Legal Regime and Financial Reporting Quality

This article uses the Canadian environment, where French civil law (FCL) in the province of Quebec coexists with common law (CL) in the Rest of Canada (denoted as bijural), to test the thesis of the neutrality of the legal system with regard to financial reporting quality (FRQ). This single‐country design allows for a better control over other factors that influence FRQ. The FCL environment appears to encourage firms to publish accounting data of better quality due to the greater liability risk faced by auditors and corporate directors under that regime. These findings, based on 10 years of data and seven attributes of FRQ, are robust to different matching procedures and model specifications. This research contributes to the current debates in Canada as to whether financial market regulation under FCL and CL jurisdictions should be unified under a single CL national securities regulator. At the broader level, the results support claims that a more in‐depth understanding of the implementation of civil law and CL is needed rather than gross generalization about the two systems. These results especially call into question that CL regimes are unambiguously superior to civil law regimes in encouraging high‐quality financial reports.     

企业财务报告质量问题及其治理对策

近年来,一些企业采用编造、变造、伪造等手法粉饰财务报告,以失真的财务信息误导企业利益相关者的行为十分普遍,严重扰乱了经济秩序,动摇了投资者的信心,对我国经济造成严重损害。本文对该问题产生的原因进行了分析,并根据财务报告应＂客观、充分地反映会计主体的财务状况、经营成果和现金流量,为利益相关者提供有用的财务信息＂的要求提出了治理对策。     

Target Financial Reporting Quality and M&A Deals that Go Bust*

This study investigates the role of financial reporting quality in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals that are ultimately terminated (i.e., go bust). If a target is a U.S. publicly traded company, an acquirer’s initial assessment of the potential benefits associated with the acquisition of the company is based on publicly available information. Generally, the acquirer obtains limited private information from the target prior to announcing the deal, but engages in transactional due diligence after signing the acquisition agreement to affirm that the financial reporting warranties made by the target are accurate. We construct a low‐quality financial reporting score based on measures prior research identifies as being associated with less reliable, less relevant, and less precise financial reporting. We find that acquirers offer higher premiums for targets with low‐quality financial reporting. However, we also find that low‐quality financial reporting increases the likelihood of deal renegotiation, and contributes to the probability of deals going bust. We document that failed targets are more likely to restate their financial statements after the announcement of the deal, supporting our conjecture that low‐quality financial reporting contributes to deals being terminated. Our research develops a new measure of low‐quality financial reporting, documents that the measure is related to M&A deal outcomes and financial restatements, and provides insights into the consequences of M&A transactional due diligence.     

投资效率与政府改革

我国经济在高速发展的同时，经济资源大量消耗和漏失现象日益严重，不解决这个问题，转变增长方式，保证持续发展，维护社会和谐的目标是难以实现的；国有经济能否有效运作，关键在于政府。必须通过政府改革，解决政府自身的运作方式和机制问题，例如重新界定政府职能、建立制度规则、公开政府工作、引进社会监督等，这是保证经济持续发展和杜会长期稳定和谐的重中之重。     

银行贷款、管理者投资行为与公司投资效率

本文从我国制度背景出发,以管理者投资行为和银行贷款行为作为理论基础,检验银行贷款对公司投资效率的影响。研究发现:在整个样本考察期间(2002～2009年),若没获得银行贷款,国有和非国有公司都存在投资不足。获得贷款后,国有公司的投资状况与无贷款时相比发生显著变化,出现过度投资,但非国有公司的改变并不显著,且无显著的过度投资。在金融危机期间(2008～2009年),国有公司获得贷款后出现过度投资,且程度显著高于整个样本期间的平均水平。非国有公司获得贷款后却没有出现过度投资,但没获得贷款时的投资不足程度比整个样本期间更为严重。本文解释了近几年我国大部分国企大规模投资,民企却普遍出现投资不足的现象,并对评估金融危机间银行信贷扩张的实际效应提供理论参考。     

