Risk Perceptions of Financial Analysts and the Use of Market and Accounting Data

This paper reports the results of a laboratory experiment which attempts to test the relevance of accounting information and other market-related information in a risk-assessment task. Using the Brunswik lens model framework, estimates of ex ante risk on thirty stocks were regressed against nine company-specific cues and one industry variable. The results provide substantial evidence that publically available accounting and financial data convey information relevant for security risk evaluation.     

Financial Analysts and the False Consensus Effect

Social psychologists have documented a tendency for people to overestimate their similarity to others. I investigate whether financial analysts' forecast errors are consistent with this bias. I model the bias by assuming analysts overestimate the correlation of the private signals they receive about a firm's future earnings. My model predicts a positive relationship between (i) the likelihood of an analyst's revised forecast being too close to his earlier forecast and (ii) the number of analysts issuing forecasts during the time interval between his two forecasts. I empirically confirm this prediction and consider several alternative explanations.     

Assessing the Impact of Fair‐Value Accounting on Financial Statement Analysis: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

The historical‐cost and prudence principles have guided accounting for financial investments and tangible fixed assets in many jurisdictions around the globe. This situation might change as a consequence of the increasing number of countries adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which, to some extent, permit accounting on a fair‐value basis. It is unclear how such a change would affect the analysis of financial statements and to what extent it could modify analysts' perceptions of companies' condition and performance. This paper attempts to shed some light on this issue by restating the financial investments and tangible fixed assets of a sample of 85 Spanish insurance companies, applying fair value instead of historical‐cost‐based valuations and by simulating analyst perception of these companies' efficiency and profitability for both sets of data using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We find that the numbers on the face of the financial statements change considerably and observe that the magnitude of these changes varies between companies and classes of assets. However, only in a few cases does a change in the valuation basis lead to a relevant change in DEA scores; within our sample, the overall assessment of companies with regard to efficiency and profitability remains largely the same under both valuation bases. These findings seem to indicate that a change from historical‐cost to fair‐value accounting could alter analyst perceptions of a limited number of companies but likely will not have a major impact on the appraisal of the majority of them.     

The Performance of Equity Analysts During the Global Financial Crisis

This paper investigates the response of equity analysts following Australian and US listed stocks to the onset of the 2007 Global Financial Crisis. Both groups of analysts reacted quickly by adjusting their forecasts downwards, and initially tending towards being overly pessimistic. Relative to pre‐crisis data, the authors identify sharp declines in earnings forecasts, an increase (decrease) in downward (upward) revisions, and a downward (upward) trend in sell (buy) recommendations. Forecast errors are larger, and dispersion of earnings forecasts is higher. Finally, the most accurate analysts in the pre‐crisis period continue to be significantly more accurate during the crisis period than their peers.     

财务报表分析在企业信用评价中的运用

企业信用评价是商业银行贷款风险管理的重要一环。本文针对企业信用评价体系的主要内容．提出了运用财务报袁分析企业信用的具体思路,并在此基础上,强调了运用财务报表分析时应注意的问题。     

公司治理与财务舞弊关系的经验分析

以财务舞弊上市公司为研究对象，以董事会构成和所有权结构作为公司治理变量，研究公司治理和财务舞弊之间的可能关系。研究发现，发生财务舞弊与未发生财务舞弊上市公司董事会中外部董事比例不存在显著差异；股权集中度越高的上市公司越容易发生财务舞弊；控股股东性质与财务舞弊行为不存在显著相关性。研究还发现，上市公司配股活动与财务舞弊显著负相关、公司规模与财务舞弊显著负相关、董事会规模与财务舞弊显著正相关。     

Facial Structure and Achievement Drive: Evidence from Financial Analysts

We use a large pictorial sample of Chinese financial analysts to test the association between facial width‐to‐height ratio (fWHR) and performance in men. Financial analysts offer an ideal setting for our investigation because we can objectively track individual analysts’ behaviors and performance. We find that high‐fWHR analysts are more likely to conduct corporate site visits and they exhibit better performance. The positive fWHR–performance association survives a battery of robustness checks and the association is more pronounced for analysts with lower status, for firms with higher uncertainty, and for analysts facing more intense competition. Our results suggest that the dominant trait predicted by fWHR is achievement drive.     

农村合作金融机构合并报表问题研究

本文考察了农村合作金融机构对外投资中涉及的会计处理问题,提出应执行合并财务报表规定,并就此深入探讨,提出相关建议。     

简析合并财务报表对企业信息的影响

合并财务报表是反映企业集团整体财务状况，经营成果和现金流量的财务报表。随着我国企业逐渐由单一产品经营向多元化经营发展，企业规模快速扩张，合并财务报表已不能客观反映企业的财务信息，不能满足会计信息使用者进行预测，决策的需求，其对企业信息的影响日趋突出，合并规定亟待改进。     

The Use of a Statement of Changes in Financial Position to Interpret Financial Data: An Empirical Investigation

This study provides empirical evidence on the use of a statement of changes in financial position by financial analysts to interpret and make judgments on information contained in annual reports. Analysts were required to answer five questions developed from claims made in a professional accounting standard about the purpose of the statement of changes in financial position. The results indicate that the statement of changes in financial position does not generally enhance financial analysis.     

