Words and Numbers: Financialization and Accounting Standard Setting in the United Kingdom

How is it possible that British policymakers resisted market‐based measurement for decades while financial economic concepts of decision making and valuation still gained widespread acceptance as a justification for accounting standard setting? This study introduces the concept of “technologies of financialization” to develop the theorizing of the rise of finance in the domain of accounting. Based on a genealogical history of narrative reporting in the United Kingdom, it demonstrates how references to qualitative reporting techniques helped to address recurring crises of measurement from 1969 to 1993, and ultimately contributed to the practical acceptance of market‐based measurement in the UK standard‐setting context. The data are interpreted through a cultural economy framework that directs attention to the power of referring to financial reporting as a combination of words and numbers in sustaining its theoretical redefinition “from below”—that is, by relating it to the experience of practicing accountants rather than accounting theory. As a technology of financialization, narrative reporting made financial economic ideals of market‐based measurement, decision usefulness, and future orientation appear operable in a real‐life reporting context. Whenever measurement reached its practical limits, narratives were relied on to explain the impact of price‐level changes, frame economic decisions, and relate unobservable future cash flows to present‐day strategies and resources. The insight into how narrative reporting practices have been laced into the reasoning of capital markets for over 40 years is timely because it illustrates that narratives can also play a more encompassing role and drive the turn toward wider corporate accountability on social and environmental impacts while hard measurements in this area are still being figured out.     

宏观经济不确定性、融资约束与企业现金持有行为——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文建立一个简化的存货缓冲模型来形式化管理者的现金持有决策,并基于中国非金融类上市公司2001-2009年间的面板数据,考察不同融资约束条件下宏观经济不确定性对企业现金持有行为的影响。研究发现,宏观经济不确定性对企业的现金持有水平具有显著的正向影响;相比于低融资约束的公司,高融资约束公司的现金持有水平对宏观经济不确定性变化具有更高的敏感性。研究结果有助于增进对中国制度情境下企业流动性需求行为的理解。     

The Difficult Client‐Acceptance Decision in Canadian Audit Firms: A Field Investigation*

Auditing is often depicted in scientific and professional literature as being subject to conflicting forces, such as mechanization versus flexibility, and professionalism versus commercialism. This paper examines how auditors actually make the client‐acceptance decision in the midst of these forces. The investigation was conducted via a field study at three Big 6 firms located in Canada. The results show that in all firms the client‐acceptance decision process in action is largely flexible, being characterized by a high degree of informal communication and the adaptation of the client‐acceptance written policies and decision aids to circumstances. Furthermore, while commercialism in one firm (A) has a significant influence on the decision process, in the two other firms (B and C) the decision process is mostly consistent with professionalism. This result conflicts with the concerns that North American regulators have recently expressed about auditors' professionalism.     

Financial Accounting Effects of Tax Aggressiveness: Contracting and Measurement

This study examines a setting in which a tax‐reporting decision is delegated to a firm's tax manager. Using financial accounting measures of tax expense to evaluate the tax manager allows the firm to efficiently attain the level of tax avoidance it prefers, despite the fact that the consequences of the tax‐reporting decision will occur in the future. The study also examines how well two accounting measures of tax aggressiveness — cash taxes paid and the unrecognized tax benefit — distinguish between conservative and aggressive firms.     

高铁开通的微观治理效应——基于现金持有的实证研究

随着中国高铁建设进入黄金期,高铁开通给企业带来的经济效益日益凸显。本文基于2005-2016年沪深两市上市公司的面板数据,以其办公所在地城市是否开通高铁作为外生冲击,采用双重差分(Differences-in-Differences)方法实证检验了高铁开通对企业现金持有水平的影响以其作用机制。研究发现,高铁通车以后,沿线上市公司的现金持有水平显著降低,进一步机制检验发现,当公司面临较为严重的融资约束以及处于较弱的外部治理环境时,高铁开通对现金持有水平的降低效应更显著,表明高铁开通对企业现金持有水平的影响主要通过缓解企业的融资约束与降低代理成本来实现。本文的研究丰富和拓展了高铁开通及现金持有等领域的相关文献,同时提供了交通基础设施建设影响公司微观行为的经验证据。     

