit costs. Additionally, this study confirms, for Canadian firms, some of the audit-fee determinants reported in earlier studies.     

会计师事务所履行管理人职责时应重点关注的事项

随着《中华人民共和国企业破产法》的实施和破产案件审理中管理人制度的确立,会计师事务所作为企业破产案件的管理人将会越来越多地参与企业破产案件审理。本文就会计师事务所在企业破产案件管理人职责的尽责履行时应重点关注的事项谈一些粗浅看法。     

Business ties and proxy voting by mutual funds

The magnitude of mutual funds’ business ties with their portfolio firms is documented and is linked to funds’ proxy votes at specific firms and to overall voting practices. Aggregate votes at the fund family level indicate a positive relation between business ties and the propensity to vote with management. Votes at specific firms, however, reveal that funds are no more likely to vote with management of client firms than of non-clients. Because the votes took place when funds knew their votes would be publicly scrutinized, fund families with a larger client base may have adopted voting policies that led to less frequent opposition to management at all firms.     

关于会计师事务所提供法律服务的探讨

从当前的发展趋势看,许多国际会计师事务所的咨询服务业务发展较快,法律服务是其中主要业务之一.尽管我国注册会计师行业恢复及全面发展的时间不长,很多会计师事务所还不能将法律服务业务开展起来,但发展法律服务业务对我国注册会计师行业具有重大意义.会计师事务所提供法律服务在实践中争议较大,笔者拟就此作一粗浅的探讨.     

Conflict of interest and proxy voting by institutional investors

Political pressures can bias public pension funds (PPFs) toward activist shareholders. The pension business ties mutual fund families (MFFs) have with portfolio firms can bias them toward firm management. We examine how these contrasting conflicts of interest affect institutional investors' proxy voting behavior and show PPFs (MFFs) are considerably more supportive of activist shareholders (firm management) in voting, even if doing so may harm investment value. The biases are more pronounced when incentive conflicts are stronger. PPFs support shareholder (management) proposals more (less) when Democrats gain more power in the fund's home state. Conflicted PPFs are particularly active in supporting value reducing shareholder proposals.     

信息技术环境下的财务报告及信息披露研究

本文对我国上市公司网上电子财务信息披露进行了调查 ,分析了我国电子财务报告的现状 ,并在此基础上探讨了电子财务报告的模式 ,分析了有关电子财务报告的不同理论和实践 ,提出了多层界面财务报告思想 ,并对其实现的技术手段进行了初步论证。同时 ,也对多层界面财务报告和实时财务报告之间的关系进行了探讨。     

Changes in analyst following for less covered firms accompanying Regulation Fair Disclosure: the roles of ability and industry experience

We examine how Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) affects the decisions of analysts with various levels of ability and industry experience to add or drop less covered firms (LCFs), which are followed by only a few analysts. We use the analysts who continue to follow the same LCFs after Reg FD was implemented as a comparison group to explore the differences in the forecast properties of analysts who add LCFs and those who drop LCFs. We find that, after the implementation of Reg FD, analysts with greater ability or more industry experience are more likely to follow an LCF, and analysts with less ability are more likely to drop coverage of an LCF. In addition, we propose that analysts who add LCFs provide more accurate forecasts and are more likely to issue long-term forecasts. Moreover, compared with analysts who continue to cover the same LCFs, the analysts who drop coverage of LCFs issue more optimistic forecasts for LCFs in the pre-Reg FD period.     

Competitive Costs of Disclosure by Biotech IPOs

This study empirically examines the impact of various competitive cost proxies on the extent of product‐related information disclosed by biotech initial public offerings (IPOs) in their prospectuses. The choice of biotech companies, which operate in a fiercely competitive environment, crystalizes the importance of competitive disclosure costs. The focus on product‐related information is aimed at a disclosure set for which potential competitive harm is a priori substantial. Our empirical analyses establish three disclosure determinants: the stage of product development, availability of patent protection, and venture capital backing. Additionally, we find the relative size of ownership retained by pre‐IPO owners to be negatively related to the extent of disclosure, as predicted by signaling models. We also document the expected inverse relation between the extent of information conveyed by the biotech IPOs and widely used measures of information asymmetry: the bid‐ask spread and quoted depth, as well as stock return volatility.     

