Capital structure and value of reported earnings: evidence from an emerging market

This article documents a nonlinear impact of capital structure on the value of reported earnings in India during the period between 2009 and 2015. Our results show that earnings reported by firms with moderate level of debt are more valuable than earnings reported by firms with low or high level of debt. Our results are robust across various proxies of capital structure and across various sub-samples. This article argues that moderate level of debt is associated with low-agency problems, while low and high level of debt is synonymous to high-agency problems. Differences in agency problems result in reported earnings that have very different levels of relevance.     

The frequency and magnitude of earnings management in China

Earnings management is an indicator of the corporate governance quality and investor protection standard. We study the frequencies and magnitudes of earnings management under two different thresholds, zero earnings and prior earnings, in the Chinese market from 1997 to 2004. We model earnings as a mixed-normal distribution and obtain parameter estimators that measure the frequency and magnitude of earnings management. We show that the practice of earnings management has gone up both in frequency and magnitude during the post-2000 period. We also find that the frequency and magnitude of earnings management are higher when firms try to avoid negative earnings than when firms try to report earnings increase. Our findings reflect the current economic environment in China and caution investors on the low-disclosure quality in the Chinese stock market.     

The asymmetric relationship between executive earnings management and compensation: a panel threshold regression approach

Prior research shows that chief executive officers (CEOs) are rewarded for their earnings management. We re-examine this issue using a panel threshold regression approach, which allows the effect of earnings management on the CEO compensation to change across the level of earnings management and CEO compensation. Our results show that the effect of CEOs’ discretionary accounting choices on their compensation is not homogeneous across various degrees of earnings management and compensation. In particular, for firms with moderate (inordinate) levels of earnings management and CEO compensation, earnings management is rewarded (penalized).     

The relations among accounting conservatism,institutional investors and earnings manipulation

Most scholars have indicated corporations using accounting conservatism to reduce earnings manipulation, although certain scholars believe that firms have more incentive to increase earnings manipulation. Institutional investors play an important external monitoring role, and affect firm's earnings manipulation. Previous studies adopted accruals as an earnings manipulation proxy to detect the relationship among accounting conservatism, institutional investor shareholdings, and earnings manipulation. We further investigate the relationship among accounting conservatism, institutional investor shareholdings, and earnings manipulation by using Benford's law. Our results indicate that firms with more conservative financial reporting have less probability of engaging in earnings-manipulative activities. We also find the negative association between earnings management and institutional investor shareholdings. However, if corporate financial statements tend toward conservatism, institutional investor shareholdings could increase managers' incentive to manage earnings. Our findings have important implications for investors to make investment decisions.     

The frequency and magnitude of earnings management: Time-series and multi-threshold comparisons

We measure the frequency and magnitude of earnings management assuming earnings follow a mixed-normal distribution. We show that the frequency of earnings management is the highest when firms try to meet analysts' forecasted earnings and furthermore the trend is magnified in recent years. Additionally, more firms manage earnings to avoid earnings decreases rather than to avoid negative earnings. Furthermore, the magnitude of earnings management is the greatest when firms try to avoid earnings decreases. Earnings managements to avoid negative and decreased earnings are lower in recent years, and the magnitude of earnings management to meet forecasted earnings became dominant after 2001.     

Main banks’ influence on financial reporting quality in Japan

This study investigated main banks’ influence on the quality of accounting firms’ audits and corporate firms’ earnings, focusing on companies on Japan’s Nikkei 500 index. We posed three questions in this research study about main banks’ influence on corporate clients’ earnings management. First, does a weakened main bank relationship influence corporate clients’ financial reporting quality? Second, does Japan’s firewall deregulation influence firms’ earnings quality? Finally, does the relationship between accounting firms and main banks affect client firms’ earnings quality? Our main findings were that main banks are not related to client firms’ earnings management; however, main banks mitigate client firms’ earnings management after firewall deregulation. On the other hand, firewall deregulation does motivate firms to manipulate their earnings management. Finally, using Pong and Kita’s (2006) study as a framework, we found that main banks and client firms using the same accounting firms had no influence on earnings management. Based on these evidences presented, our findings suggest that the quality of corporate clients’ financial reporting changes before and after firewall deregulation.     

差错责任追究制度与分析师盈余预测

本文分别从分析师跟踪、盈余预测误差和分歧度三个方面考察年报信息披露重大差错责任追究制度对分析师行为的影响.研究发现,建立差错责任追究制度公司的分析师跟踪人数更多、盈余预测误差和分歧度更低,并且这种关系主要存在于高管为男性以及盈余质量较差的公司.进一步研究发现,建立差错责任追究制度的公司盈余信息含量更高、分析师更可能发布...     

