Structuring financial statement analysis projects to enhance critical thinking skills development

This paper documents a method of structuring financial statement analysis projects to enhance the development of students’ critical thinking skills. The project is structured in a cooperative learning framework in which a student accesses financial statement information from the World Wide Web, performs a financial statement analysis, and then engages in an exercise with other students who have analyzed firms in the same industry. Both the individual and team phases of the project offer opportunities for students to develop several important critical thinking skills.     

Audit committee characteristics and financial statement comparability

Financial statement comparability enables weighing the similarities and differences in financial performance between firms. Prior studies mainly focus on the role of accounting standards in the production of comparability, but the role of economic agents has been largely overlooked. We find that a firm's audit committee size and financial expertise affect its financial statement comparability. Financial information tends to be more comparable among industry peers when audit committees are larger and more members have financial and accounting expertise. The effect of audit committee expertise on comparability is stronger for firms with less independent and smaller boards, for firms with non-Big 4 auditors and for firms with CEOs serving as the chairperson of the boards.     

Management earnings forecast and financial statement complexity

We investigate the manager’s earnings forecasting strategy when financial statement complexity becomes a significant issue in capital markets. We suppose that complexity in financial statements arises from complexity of firm’s business transactions (business complexity) or complexity of associated reporting standards (reporting complexity) as mentioned in Guay et al. (2016). We find that a manager’s forecasting strategy depends on whether financial statement complexity stems from business or reporting complexity. Specifically, we indicate, among other observations, that managers who initially announced optimistic earnings forecasts will revise and release pessimistic earnings forecasts when financial statement complexity stems from reporting complexity.     

Gender diversity and financial statement fraud

This study investigates the role of gender diversity in fraud commission and detection with a view to identifying whether companies with more female corporate leaders are less likely to be involved in financial statement fraud. Using a bivariate probit model, the role of female corporate leaders in financial statement fraud commission and detection is examined for Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2018. The representation of female corporate leaders increases the likelihood of fraud detection, thus reducing firms’ propensity to engage in fraud. The finding confirms that women are risk averse and more committed to ethical practices than men in corporate leadership positions. Moreover, this impact of gender diversity is contingent upon the nature of ultimate controllers of listed companies: more female representation in top leadership roles can mitigate fraud commission or detect fraud effectively in non-state-owned enterprises, but not in state-owned enterprises. In addition, the recent anti-corruption campaign initiated by Chinese President Jinping Xi is a powerful form of public governance. Female corporate leaders play a more positive role in mitigating fraud commission and detecting fraud commission in the post-campaign period than in the pre-campaign period.     

Economic policy uncertainty and financial statement comparability

We examine the implications of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) for financial statement comparability. We posit that the increased difficulty of estimating future cash flows and the increased opportunity for earnings management with increased EPU reduce the quality of earnings and its comparability. Consistent with this reasoning, we find a negative relation between earnings comparability and lagged EPU. Further, the association between EPU and comparability is more negative for firms that have poorer accruals quality and higher earnings volatility. We do not find that accounting policy choice is systematically related to the association between EPU and comparability. These results suggest that cross-sectional differences in accounting estimates rather than accounting policies influence the relation between EPU and comparability.     

Further insights on the puzzle of technical analysis profitability

This paper extends current results concerning technical analysis efficiency on the foreign exchange market and attempts to determine whether filtering the raw exchange rate series with some trading rule significantly changes its characteristics. Because of the non-normality of exchange rate series, bootstrap methods are used on the main daily exchange rates since 1974 to show technical analysis performance. The technical analysis strategy tested generates returns whose distribution is significantly different from the basic series. The robustness of the results is tested in and out-of-sample and an explanation of the technical analysis performance based on its filtering properties is suggested.     

