Work Ethic, Employment Contracts, and Firm Value

We analyze how the work ethic of managers impacts a firm's employment contracts, riskiness, growth potential, and organizational structure. Flat contracts are optimal for diligent managers because they reduce risk-sharing costs, but they attract egoistic agents who shirk and unskilled agents who add no value. Stable, bureaucratic firms with low growth potential are more likely to gain value from managerial diligence. Firms that hire from a virtuous pool of agents are more conservative in their investments and have a horizontal corporate structure. Our theory also yields several testable implications that distinguish it from standard agency models.     

Takeover Defences and IPO Firm Value in the Netherlands

The central question of this study involves the relation between the use of takeover defences and IPO firm value. We report that management frequently uses takeover defences before taking the firm public. The use of takeover defences is primarily motivated by managerial entrenchment. IPO investors anticipate potential conflict of interests with management and reduce the price they pay for the IPO shares if takeover defences are adopted. Although managers internalise this cost of takeover defences to the degree they own pre‐IPO stock, they are likely to gain through private control benefits. Non‐management pre‐IPO owners lose. Their shares are worth less, but different from managers, they do not get offsetting private control benefits. We infer that managers use takeover defences to protect private control benefits at non‐management pre‐IPO owners’ expense.     

Firm Value,Information Problems and the Internal Capital Market

We examine how information problems between the firm and the investor affect the value of an internal capital market. While the extant literature finds that, on average, the diversified firm's access to an internal capital market is positively related to firm value, this paper finds that the results hold only for firms which face low levels of information problems. Firms facing the high levels of information problems realize no value from internal capital market access, consistent with the Jensen Free Cash Flow hypothesis. When information problems are large, agency costs dominate any savings that result from using an internal capital market to avoid selling under-priced securities in the external capital markets.     

Strategic Decision Making of the Firm Under Asymmetric Information

This paper develops a simple signaling model whereby high valuation firm uses levels of investment, debt and dividends to convey information to the market regarding its valuation. Conditions are determined under which investment, debt and dividends are employed in a separating Nash equilibrium. Unlike many other signaling models where the source of asymmetric information concerns only the mean of the firms' cash flow, our model allows for two sources of asymmetric information: the mean and the variance of the cash flow. This paper finds that the choice of signals depends on the relative importance of these two sources of informational asymmetry. For example, we show that high valued firms signal their values by decreasing their debt if the source of asymmetric information is mainly driven by the variance of the cash flows. This latter result differs from the debt signaling models found in the literature. The findings of this paper are consistent with extensive empirical evidence.     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Tax Aggressiveness,and Firm Market Value

This paper examines the relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR), tax aggressiveness, and firm market value. An economic model has been developed to show that profit‐maximization firms are willing to incur additional costs in CSR, such as paying more taxes, as long as they can differentiate their products from non‐CSR firms, and that socially conscious consumers will buy products from CSR firms at prices higher than those of non‐CSR firms. The empirical study in this paper indicates that the higher the CSR ranking of a firm, the less likely a firm is to engage in tax aggressiveness. It also indicates that a reputation of higher CSR will enhance firm market value. Using Canadian companies listed in the S&P/TSX 60 index, I find that both firms’ five‐year effective tax rates and annual effective tax rates are positively associated with their overall CSR scores as well as with their social scores. Firms’ five‐year effective tax rates are also positively associated with their governance index. I also find that firms’ overall CSR ranking and governance scores are positively associated with their market value.     

IPO Underpricing, Firm Quality, and Analyst Forecasts

We find that IPO underpricing is positively related to post-IPO growth in sales and EBITDA, but is not significantly related to growth in earnings. Our evidence suggests that accrual reversals or earnings management may cause this inconsistency. We interpret the growth rates of sales and EBITDA as measures of firm quality, and conclude that our evidence supports the notion that IPO firms with greater underpricing are of better quality. Our tests on analysts' earnings forecast errors show that analysts are less positively biased in their earnings forecasts for IPO firms that have greater underpricing.     

投资者情绪、资产证券化与公允价值信息含量——来自A股市场PE公司IPO核准公告的经验证据

本文基于我国企业会计准则国际趋同背景,综合运用价值相关性理论和投资者情绪理论,以2007-2011年持有PE公司股权的A股上市公司为样本,实证检验PE公司IPO核准公告的信息含量和IPO公允价值的价值相关性。研究发现,IPO核准公告具有显著的信息含量,而且与IPO公允价值显著正相关。同时,投资者情绪对IPO核准公告和IPO公允价值之价值相关性有显著的正向影响。但是,机构投资者对IPO核准公告信息含量的影响并不显著。本文的研究结论对我国全面引入国际趋同的公允价值计量规范之经济后果评估,以及投资者情绪和机构投资者在传递市场有效信息中的作用,具有重要的政策参考意义。     

预算报告编制参与、调整及其决策价值

预算报告作为管理会计报告的一个重要组成部分,被广泛运用于企业的经营管理。为探究预算报告决策价值的影响因素及其作用机理,我们深入企业调查预算报告运用现状和效果,并通过问卷调查形式获得第一手数据。本文基于179个问卷样本,采用因子分析等统计方法研究预算报告编制参与、预算调整对预算报告决策价值的影响。研究结果表明,较高的参与度以及适时的调整可以有效地改善预算报告的决策价值,且在发生调整时引入参与这一因素可以进一步提高预算报告的决策价值。     

Cross-Subsidies, External Financing Constraints, and the Contribution of the Internal Capital Market to Firm Value

We examine the link between the excess value of a diversifiedfirm and the value of its internal capital market. Subsidiesto small financially constrained segments with good relativeinvestment opportunities significantly increase excess value,while transfers of resources from segments with good relativeinvestment opportunities significantly decrease excess value.Of interest is that subsidies to small financially constrainedsegments with poor relative investment opportunities also significantlyincrease excess value. However, there is little evidence thatthis result depends on the diversity of a firm's investmentopportunities. We conclude that financing constraints drivethe relationship between the internal capital market and firmvalue.     