Economic Growth and Financial Statement Verification

We use a proprietary data set of financial statements collected by banks to examine whether economic growth is related to the use of financial statement verification in debt financing. Exploiting the distinct economic growth and contraction patterns of the construction industry over the years 2002–2011, our estimates reveal that banks reduced their collection of unqualified audited financial statements from construction firms at nearly twice the rate of firms in other industries during the housing boom period before 2008. This reduction was most severe in the regions that experienced the most significant construction growth. These trends reversed during the subsequent housing crisis in 2008–2011 when construction activity contracted. Moreover, using bank‐ and firm‐level data, we find a strong negative (positive) relation between audited financial statements during the growth period, and subsequent loan losses (construction firm survival) during the contraction period. Collectively, our results reveal that macroeconomic fluctuations produce temporal shifts in the overall level of financial statement verification and temporal shifts in verification are related to bank loan portfolio quality and borrower performance.     

A Structured Financial Statement Analysis and the Direct Prediction of Stock Prices in Korea

Using a large sample of firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange, this paper evaluates the usefulness of a structured, programmable financial statement analysis for investment decisions. In doing so, we develop a firm valuation model which links a firm's market value with fundamental variables such as the ability of a firm to generate cash flows, growth potentials, and risk. We predict a firm's intrinsic value directly from an extensive set of financial statement variables which proxy for the theoretical variables implied by the model. We then construct a series of trading strategies with zero net investment (called D-strategies) on the basis of D-values which measure percentage differences between predicted intrinsic values and observed market values. We observe that the market-adjusted and size-adjusted (hedge-portfolio) returns to the most conservative D-strategy turn out to be in the order of 16.92% and 11.44%, respectively,for the 12-month holding period. When our sample is stratified into two sub-samples based on firm size, the D-strategy yields higher excess return for the small-firm sub-sample than for the large-firm sub-sample. The above evidence, taken as a whole, strongly indicates that one can construct a profitable trading strategy by directly predicting intrinsic values through a structured financial statement analysis such as ours.     

法律责任、审计风格和感知的会计信息可比性

本文以2010年会计师事务所实施特殊普通合伙制转制为背景,研究市场是如何感知审计师法律责任对会计信息可比性的影响.研究发现:(1)市场感知转制增强了审计师的法律责任,提高了会计信息可比性.(2)市场感知法律责任的增强,不仅降低了不同会计师事务所之间的审计风格差异,提高不同会计师事务所客户之间的会计信息可比性,同时也降低了同一会计师事务所中不同合伙人之间的审计风格差异,提高了同一会计师事务所不同合伙人客户之间的会计信息可比性.本文研究对于监管者、行业协会、会计师事务所、企业管理层具有重要意义.     

论对公司财务报告舞弊的治理

财务治理与财务报告舞弊之间存在密切关系，公司的内、外部财务治理结构包括管理当局、董事会、监事会、注册会计师等各方面，他们都对财务报告的生成与披露产生影响。因此，防范财务报告舞弊的措施应从分析公司相关财务治理结构对财务信息的监督与制衡功能出发，改变其中的薄弱环节，强化相关的治理功能。     

The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability

Investors, regulators, academics, and researchers all emphasize the importance of financial statement comparability. However, an empirical construct of comparability is typically not specified. In addition, little evidence exists on the benefits of comparability to users. This study attempts to fill these gaps by developing a measure of financial statement comparability. Empirically, this measure is positively related to analyst following and forecast accuracy, and negatively related to analysts’ dispersion in earnings forecasts. These results suggest that financial statement comparability lowers the cost of acquiring information, and increases the overall quantity and quality of information available to analysts about the firm.     

Using “Statement of Intermediate Balances” As Tool for International Financial Statement Analysis in Airline Industry

Since September 11, 2001 and during the ensuing economic slowdown, a number of airline companies have experienced significant financial difficulties, including bankruptcies and near bankruptcies. In an economic setting where many airlines are struggling to achieve or maintain profitability, it is important for accountants, auditors, and financial analysts to be able to analyze the relative performance of such companies. In this industry, income statements are normally prepared “by nature” rather than “by function.” This differs from the usual presentation found in the income statements of many companies around the world, in particular most American companies. This paper demonstrates how to perform a comparative financial statement analysis when an income statement is prepared “by nature,” through application of a tool called the “Statement of Intermediate Balances.” This tool is illustrated using three companies chosen from different continents: Southwest Airlines, a low cost U.S. air carrier, Air France, the leader in Europe, and China Eastern Airlines, one of the biggest Chinese air carriers.     

会计信息可比性与公司避税

会计信息可比性通过公司间信息溢出效应为外界理解和判断公司的经济业务提供增量信息,使避税活动难以实施,抑制避税代理成本从而抑制公司避税。本文从会计信息质量治理效应出发,运用2005-2015年我国A股非金融上市公司数据研究会计信息可比性对公司避税的影响,结果发现公司会计信息可比性越高,避税程度越低。可比性对避税的抑制在信息透明度较低的公司以及在面临产品市场竞争更激烈的公司中更显著。进一步研究发现可比性与税收征管之间存在替代效应,可比性对避税的抑制作用在税收征管强度较低的地区更显著。本文扩展和深化了会计信息质量的治理效应,为我国政府强化会计信息披露监管以营造公平税收环境提供理论依据。