农村家庭金融市场参与影响因素的比较研究

通过金融深化增加农村家庭参与金融市场的机会,让金融为广大农村家庭服务,改善其资源配置,解决农村金融抑制.本文将农村家庭金融资产分为安全型和风险型,以问卷调查获取的数据建立Logistic回归模型对东部地区与西部地区农村家庭参与金融市场的决定因素进行研究和比较.模型结果验证了财富效应假设、人力资本假设在东西部存在不同的影响结果,但资产回报率越高则农村家庭参与度越高在东西部的影响都非常显著,此外,家庭控制变量影响在东西部地区有不同的表现.     

Understanding analysts' use of stock returns and other analysts' revisions when forecasting earnings

We investigate analysts' use of stock returns and other analysts' forecast revisions in revising their own forecasts after an earnings announcement. We find that analysts respond more strongly to these signals when the signals are more informative about future earnings changes. Although analysts underreact to these signals on average, we find that analysts who are most sensitive to signal informativeness achieve superior forecast accuracy relative to their peers and have a greater influence on the market. The results suggest that the ability to extract information from the actions of others serves as one source of analyst expertise.     

2007年中国金融市场运行分析报告

2007年,我国金融市场继续保持了快速健康的发展势头,货币市场成交继续放大,市场利率短期波动加剧;债券市场运行平稳,债券指数走势较为疲弱;股票市场成交大幅放大,市场指数创出新高;人民币继续走强,外汇市场成交保持稳定;黄金市场成交量快速增长,黄金价格创出新高;期货市场成交活跃,商品期货价格全面上涨。总体而言,我国金融市场规模不断拓展、市场功能明显提升、市场结构持续优化、金融创新稳步推进,市场制度建设日益完善,对外开放程度逐步加深,多层次金融市场建设取得新进展,在我国金融体系和经济发展中的地位和作用进一步提高。     

Accounting‐Based Probabilistic Prediction of ROE,the Residual Income Valuation Model and the Assessment of Mispricing in the Swedish Stock Market

Using Swedish stock market data, this study investigates whether an investment strategy based on publicly available accounting information can generate abnormal investment returns. The strategy involves two steps. First, an accounting‐based probabilistic prediction model of changes in the medium‐term book return on owners' equity (ROE) is estimated. Second, market expectations of changes in medium‐term ROE are assessed through observed stock prices and the residual income valuation model. Stock market positions over 36‐month holding periods are taken when the accounting‐based predictions of ROE and the market expectations differ. Over the period 1983–2003, the investment strategy generated values of Jensen's alpha corresponding to an average monthly excess return for a hedge position of up to 0.8% for a sample of manufacturing companies. In the main this hedge return was caused by strong positive returns to the long positions, and additional analyses show that the returns appear to have been affected by a positive market sentiment bias (i.e., positive ROE surprises being associated with stronger price reactions than negative ROE surprises) making out‐of‐sample inferences somewhat dubious. Furthermore, most of the investment returns accrued over holding periods up to around 1995, with no indications of market mispricing over the last third (1995–2003) of the investment period. The empirical results are consistent with market investors having become more sophisticated in their use of publicly available accounting information over time.     

Ratio Analysis and Equity Valuation: From Research to Practice

Financial statement analysis has traditionally been seen as part of thefundamental analysis required for equity valuation. But the analysis has typicallybeen ad hoc. Drawing on recent research on accounting-based valuation, this paperoutlines a financial statement analysis for use in equity valuation. Standardprofitability analysis is incorporated, and extended, and is complemented with ananalysis of growth. An analysis of operating activities is distinguished from theanalysis of financing activities. The perspective is one of forecasting payoffs to equities. So financial statement analysis is presented as a matter of pro formaanalysis of the future, with forecasted ratios viewed as building blocks offorecasts of payoffs. The analysis of current financial statements is then seen asa matter of identifying current ratios as predictors of the future ratios thatdetermine equity payoffs. The financial statement analysis is hierarchical, withratios lower in the ordering identified as finer information about those higher up.To provide historical benchmarks for forecasting, typical values for ratios aredocumented for the period 1963–1999, along with their cross-sectionalvariation and correlation. And, again with a view to forecasting, the time seriesbehavior of many of the ratios is also described and their typical long-run,steady-state levels are documented.     