大洋彼岸,零度以下

盛夏,美国资本市场的中国概念股却经受着寒冰暴雪。从信任危机发展到生存危机,从个案诉讼发展到全面围猎,而嘉汉林业与"浑水"的交战,更表明诉讼浪潮已漫延至其他海外市场上市的中国企业。全世界都在追问原因,但对于CFO来说,如何行动,才应是思考的重点。     

全流通IPO应废除市值配售

市值配售是我国证券市场特定历史时期的产物,带有浓厚的行政干预色彩.市值配售不仅没有达到原定的政策目标,而且也阻碍了资本市场按照市场原则配置资源,不符合证券市场发展方向.在股权分置改革完成后的全流通IPO中,必须废除市值配售方式,以体现证券市场的公正,提高证券市场的效率.     

Diversification,Refocusing and Firm Value

At any point in time a firm faces three restructuring choices: diversify, refocus, or do nothing. This study analyses the causes and the consequences of these actions in a unified framework using the appropriate methodologies. Various factors, such as firm's characteristics and multinational nature, its industry's characteristics, its exchange and index inclusion, and divested (or acquired) segment(s)' industry conditions, are considered as the determinants of the diversifying and the refocusing decisions. The estimation results from the corresponding multinomial logit model suggest that refocusing occurs generally due to firm‐specific reasons, and diversification due to outside factors, such as industry and economic conditions. Added or dropped segment's industry profitability, its relationship to the core business of the firm, and its relatedness to the businesses of the conglomerate's other segments have a nontrivial effect on either decision. In a related analysis, the paper explicitly models and estimates the valuation consequences that are sustained by the firm after it undertakes a refocusing or a diversification action. To isolate the changes in firm's value that are due to these decisions only, a 2SLS estimation is used to control for endogeneity that arises because the factors that affect a firm's value are likely to have also induced the firm to make the corresponding decision. The novelty of my approach is in its inclusion of variables measuring the consequences due to both actions, the diversification and the refocusing, in the same valuation equation. Contrary to some earlier findings, I find no evidence of ‘diversification discount’ or ‘refocusing premium.’ The choice of this paper to analyse all corporate restructuring decisions in a unified framework yields valuable business insights into the reasons for undertaking such corporate events.     

Diversification,Organization, and Value of the Firm

Because corporate diversification coevolves with organizational structure, a discount for diversification, which is widely documented in the literature, can be caused by organizational structure rather than by the industrial scope of the firm. I examine this possibility based on a large sample of Japanese firms for which the legal (parent–subsidiary) structure of the organization is easily observable. I identify a significant discount for diversified firms with and without control over the organizational structure. I also find that firms with a legally segmented structure (e.g., holding companies) are deeply discounted. My results suggest that diversification and organization are both important determinants of firm value.     

反倾销调查和反补贴调查应对措施的有效性研究

本文以2006年至2012年间发布反倾销或反补贴公告的我国上市企业为样本,从企业事前的防范措施、事后的处理方法以及过程中政府的作用三个方面,运用事件研究法对反倾销调查和反补贴调查应对措施的有效性进行了研究。结果表明,反倾销或反补贴调查公告对企业市场价值产生了显著的负面影响,而海外设立工厂和政府补助对累计异常收益有显著正向作用。这说明在应对贸易救济调查时,需要企业能够实现事前的防范性战略转型,同时也需要政府的大力帮扶和适当介入来最大限度减小贸易救济调查给企业经营带来的不利影响。     

Antitakeover Provisions and Firm Value: New Evidence from the M&A Market

New evidence from acquisition decisions suggests that antitakeover provisions (ATPs) may increase firm value when internal corporate governance is sufficiently strong. We document that, in Germany, firms with stronger ATPs, and particularly supermajority provisions, are better acquirers. Managers of high-ATP firms create value in acquisitions by making governance-improving deals. They are more likely to engage in acquisitions that reduce their own entrenchment level and less likely to invest in declining industries. The empirical evidence is consistent with a short-termist interpretation. Takeover threats can induce myopic investment decisions, which ATPs can mitigate. They lead managers to engage more often in value-creating long-term and innovative investing, and increase a firm's sensitivity to investment opportunities. Our findings contribute to a growing literature challenging conventional wisdom that the agency-increasing effect of ATPs empirically dominates the myopia-eliminating effect, suggesting that a more contextual view of the value implications of ATPs is necessary.     

Taxes, Financing Decisions, and Firm Value

We use cross-sectional regressions to study how a firm's value is related to dividends and debt. With a good control for profitability, the regressions can measure how the taxation of dividends and debt affects firm value. Simple tax hypotheses say that value is negatively related to dividends and positively related to debt. We find the opposite. We infer that dividends and debt convey information about profitability (expected net cash flows) missed by a wide range of control variables. This information about profitability obscures any tax effects of financing decisions.     

Corporate Disclosure,Market Valuation,and Firm Performance

In this paper, I study the relationship between the Association for Investment Management and Research disclosure rankings and several corporate performance measures. I find a positive relationship between these rankings and stock returns. Furthermore, disclosure rankings are highly correlated with firm value. Specifically, Qs of firms ranked at the top of disclosure rankings are 35% higher than those of firms ranked at the bottom. I also find positive associations between disclosure rankings and future net profit margins, sales growth, and research and development intensity. Finally, I document a positive correlation between changes in disclosure rankings and future earnings surprises.