Accruals quality,managers’ incentives and stock market reaction: evidence from Europe

We investigate if accruals quality is a valuable indicator of earnings quality for stock market investors. Our particular focus is on the incremental informative value of taking into account managers’ incentives for using accruals. We propose a market-based approach for assessing the usefulness of this indicator to improve investors’ decisions. Specifically, we examine the association between accruals quality and information asymmetry among stock market participants. Our empirical study uses data on European firms and our results are consistent with a positive association between poor earnings quality and high information asymmetry. However, given some previous studies suggesting that accruals-based measures may be noisy indicators of earnings quality, we develop a method to increase the informational content of the accruals quality measure. Based on our results, we find that combining accruals quality with the dispersion in analysts’ forecasts provides a better indicator of earnings quality rather than only accruals quality.     

中国上市公司盈利成长规律实证分析

西方的多数研究证实 ,个别企业的盈利变化过程大致可由随机游走过程来表述 ,这给后期的学者利用盈利数据进行实证研究提供了基础。中国的某些学者不加检验地引进了西方的研究成果 ,即假设企业的盈利遵循随机游走过程 ,甚至认为企业的盈利应该遵循带成长因素的随机游走过程。实际情况如何呢 ?本文以上海证券交易所 1 994年底之前上市的公司为样本 ,采用多种统计方法 ,分析了它们连续 6年的盈利报告 ,结果发现 :(1 )上市公司盈利额及总资产利润率并不遵循随机游走过程和带成长因素的随机游走过程。 (2 )从盈利增量呈强负自相关的两个样本组合的统计分析看 ,模型中加进盈利增量变量 ,较大地提高了模型拟合度。 (3)从多项统计指标的显著改善可以看出 ,模型Et=b1 Et- 1 +b2 ΔEt- 1 +εt 能更好地描述样本公司的盈利成长。     

Directors network centrality and earnings quality

This study examines whether firms with network central boards of directors behave differently from other firms in terms of financial reporting quality. We find that earnings quality among firms is low when board networks are channels of incorrect information transmission (including earnings management information) and for firms whose directors are awarded equity-based compensation have connections through boardroom networks, but earnings quality is better for firms with good performance in spite of their networks. These results are robust to controlling for firm information environment, growth, size, age, leverage, performance, volatility in firm operations, and corporate governance.     

Simultaneous Releases of U.S. and Foreign GAAP Earnings

Prior studies examine the incremental information content of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) reconciliation of U.S. listed foreign firms and find mixed results. One of the main methodological issues in prior studies is the uncertainty concerning the dates of the reconciliation releases. This study examines the information content of U.S.GAAP reconciliation for a sample of U.S. listed foreign firms that released both U.S. and foreign GAAP earnings information simultaneously. The findings show that there is no incremental information content for the U.S. GAAP reconciliation over foreign GAAP earnings. When added to other empirical evidence from prior studies, this studies' results of no incremental information content further support the recent SEC announcement to work towards eliminating the reconciliation by 2009 for firms using IFRS.     

Export Destination,Product Quality and Wages in a Middle‐Income Country. The Case of South Africa

A robust finding in the firm‐level literature is that exporting firms pay higher wages. Using South African data this paper investigates the relationship between export destination and wages at a worker level. South Africa, a middle‐income country, has two distinct main export markets—a regional market where per capita incomes are lower than at home, and an international market with higher per capita incomes. Our estimates show that workers in firms that export to the region earn less than those that produce for the domestic market. Those in firms that export outside the region earn more than either domestic producers or region‐only exporters. Much of this difference in wages can be explained by the premium the different types of exporters pay for skills. These results support previous studies which suggest that export destination is related to product quality which in turn is related to worker quality and therefore wages.     

终极控制权、审计师行业专长与盈余稳健性

文章探讨了上市公司终极控制权和审计师行业专长对会计盈余信息稳健性的影响。研究结果表明,终极控制权与现金流权的分离程度越大,公司的盈余信息越不稳健;相对于非行业专长审计师审计的公司,专长审计师审计的公司对损失的确认更及时;更重要的是发现具有行业专长的审计师能够显著抑制由于终极控制权分离所造成的会计盈余信息不稳健的行为。国内外学者研究表明,稳健的会计盈余信息能够导致正面的经济后果,文章的研究结论暗示雇佣一个行业专长的会计师事务所对存在终极控制权分离的公司是有利的。     

Evidence on the glass ceiling effect in France using matched worker-firm data

In this article, we investigate the relevance of the glass ceiling hypothesis in France, according to which there exist larger gender wage gaps at the upper tail of the wage distribution. Using a matched worker-firm data set of about 1 30 000 employees and 14 000 employers, we estimate quantile regressions and rely on a principal component analysis to summarize information specific to the firms. Our different results show that accounting for firm-related characteristics reduces the gender earnings gap at the top of the distribution, but the latter still remains much higher at the top than at the bottom. Furthermore, a quantile decomposition shows that the gender wage gap is mainly due to differences in the returns to observed characteristics rather than in differences in characteristics between men and women.     