A framework for assessing financial stability?

I worked as a consultant in the Financial Stability Department (FSD) of the Bank of England for several years (2002–2004). In this paper I reflect on issues relating to the work of such an FSD, starting with the difficulty of defining or measuring ‘financial stability’. Stress tests are commonly used, but, for an FSD, should relate to the system as a whole, not just to individual institutions. FSDs need to assess the probability, virulence and speed of occurrence of potential shocks. There is a need to develop appropriate analytical models. The focus on capital adequacy has diverted attention from concern about having sufficient liquidity.     

Fundamental analysis of banks: the use of financial statement information to screen winners from losers

This study investigates the efficacy of a fundamental analysis-based approach to screen U.S. bank stocks. We construct an index (BSCORE) based on fourteen bank–specific valuation signals. We document a positive association between BSCORE and future profitability changes, as well as current and one-year-ahead stock returns, implying that BSCORE captures forward looking information that the markets are yet to impound. A hedge strategy based on BSCORE yields positive hedge returns for all but two years during our 1994–2014 sample period. Results are robust to partitions of size, analyst following, and exchange listing, and persist after adjusting for risk factors. We further document a positive relation between BSCORE and future analyst forecast surprises as well as earnings announcement period returns, and a negative relation between BSCORE and future performance-based delistings. Overall, our results show that a fundamental analysis-based approach can provide useful insights for analyzing banks.     

后改革时期中国农村金融体系发展的战略定位

中国后改革时期农业经济发展的不平衡,即二元经济结构的存在,决定了区域金融市场的二元化。从后改革时期农村金融发展的现实来看,中国农村金融体系已无法满足不同地区不同收入的农户多元化、多层次的金融需求。后改革时期农村金融体系的定位,其核心不是农村金融机构设置的多元化,而是适应不同收入阶层的农户在不同经济发展阶段上的金融需求,建立“城乡协调、统筹兼顾、资金回流、扶助三农”的农村金融体系,最终实现农村金融的全面、协调、可持续发展。     

吉林省农村金融发展现状研究

本文以2007年中国银监会实施调整后的农村金融政策为界点,阐述2007年以来吉林省农村地区各类涉农金融机构发展现状,分析各类涉农金融机构当前存在的问题,并对存在的问题提出相应的发展对策,以期通过浅显的研究,对吉林省农村金融业的发展提供一些有益参考。     

A perfect storm in the financial market

This study provides a model explaining how small changes in asset prices may disrupt an entire financial market. Based on the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), our model implies that during a market crash, asset price changes affect the relative distribution of the CAPM betas of individual assets and force all tradable assets to co-move. Using US stock market data, our empirical results are consistent with the model’s predictions. Overall, the study aids understanding of the price patterns of assets during substantial market downturns, such as financial crises.     

The Use of a Statement of Changes in Financial Position to Interpret Financial Data: An Empirical Investigation

This study provides empirical evidence on the use of a statement of changes in financial position by financial analysts to interpret and make judgments on information contained in annual reports. Analysts were required to answer five questions developed from claims made in a professional accounting standard about the purpose of the statement of changes in financial position. The results indicate that the statement of changes in financial position does not generally enhance financial analysis.     

The role of ICT in reducing information asymmetry for financial access

This study assesses the role of ICT in complementing private credit bureaus (PCB) and public credit registries (PCR) in reducing information asymmetry for financial access. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments with 53 African countries for the period 2004–2011. The following findings are established. First on financial access: (i) the marginal effects from interactions between ICT and PCR (PCB) are consistently positive (negative); (ii) net effects from interactions are negative with the higher magnitude from PCR and (iii) only thresholds corresponding to interactions between PCR and internet penetration are within range. Second, findings on financial allocation efficiency reveal positive marginal and net effects exclusively for mobile phones and PCR. Third, allocation efficiency may be constrained by increasing financial deposits. Overall, the complementarity between information offices and ICT in boosting financial access is still very limited. Policy implications are discussed with emphasis on improving the engaged complementarity and fighting surplus liquidity.