市场导向型会计信息披露模式构建

纵观历史,企业会计报告模式可大致划分为:企业管理导向、所有者治理导向、政府管理导向和资本市场投资决策导向等四种模式。本文从会计报告模式的决定机理研究入手,分析了现行模式的特征,由此得出结论:现行模式与现实的市场经济模式之间的匹配度不够,在此基础上,提出了构建市场导向型会计信息披露模式的框架思想,其关键是对会计信息的职能和价值的重新认识,由此推导出与市场经济模式更为匹配的会计报告目标;并进一步提出了对现行会计报表体系、内容和结构改进的思路。     

新破产法背景下会计师事务所的业务机会

《中华人民共和国企业破产法》已于今年6月1日起正式实施。新破产法规定,会计师事务所等社会中介机构将成为破产管理人法定主体。最高人民法院根据授权又先后制定发布了两个司法解释,对中介机构申请进入管理人名册、接受业务等事项做了明确规定。为便于广大注册会计师及时了解和掌握有关内容,更好地参与和介入破产管理人业务,我刊约请有关专家从不同角度分析介绍《企业破产法》的制定背景、核心内容以及会计师事务所介入破产业务的有关操作实务问题,分两期刊发。     

上市公司实际控制人信息披露问题研究

本文从上市公司实际控制人及其信息披露义务的法律规定出发，分析了上市公司实际控制入主体的多元性、内容的层级性和结果的终极性特点，揭示了上市公司实际控制人信息披露存在的主要问题，并对完善上市公司实际控制人信息披露提出了若干建议。     

Y2K spending by entrepreneurial firms

While public debate leading up to year 2000 focused on the potential negative consequences of Y2K, some writers recognized that Y2K could set in motion a period of intense strategic investment in information technology (IT) of the type characterized by Schumpeter [Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, third ed., Harper and Row, New York, 1950, p. 81] as creative destruction. In performing the study presented here, we formulated hypotheses, based on Schumpeter's [The Theory of Economic Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1934, p. 57] theory of economic development, about the characteristics of firms that would have responded most aggressively to Y2K and tested these hypotheses using data obtained from Y2K disclosures made in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Our findings provide striking evidence that Y2K spending increased with economic factors that are characteristic of entrepreneurial firms and with the competitiveness of the firms' industries. This observation of systematic Y2K spending patterns suggests that accounting disclosures of IT spending are informative and illustrates the potential power of economic catalysts for change, particularly with respect to IT resources.     

Excess value and restructurings by diversified firms

We examine whether restructuring decisions by diversified firms are related to their excess values. We find that changes in diversification level, measured as changes in the number of segments or number of industries, are positively and significantly associated with excess values. Further, at lower levels of excess values, firms are significantly more likely to increase focus than maintain their existing levels of diversification and, at higher levels of excess values, they are significantly more likely to diversify further than maintain or reduce their current levels of diversification. These findings indicate that excess value variations are meaningful and predict restructuring decisions.     

双重压力下的日本经济

该文分析了日本经济当前在经济、政治所面临的主要问题,认为日本经济减速的主要原因还在于内需,启动内需才是日本经济复苏的关键;指出在政治势力重新洗牌和首相更迭的过程中,日本政府部门及时推出了“新增长战略”,试图通过减缓对于能源的依赖性作为刺激经济复苏的突破口。同时,文章认为美国和欧元区国家的经济下滑导致投资资金抛售美元和欧元,是最近日元升值的主要原因,但日本经济前途未卜以及动荡的世界经济政治局势决定了此轮日元升值的周期不会很长。     

透视上市公司财务不实披露

近年来,上市公司财务不实披露事件频发,其不实种类千姿百态,披露手段也更加诡秘。本文以上市公司财务信息不实披露为中心,结合大股东     

上市公司自愿性信息披露影响因素研究

自愿性信息披露对于增强投资者系统性保护、提升上市公司治理水平具有重要意义。本文以深市样本公司数据为基础，按上市公司战略性信息、非财务主要信息和财务信息三类信息披露指数，考察公司规模、财务杠杆、经理层持股、公司盈利、外资股、审计费用对于我国上市公司自愿性信息披露的影响。研究表明，我国上市公司在自愿性信息披露方面缺乏充分的内在动机和完善的外在激励机制，自愿性信息披露行为尚侍进一步地系统性规范。