Executive shareholding,compensation, and analyst forecast of Chinese firms

We examine the impact of executive and leadership shareholding and cash compensation on analyst forecast error and dispersion as proxies for information asymmetry. We find that firms pay higher compensation (or excess compensation) to executives and directors are associated with higher information asymmetry. The positive association is stronger where executives’ and directors’ shareholdings are higher. Shareholding appears to facilitate managerial entrenchment and gives highly paid executives/leadership stronger structural power which adversely affects information disclosure leading to larger forecast error and dispersion. These results are robust to different measures of compensation and alternative models controlling for the predictability of firm-level earnings. Our findings indicate that executive/director shareholding and compensation do not provide sufficient incentives for information disclosure by Chinese firms.     

盈余管理程度的估计模型与经验证据:一个综述

盈余管理是一个与投资者保护和会计准则制定紧密相关的重要问题,它已经成为会计乃至金融、经济领域的重要研究课题。要研究在经济上具有意义的盈余管理,其前提是估计盈余管理的程度。本文对盈余管理程度的估计方法及其相应的经验证据进行评述,文献评述结果表明,非预期应计利润模型能够估计出单个公司的盈余管理程度,但它无法估计经济上具有意义的盈余管理程度;盈余分布法是目前估计盈余管理程度的核心方法,它能够估计出整体上的盈余管理程度,但它假设真实盈余分布是光滑的。盈余管理程度估计的未来研究,需要剔除盈余指标选择以及标准化方法选择等因素的影响,解决在同时存在多个阈值情况下不同阈值之间相互关联的影响问题,并放宽模型的假设或者给假设提供直接的证据。     

Professionals inside the board room: accounting expertise of directors and dividend policy

Directors’ personal attributes have significant impacts on governance effectiveness. We study whether directors’ accounting expertise affects corporate financial policy and investigate dividend in specific. We construct a dataset of audit committee directors’ accounting expertise for Standard & Poor 500 firms from 2005 to 2012. We first verify directors’ monitoring roles by showing that firms with accounting expert sitting on their audit committees demonstrate stronger accounting conservatism. In our main tests, we find that these firms maintain lower dividend payment level, which are less sensitive to earnings volatility. This suggests directors’ advisory roles in financial policy. We further show that our accounting expertise cannot be subsumed by management ability. In additional test, we further examine the baseline results conditional on analyst forecast error. Our findings highlight the importance of directors’ professional expertise in fulfilling their governance roles.     

资本市场开放与企业真实盈余管理——基于“陆港通”的经验证据

资本市场开放不仅是扩大国际融资、更好地利用国际金融市场的需要,而且对我国资本市场发育和上市公司行为具有多重外部治理效应。本文借助我国内地与香港资本市场互联互通机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放对企业真实盈余管理的影响。研究发现:(1)总体上,“陆港通”机制的实施显著降低了标的公司真实盈余管理程度。(2)委托代理问题是企业进行盈余管理的重要原因,而“陆港通”机制开通后,能够缓解标的公司代理矛盾,进而约束管理层的真实盈余管理行为。(3)当资本市场信息环境改善、管理层面临较大股票抛售压力以及大股东监督力度较强时,“陆港通”抑制企业真实盈余管理行为的治理效果更强。本文结果表明,资本市场开放有助于提高我国上市公司财务信息披露质量及公司治理水平。     

资本市场开放与企业真实盈余管理——基于“陆港通”的经验证据

资本市场开放不仅是扩大国际融资、更好地利用国际金融市场的需要,而且对我国资本市场发育和上市公司行为具有多重外部治理效应。本文借助我国内地与香港资本市场互联互通机制这一准自然实验,研究资本市场开放对企业真实盈余管理的影响。研究发现:(1)总体上,“陆港通”机制的实施显著降低了标的公司真实盈余管理程度。(2)委托代理问题是企业进行盈余管理的重要原因,而“陆港通”机制开通后,能够缓解标的公司代理矛盾,进而约束管理层的真实盈余管理行为。(3)当资本市场信息环境改善、管理层面临较大股票抛售压力以及大股东监督力度较强时,“陆港通”抑制企业真实盈余管理行为的治理效果更强。本文结果表明,资本市场开放有助于提高我国上市公司财务信息披露质量及公司治理水平。     

负盈余之信息内涵——以台湾上市公司为例

Hayn（1995）研究亏损公司的信息内涵时发现,当公司报导的盈余在某水准之上时,盈余与公司价值间会存在高度相关;当公司报导的盈余在某水准之下时,盈余与公司价值间的相关性趋近于零。过去文献大多强调负盈余公司较无信息内涵,依据Hayn（1995）的研究,在检视盈余与股票报酬时,样本中加入负盈余公司样本,会使盈余与股票报酬间的关系变得薄弱,此因投资人将负盈余视为暂时现象,投资人若不愿意承受企业有负盈余情况时,则可以随时将公司清算。但由于负盈余公司不一定执行清算选择权,使得负盈余可能是暂时现象,也有可能会持续发生。本研究通过探讨暂昤陆负盈余公司与持续性负盈余公司的信息内涵,结果显示暂时性负盈余公司较持续性负盈余公司具信息内涵。