提高投资效率，促进经济稳定发展

中国的经济发展特别是近年的经济增长表现为明显的投资依赖，投资率不断攀高，经济发展中积累的矛盾与风险逐步显性化。鉴于目前中国经济的发展阶段，未来一段时间中国将继续保持较高的投资率。投资率过高无疑存在一定问题，但更关键的问题是投资效率低下。为达致投资与经济发展的良性互动，深化体制改革特别是政府体制改革是基础，同时要切实改变重“硬”轻“软”的投资理念，加大科技教育等“软”投资力度，为经济的可持续发展创造条件，同时，化解投资领域的问题也应注重投资与消费的协调。     

中国投资率与投资效率的国际比较及启示

中国的投资率一直较高,现已达到了改革开放以来的最高水平,几乎是世界平均投资率的两倍。与东亚地区的日、韩等出现过经济起飞的经济体相比,中国投资率的峰值超过了日本、韩国和台湾地区在其高增长时期曾经达到的峰值,与泰国和马来西亚相近,而高投资率持续的时间则远超这些经济体。中国目前的实际增量资本-产出比已接近泰国、马来西亚、印尼和韩国在东亚金融危机爆发前的水平,表明随着投资率的过度上升,宏观投资效率在降低,金融风险在增加。中国应进一步采取宏观调控措施,抑制投资率的过度上升。     

智力资本的投资效率

智力资本是能够增加企业价值的无形资源,在价值创造过程中,企业投入货币资金,形成智力资本,产出企业价值。对以企业价值最大化为目标的现代企业来说,智力资本的投资效率是企业智力资本管理中的核心问题之一。本文以新古典经济学的投入产出理论为基础,从智力资本的资本性与互补性入手,分析了智力资本的单一投资效率与组合投资效率,提出最优投资效率的评价标准。     

Business Strategy,Financial Reporting Irregularities,and Audit Effort

This study examines whether clients' business strategies are a factor in determining the occurrence of financial reporting irregularities and the level of audit effort. We use the organizational strategy theory of Miles and Snow to develop a comprehensive measure of business strategy using publicly available data. We find that Miles and Snow's Prospector strategy is more likely to be involved in financial reporting irregularities and generally requires greater audit effort. The business strategy measure also appears to capture client business risk and provides incremental explanatory power beyond the individual measures of client complexity or risk used in traditional audit fee models. We contribute to the literature by constructing a replicable business strategy measure and identifying organizational business strategy as an important ex ante determinant of financial reporting irregularities and levels of audit effort. Our results suggest that investigating how audits can be improved to reduce financial reporting irregularities among Prospector clients is an important area for audit practice and future research.     

Voluntary Reporting Incentives and Reporting Quality: Evidence from A Reporting Regime Change for Private Firms in Taiwan

This paper examines the effect of voluntary financial reporting on firms' reporting quality using a reporting regime change in Taiwan. Before 2001, Taiwan's Company Act imposed a mandatory public reporting requirement of filing audited financial statements on private firms with contributed capital exceeding a certain threshold. This requirement was rescinded in 2001 and private firms since have had discretion over public financial reporting. We divide private firms retroactively into two groups: voluntary reporting firms, those continuing the practice of filing financial statements after the regime change; and nonvoluntary reporting firms, those discontinuing the reporting practice after the regime change. We find that financial reporting quality is higher for voluntary reporting firms than for nonvoluntary reporting firms and that this quality difference translates into a lower cost of debt for voluntary reporting firms. Our results support the view that reporting incentives play an important role in determining reporting quality.     

