International Corporate Tax Avoidance Practices: Evidence from Australian Firms

This paper examines the international corporate tax avoidance practices of publicly listed Australian firms. Based on a hand-collected sample of 203 publicly listed Australian firms over the 2006–2009 period (812 firm-years), our regression results indicate that there are several practices Australian firms use to aggressively reduce their tax liabilities. Specifically, we find that thin capitalization, transfer pricing, income shifting, multinationality, and tax haven utilization are significantly associated with tax avoidance. In fact, based on the magnitude and significance levels of the regression coefficients in our study, thin capitalization and transfer pricing represent the primary drivers of tax avoidance, whereas income shifting and tax haven utilization are less important. Finally, our additional regression results show that tax havens are likely to be used together with thin capitalization and transfer pricing to maximize international tax avoidance opportunities via the increased complexity of transactions carried out through tax havens.     

The Diagnosis and Resolution of Emerging Issues in Corporate Disclosure Practices

This paper calls the attention of the accounting profession in the UK to a central but neglected process in accounting regulation, i.e. emerging issue diagnosis (EID). A framework for discussing EID is presented in terms of three critical components: inputs, resolution characteristics and outputs. The United States model, which may be influential for future corporate reporting in the UK, is discussed. In addition, consideration is given to a UK example—the City Code on Take-overs and Mergers—of the resolution of emerging issues.     

Corporate Governance: Factors Influencing Voluntary Disclosure by Publicly Traded Canadian Firms*

We report on the comprehensiveness of voluntary corporate governance disclosures in the annual reports and management information circulars of Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) firms. We focus on disclosure of the corporate governance practices implemented by our sample of TSE 300 firms vis‐à‐vis the 14 guidelines set out in the TSE's report on corporate governance Where Were the Directors? Our analysis indicates that only a very few firms disclose that they have fully implemented the TSE guidelines, and that the extent of disclosure of corporate governance practices implemented varies widely among the firms. We then test factors associated with the comprehensiveness of such disclosures and the choice of disclosure medium using simultaneous equations multivariate analysis. We also assess the influence of publicized corporate governance failures on disclosure. Overall, our results suggest that the choices of disclosure medium and the extent of disclosure are made concurrently, and are influenced by the strategic considerations of management.     

事务所行业专门化研究述评及展望

事务所行业专门化是审计研究的一个重要领域,已经成为国内外审计理论与实务界广泛关注的热点问题。本文对事务所行业专门化的衡量方法、影响事务所行业专门化的行业特征以及事务所行业专门化的经济后果等方面的国内外文献进行了综述,最后,本文对事务所行业专门化的未来研究方向进行了展望并对我国事务所通过行业专门化战略实现"做大做强"提出了具体的建议。     

Fees Paid to Audit Firms, Accrual Choices, and Corporate Governance

We examine the relation between the fees paid to auditors for audit and non-audit services, and the choice of accrual measures for a large sample of firms. Using our pooled sample, we find that the ratio of non-audit fees to total fees has a positive relation with the absolute value of accruals similar to Frankel, Johnson, and Nelson [2002]. However, using latent class mixture models to identify clusters of firms with a homogenous regression structure reveals that this positive association only occurs for about 8.5% of the sample. In contrast to the fee ratio results, we find consistent evidence of a negative relation between the level of fees (both audit and non-audit) paid to auditors and accruals (i.e., higher fees are associated with smaller accruals). The latent class analysis also indicates that this negative relation is strongest for client firms with weak governance. Overall, our results are most consistent with auditor behavior being constrained by the reputation effects associated with allowing clients to engage in unusual accrual choices.     

Residual Income: A Review Essay

Over the past decade, residual income has attracted considerable attention in the academic and professional literature. During this time, many leading businesses have adopted proprietary variants of residual income as a measure of their corporate success. This essay analyses the utility of residual income as a performance measure. We focus on two themes: (i) the relationship between the stream of ex-ante residual incomes and the net present value of a project; and (ii) the association between reported ex-post residual income and change in shareholder wealth. We conclude that residual income lacks theoretical support as a measure of wealth created. We suggest possible reasons for executives adopting residual income and why it has the potential to result in increased organisational performance.     

Investor Sentiment and Corporate Disclosure

This paper investigates how firms react strategically to investor sentiment via their disclosure policies in an attempt to influence the sentiment‐induced biases in expectations. Proxying for sentiment using the Michigan Consumer Confidence Index, we show that during low‐sentiment periods, managers increase forecasts to “walk up” current estimates of future earnings over long horizons. In contrast, during periods of high sentiment, managers reduce their long‐horizon forecasting activity. Further, while there is an association between sentiment and the biases in analysts' estimates of future earnings, management disclosures vary with sentiment even after controlling for analyst pessimism, indicating that managers attempt to communicate with investors at large, and not just analysts. Our study provides evidence that firms' long‐horizon disclosure choices reflect managers' desire to maintain optimistic earnings valuations.     

Disclosure Regulation and Corporate Acquisitions

This paper examines the effect of disclosure regulation on the takeover market. We study the implementation of a recent European regulation that imposes tighter disclosure requirements regarding the financial and ownership information on public firms. We find a substantial drop in the number of control acquisitions after the implementation of the regulation, a decrease that is concentrated in countries with more dynamic takeover markets. Consistent with the idea that the disclosure requirements increased acquisition costs, we also observe that, under the new disclosure regime, target (acquirer) stock returns around the acquisition announcement are higher (lower), and toeholds are substantially smaller. Overall, our evidence suggests that tighter disclosure requirements can impose significant acquisition costs on bidders and thus slow down takeover activity.     