企业投资决定理论的新发展

企业投资决定问题主要包括两个分支:关注企业内部决策的新古典理论和关注资本市场评价的托宾Q理论.文章介绍了企业投资决定理论中新引入的一些概念,包括不对称信息问题、委托代理问题、股票市场上的信息失真问题、股票市场的卖方垄断问题等.文章还介绍了当期现金流在投资决定问题中的角色.最后,对中国企业投资决定问题的研究提出了一些看法.     

现金持有对家族企业市场竞争力的影响——基于CEO来源的视角

当前我国家族企业已陆续进入代际传承的重要阶段,企业CEO也出现了由一代、二代或外部经理人这三种不同来源的安排。不同来源的CEO从现金持有的交易动机、预防动机和代理动机出发,会选择不同的现金持有战略,从而影响企业的市场竞争力。文章以2010-2014年沪深两市A股上市家族企业为研究对象,研究现金持有水平与企业市场竞争力之间的一般关系,并根据家族企业的特殊性和差异性,推断家族企业现金持有是否同样具有竞争优势,还进一步研究家族企业不同CEO来源对现金持有竞争优势的影响。研究发现,家族企业的现金持有能够增强企业的市场竞争力,即家族企业存在现金持有的竞争优势。而且家族企业CEO的不同来源会对企业现金持有的竞争优势产生较大影响,具体说,家族创始人CEO由于维护社会情感财富和代际传承等原因,可能会损害企业现金持有的竞争优势,降低家族企业现金持有价值;家族二代CEO出于二次创业的动力,反而会加强企业现金持有的竞争优势;外部经理人担任CEO为了个人声誉和薪酬,也会显著加强企业现金持有的竞争优势。文章从家族企业这一特殊样本出发,丰富了家族企业现金持有竞争优势的研究,并从家族企业代际传承的视角,独特地研究了不同CEO来源对家族企业现金持有竞争优势的重要影响,同时也扩展了代际传承经济后果的研究。     

上市公司股利分配倾向研究:基于数据挖掘方法的分析

股利分配是上市公司的一项十分重要的财务决策。而影响股利分配的因素有许多,国内现有文献一般是采用多元统计回归建模方法对其进行实证分析。本文应用数据挖掘中的决策树方法寻找股利分配的原因,这是文章的创新点。从决策树来看,现金股利分配不仅受股本结构、公司规模、当年可分配利润、成长机会及经营风险等客观财务因素的影响,而且与控股股东性质存在显著的影响,且国家控股股东分配倾向低于民营控股股东。     

Do Analysts' Cash Flow Forecasts Encourage Managers to Improve the Firm's Cash Flows? Evidence from Tax Planning

Recent research finds that analysts' cash flow forecasts have meaningful financial reporting ramifications, but, to date, the identified effects are unlikely to yield meaningful cash flow benefits. This study examines whether analysts' cash flow forecasts encourage managers to enhance the firm's cash flow position through tax avoidance activities. We evaluate the change in cash tax avoidance after analysts begin issuing cash flow forecasts relative to a propensity score matched control sample of firms without cash flow forecasts. Consistent with analysts' cash flow forecasts encouraging tax avoidance that enhances the firm's cash flow health, we find a negative association between cash tax payments and analysts' cash flow coverage. Additional analysis suggests this association is driven primarily by strategies to permanently avoid rather than to temporarily defer tax payments and that increased cash tax avoidance activity represents a nontrivial component of the overall increase in reported operating cash flows after the initiation of analysts' cash flow coverage.     