大美临沂的“红管家”——记临沂市财政投资评审

＂人人都说沂蒙山好,沂蒙山上好风光＂。临沂是全国著名革命老区,曾经为新中国的解放事业做出了巨大贡献。如今,156平方公里的主城区和年交易额700多亿元的大市场,共同撑起一个鲁南苏北＂区域性特大中心城市＂的雏型。     

Cumulative Prospect Theory and Managerial Incentives for Fraudulent Financial Reporting

Using samples of restating and nonrestating U.S. firms, the study empirically investigates the relationship between the incidence of fraudulent financial reporting and accounting‐based performance outcomes. The outcomes are framed as gains and losses relative to a reference point, defined as the mean performance of industry peers. Consistent with cumulative prospect theory (CPT), the findings show that fraud incidence is positively (negatively) related to the probability of a loss (gain); more (less) sensitive to the probability of a loss (gain) (i.e., loss‐aversion); and more (less) sensitive to an extra unit of the probability at a high‐ or low‐ (medium‐) probability level (i.e., nonlinear probability weighting function). The study extends the fraudulent financial reporting literature by formulating fraud incidence as a function of performance outcomes using peer performance as a reference point. By testing CPT's individual‐level behavioral implications on firm‐level archival data, the study reconceptualizes the investigation of fraudulent financial reporting in terms of risk attitude and extends prior investigations of CPT from laboratory experiments to a real‐world setting of fraudulent financial reporting.     

“齐风陶韵”演绎评审情怀

齐国故都、聊斋故里、足球故乡、工业名城、陶琉之乡……靓丽的城市名片绘制了淄博的千姿百态,也书写了这座历史文化名城从老工业基地到生态文明城的华丽嬗变。     

逆向选择、道德风险与金融中介交易成本:缘自合会的投融资效率

以实地调研过程中获取的会单为例,编制轮会现金流量表,从融资成本和投资收益两方面进行比较,运用内部收益率法和现金流矩阵计算轮会的利率结构和利率水平,通过对比分析法,判断轮会投融资效率。研究发现,正常运行的轮会作为一种投融资机制是具有效率的。轮会是社会资本的载体,会脚之间的信任、规范和网络关系不仅推动了轮会的有效运转,而且在降低交易成本上发挥了重要作用。     

Strategic Tax and Financial Reporting Decisions: Theory and Evidence*

This paper examines the effect of book‐tax differences on the probability that a transaction is audited and the probability that additional taxes are collected. It constructs a stylized model in which the taxpayer reports both financial accounting income and taxable income. The government observes both reports before deciding whether to conduct an audit. The analysis of the equilibrium yields two hypotheses. First, the probability that the government will audit a transaction is higher if the transaction generates a positive book‐tax difference (e.g., an expenditure that is deducted for tax purposes but capitalized for financial reporting purposes) than if the transaction generates no book‐tax difference. Second, conditional on being selected for audit, transactions with and without book‐tax differences are equally likely to have detected understatements of tax liability. These hypotheses are tested using Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data from the Coordinated Examination Program. The empirical tests are consistent with the predictions of the strategic tax compliance model.     

我国政府财务报告的现状、问题和对策

改革政府财务报告是当前国际社会共同关注的会计问题之一。从世界范围看,建立一套完整的政府会计准则体系,定期编制政府财务报告,反映政府财务信息已成为国际上加强政府公共管理、提高财政透明度的重要手段和通行惯例。我国已提出“立党为公、执政为民”的执政纲领和建立透明政府、绩效政府的目标。财政从单纯“分配”向综合“管理”转型,这需要改革政府会计及其报告制度。本文对政府组织活动、政府会计报告、美国政府会计的规范与报表、我国政府预算会计体系的现状和问题,以及改进政府会计报告及其分析方法的对策和建议进行阐述。这将有利于改革和完善我国政府财务报告制度,以及信息使用者的决策分析。     

钢铁是这样炼成的——记莱芜市财政投资评审

莱芜市位于山东省中部,鲁文化的醇厚和齐文化的开放滋养了这片古老的土地,形成了崇德尚实、重工厚商的地域文化风尚。正是在这样淳厚的土壤滋润下,一批批正直勇敢的财政评审人,用科学严谨的评审观,用珍惜生命一样珍惜荣誉的诚挚态度,完成了一个又一个复杂而深刻的评审任务。