Taxes and Corporate Finance: A Review

This article reviews tax research related to domestic and multinationalcapital structure, payout policy, compensation policy, riskmanagement, and organizational form. For each topic, the theoreticalarguments explaining how taxes can affect corporate decisionmaking and firm value are reviewed, followed by a summary ofthe related empirical evidence and a discussion of unresolvedissues. Tax research generally supports the hypothesis thathigh tax rate firms pursue policies that provide tax benefits.Many issues remain unresolved, however, including understandingwhether tax effects are of first-order importance, why firmsdo not pursue tax benefits more aggressively, and whether corporateactions are affected by investor-level taxes.     

上市公司信息披露方式的未来发展

上网披露实现了信息披露方式质的飞跃，弥补了指定报刊覆盖面不足以及时效性差等问题。未来上市公司信息上网电子化披露将成为上市公司信息披露方式的主流。     

Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension

This paper is concerned with the attempts to explain the disclosure of social and environmental information in the annual reports of large companies by reference to observable characteristics of those companies. An extensive literature has sought to establish whether variables such as corporate size, profit and industry segments can explain corporations' disclosure practices. The results from that predominantly North American and Australasian literature are largely inconclusive. This paper provides an extension of that literature by considering a more disaggregated specification of social and environmental disclosure and by employing a detailed time-series data set. By so doing, the paper tests two possible explanations for the inconclusiveness of prior research: namely that any relationships between corporate characteristics and disclosure are dependent upon the type of disclosure and that any such relationships are not stable through time. The results provide support for these explanations as sufficient, if not necessary, conditions for explaining the inconsistency in prior results.     

Professional Research,Lobbying and Intangibles: A Review Essay

The publication in January 1992 of The Valuation of Intangible Assets, a report by Arthur Andersen & Co., has again stimulated the ‘brands’ debate. The Report claims to present a range of valuation methods for intangibles that command a ‘consensus’ among preparers, and that overcome the problems of subjectivity, consistency, separability and relevance identified in earlier research into brand accounting. This paper argues that the concept of separability, upon which these claims depend, is far from clear. The Andersen Report also raises questions as to the nature of its appeal to consensus, the role of codification in determining accounting policy, and the status of professional ‘research’.     

上市公司信息披露：比较与借鉴

为防止公司丑闻重演,增强投资者对本国资本市场的信心,各国证券监管者与交易所推出了一系列改革方案.2000年来,世界各国信息披露呈现以下特点:(1)与公司治理有关信息披露的规定急剧增加;(2)对信息即时披露的规定愈趋严谨,大多数交易所已实施公平披露规则(fair disclosure),防止公司选择性揭露重要信息;(3)为改善信息的发布机制,很多交易所采用实时信息发布系统;(4)强化信息披露监督及执行机制,很多交易所对于违反规定的上市公司采取较为严厉的处罚.     

公共压力与公司环境信息披露——基于“松花江事件”的经验研究

年度报告中的环境信息披露可能会影响资本市场参与者对上市公司会计盈余和现金流量的评价。本文以"松花江事件"的肇事者"吉林化工"所属化工行业的79家A股公司为样本,探讨重大环境事故对相关行业的公司股价和环境信息披露行为的影响。结果表明,松花江事件发生后,吉林化工和样本公司的股票累积超常收益率显著为负,样本公司后2年的环境信息披露相比前2年显著增加,但是,我们没有发现前2年的环境信息披露情况与股票累积超常收益率之间存在显著的关联性。因此,股票市场对公司的正当性受到威胁和未来可能承担更大的管制成本作出了负面反应,公司的环境信息披露取决于时期和事件,基本上可以解释为一种为生存"正当性"辩护的自利行为,是对公共压力作出的反应。我们建议资本市场监管部门尽快制定和颁布上市公司环境信息披露监管制度,促使公司披露更有用、更具信息含量的环境信息。     

市场时机与公司投资:研究述评

在资本市场非有效的情况下,管理者具有利用市场错误定价所带来的市场时机的动机,这种市场时机是否会对公司资本投资产生影响以及是否造成了社会资源的错误配置一直是学术界关注的焦点。本文对国外学者关于管理者利用市场时机的投资决策动机、市场时机影响公司投资支出的股权融资渠道和迎合渠道、市场时机衡量指标以及市场时机如何影响资源配置效率的相关研究进行了回顾和评析,并在此基础上提出了进一步开展该领域研究的几点启示。     

环境信息披露制度、公司治理和环境信息披露

企业环境信息披露体现了上市公司对环境信息披露制度的遵守和执行,同时增加了公众对上市公司行为的了解;反过来,这将促使上市公司改变他们的一些行为。本文在给出企业环境信息披露制度定义的基础上,采用我国重污染行业上市公司2006—2010年年报和独立报告中披露的环境信息进行实证研究,研究证明制度对企业环境信息披露有显著的正向关系,即环境信息披露法律法规的颁布及实施提高了企业环境信息披露水平;同时研究验证了公司治理具有增强制度对企业环境信息披露的促进作用。研究结果为《上市公司环境信息披露指南》的出台提供了证据支持、为完善企业环境信息披露制度的设计提供了经验证据。     

美国上市公司信息披露制度的变迁及启示

美国证券市场信息披露制度在不同阶段有不同的特点,其变迁包括披露内容和披露手段两个方面,变迁方向是市场的高透明度.我国的信息披露制度体系中首次发行信息披露制度和持续性信息披露制度已经基本形成,应从以下三方面完善法律责任及有关救济制度:一是加大信息披露违规的处罚力度,提高违法违规的预期处罚成本;二是完善证券民事赔偿法律体系,降低预期违规收益;三是完善公司治理制度建设,建立股东代表诉讼制度.