Corporate Cash Holding in Asia

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of corporate saving in the form of changes in cash holdings for 11 Asian economies using firm‐level data from the Oriana Database for the 2002–2011 period. We find some evidence that cash flow has a positive impact on the change in cash holdings (i.e. that the cash flow sensitivity of cash is positive) and that the positive impact of cash flow on the change in cash holdings is larger and more significant in the case of smaller and presumably more constrained firms than in the case of larger and presumably less constrained firms in both developed and developing economies. Both of these findings corroborate the importance of financial constraints in Asian firms. In addition, we find that the cash flow sensitivity of cash declined after the global financial crisis and that Tobin's q has a positive impact on the change in cash holdings, especially in the case of larger and presumably unconstrained firms.     

Cash demand and financial literacy: A case study using Japanese survey data

Understanding the statistical relationship between cash demand and financial literacy is important in addressing policy concerns in Japan because the government has tried to reduce cash demands for day-to-day transactions and hoarding. However, few scholars have investigated this point because the available statistics on household cash demand do not contain the standard proxy variable for financial literacy and they do not distinguish cash demands among various households for day-to-day transactions and hoarding. Findings from this research fill these gaps by first imputing the missing financial literacy variable from other surveys and then by comparing the distribution of cash holdings for the high, middle, and low levels of financial literacy groups. In comparing the distributions of cash holdings by the three groups, cash distributions were also compared after dropping the observations above higher percentiles, expecting that the cash demand for hoarding would show up in the higher percentile of the cash distributions. Thus, it was possible to examine cash demands for day-to-day transactions. A comparison of the distribution of the ratio of cash demands to total financial assets holdings plus cash demands (hereafter cash ratio) across three levels of financial literacy groups was also made. It was found that a person with a higher level of financial literacy tends to have a large amount of cash holdings, perhaps mainly for the sake of hoarding; however, the person also tends to have other kinds of financial assets and thus a lower cash ratio value. Taking those findings at face value, the promotion of financial literacy and cashless payments for day-to-day transactions would reduce the relatively small amount of cash demands for day-to-day transactions, but it would not necessarily reduce the amount of cash demands for hoarding.     

略论商业特许连锁经营的法律调整

确定企业的量佳现金持有量 ,应是一个风险与收益的权衡问题 ,既要确定最大现金短缺量、最大现金持有量和最佳现金转换量 ,又要使现金总成本达到最低。     

The Effect of Information on Uncertainty and the Cost of Capital

It is widely held that better financial reporting makes investors more confident in their predictions of future cash flows and reduces their required risk premia. The logic is that more information leads necessarily to more certainty, and hence lower subjective estimates of firm “beta” or covariance with other firms. This is misleading on both counts. Bayesian logic shows that the best available information can often leave decision makers less certain about future events. And for those cases where information indeed brings great certainty, conventional mean‐variance asset‐pricing models imply that more certain estimates of future cash payoffs can sometimes bring a higher cost of capital. This occurs when new or better information leads to sufficiently reduced expected firm payoffs. To properly understand the effect of signal quality on the cost of capital, it is essential to think of what that information says, rather than considering merely its “precision,” or how strongly it says what it says.     

Are Analysts' Cash Flow Forecasts Naïve Extensions of Their Own Earnings Forecasts?

We examine the sophistication of analysts' cash flow forecasts to better understand what accrual adjustments, if any, analysts make when forecasting cash flows. As a preliminary step, we first demonstrate that prior empirical tests used to evaluate the sophistication of analysts' cash flow forecasts are not diagnostic. We then present three sets of evidence to triangulate our conclusion that analysts' cash flow forecasts incorporate meaningful accrual adjustments. First, we review a stratified random sample of 90 analyst reports and find that the majority of these analysts include explicit adjustments for working capital and other accruals in their cash flow forecasts. Second, using a large sample of analysts' cash flow forecasts from 1993–2008, we find that these forecasts outperform time‐series cash flow forecasts in correctly predicting the sign and magnitude of accruals. Finally, we find a significant market reaction to analysts' cash flow forecast revisions, suggesting that investors find these revisions informative. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that analysts' cash flow forecasts are not simply naïve extensions of their own earnings forecasts, but that they reflect meaningful and useful accrual adjustments. These findings are relevant to researchers who examine analysts' cash flow forecasts in a variety of settings, and to investors and practitioners who employ these forecasts for valuation purposes.     

风险水平、替代性损失融资与企业保险需求——对A股制造业上市公司的经验研究

论文采用Heckman样本选择模型,以2010-2013年间A股制造业上市公司为研究样本,分析企业风险水平和替代性损失融资渠道对制造型企业保险购买可能性和购买数量的影响。研究结果表明,企业风险水平越高,保险购买可能性越大,但与之相联系的高成本制约了企业保险购买数量;企业是否购买保险与现金持有水平存在替代效应,现金持有量充足时企业更倾向于用自有资金进行损失融资,但保险购买数量与之存在依附关系,保费支付受制于现金持有水平;剩余举债能力对企业保险购买具有负面影响,在负债与保险两种损失融资方式之间,企业更倾向于前者。论文利用最新数据构建了企业可保风险水平和替代性损失融资的衡量指标,在微观层面量化研究了我国企业财产保险需求不足问题,并为企业和保险公司提供了相关决策建议。     

定向增发、大股东认购方式与上市公司绩效的关系——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

本文以2006～2008年间定向增发中控股股东向上市公司进行资产认购的公司为研究对象,主要研究大股东分别以现金认购和资产认购对公司绩效的影响。研究发现,大股东以现金认购与公司绩效呈正相关,而大股东以资产认购与公司绩效呈负相关;资本市场投资者对大股东的资产认购方式做出了明显的反应;认购资产的评估增值率与公司绩效呈明显的负相关。本文结论对投资者投资决策,政府部门进一步完善定向增发监管政策有一定的借鉴意义。     

融资约束对现金持有动机强弱影响的实证分析

在不同的财务背景下公司现金持有动机强弱表现是否存在差异,这是学术界近年研究的热点。文章以1998—2006年连续四年有数据的沪深上市公司为样本,通过公司规模四分位数、样本期间发生股利支付与否作为融资约束与否的判别标准,分析融资约束公司与非融资约束公司现金持有动机强弱表现差异。实证结果表明：我国上市公司融资约束与否直接影响到现金持有决策过程中动机强弱的表现。为了避免现金短缺和投资机会的丧失等情况的发生,我国上市公司在整个现金持有决策中均表现谨慎,注重现金持有的预防性动机和交易性动机作用的发挥。     

Is R&D cash flow sensitive? Evidence from Chinese industrial firms

We hypothesize that research and development (R&D) is sensitive to cash flow fluctuations due to asymmetric information and agency problems in the credit market. We adopt a variant of the Q model for R&D investment using the value of the firm, physical capital and employment to capture firm fundamentals as proxies for investment opportunities. We add cash flow to this specification, and estimate the augmented model separately for R&D participation and spending decisions using data on Chinese industrial firms for the period 2001–2006. We find that R&D participation and spending are sensitive to cash flow fluctuations, conditional on firm fundamentals. We also find that the cash flow sensitivity of R&D varies across firms depending on ownership.     

What Factors Keep Cash Alive in the European Union?

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of cash usage in a selection of European Union (EU) countries over the 2003–2016 period, based on a set of technological, socioeconomic, and socio-cultural indicators and cost components. Our results reveal the existence of both common and region-specific determinants for the EU advanced and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In both groups cash usage is determined by payment system characteristics. Additionally, in the EU advanced countries cash usage can also be explained by the level of economic development and income inequalities and proliferation of Internet. In contrast, cash usage in CEE countries is negatively associated with consumer confidence and is inversely related to the technological progress, expressed in terms of mobile users.

     

房地产上市公司现金持有水平的实证研究

选取沪深两市120家A股房地产上市公司作为样本,研究其2009—2011年的财务数据,运用描述性分析、双样本T检验分析房地产上市公司现金持有的现状,并构建回归模型探求房地产上市公司现金持有水平的影响因素及其决策效果。研究结果显示:目前房地产上市公司存在高额现金持有情况,盈利能力和现金持有水平呈显著正相关,负债水平和现金持有水平呈显著负相关,其现金持有水平对公司业绩有着显著的正向效应。