Rights Issues in the Chinese Stock Market: Evidence of Earnings Management

Using 665 rights offerings of Chinese firms, we demonstrate positive but diminishing price effects of successive announcements at the board meeting, the shareholders' meeting, the prospectus release date, and the ex‐rights date, but negative abnormal returns before the ex‐rights date. Public investors value the participation from shareholders of state and legal‐person shares in the rights offerings, which seem to be linked to the future firm performance. The results overall supports the hypothesis that Chinese company earnings are considerably manipulated in the rights issue process.     

The Information Content of Concurrently Announced Earnings, Cash Dividends, and Stock Dividends: An Investigation of the Chinese Stock Market

The firms listed on China's stock market are less than ten years old and to date there has been relatively little research on the usefulness of their accounting disclosures for investors. This study focuses on the information content of annual earnings and dividend announcements made by listed Chinese companies. Earnings, cash dividends, and stock dividends are announced concurrently in China and so this allows for tests of their information usefulness and of the interactions between the three signals. Based on a data set of up to 1,232 announcements, we find that unexpected earnings, proxied by earnings changes, are positively related to abnormal returns. Thus, earnings are used by investors in setting market prices. Stock dividends corroborate or attenuate the earnings signal. If the sign of the unexpected stock dividend (increase, decrease) is the same as the sign of the unexpected earnings, then the earnings signal is stronger. If the signs are opposite, the earnings signal is weaker. Unexpected cash dividends have little impact on the earnings signal. Stock dividends per se have a small association with stock returns. In contrast, cash dividends have no discernible association with stock returns and this is consistent with dividend irrelevance arguments. Our results are robust across a number of sensitivity tests.     

股市周期、投资者情绪与盈余管理——来自中国A股市场的证据

将中国大陆1394家上市公司2004年至2007年期间5576份年报,分为熊市悲观样本组与牛市乐观样本组,用Givoly&Hayn(2000)的应计项目模型和Ball&Shiva-kumar(2005)的应计项/现金流模型进行实证检验。研究发现:熊市悲观样本组的应计利润以及非经营性应计利润较低,会计盈余下降周期与熊市悲观周期吻合;牛市乐观样本组的应计利润以及非经营性应计利润较高,会计盈余上升周期与牛市乐观周期一致。上市公司经营者(代理人)操纵应计项目以及刻意安排应计项目在牛市与熊市之间回转,使得熊市悲观周期会计盈余被低估而牛市乐观周期会计盈余被高估,以迎合投资者(委托人)牛市过度乐观而熊市过度悲观的情绪和盈余预期。     

会计盈余与非预期盈余宣告对股价冲击作用的一项实证研究

本文以中国上市公司为样本对象,研究了会计盈余信息的市场冲击作用.文章分别从上市公司个股和市场整体两个角度考察了上市公司股价对会计信息的反应模式,得出了不一致的结论.首先,会计盈余对股价不一定具有正向冲击;其次,历史盈余信息不一定能代表未来收益;再次,市场对财务信息的反应模式和宏观经济环境有关,而这种关系则通过会计盈余和折现率之间的正相关关系传递.     

信息不对称视角下定向增发动因研究——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

中国正式引入定向增发为可选择的再融资方式之后,上市公司再融资选择便更多地转向定向增发。为此,基于信息不对称理论,探讨信息不对称和上市公司控制权对上市公司再融资方式选择的影响,并解释上市公司对于证监会引入定向增发作为可选再融资方式的各种反应便具有重要意义。研究结果显示,虽然信息不对称理论能够在一定程度上解释上市公司的再融资方式选择;但是股东控制权考虑对定向增发偏好具有重要影响。     

Order Imbalance,Liquidity, and Market Efficiency: Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market

We used data from the Chinese stock market to quantify the amount of time for the market to converge to efficiency. Order imbalance may predict returns when there is no designated market maker. In spite of availability of the direction of trade information in the Chinese stock market, it takes longer for information regarding order imbalance to be incorporated into stock prices in China than in the USA. With information on past returns and order imbalance, it takes between 15 and 30 min to converge to efficiency in the Chinese stock market. The process of converging to efficiency depends highly on liquidity. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global Market Segmentation and Patterns in Stock Market Reaction to US Earnings Announcements: Further Evidence

The purpose of this study is to investigate why the information content of US earnings announcements of non‐US firms cross‐listing in the US varies with the degree of capital market segmentation in the cross‐listing firms' countries of domicile. My evidence shows that indirect barriers to investing (i.e., accounting rules and liquidity differences) rather than direct investment barriers (i.e., investment restrictions) mainly account for this difference. After controlling for the level of accounting disclosure in a firm's country of domicile, I do not observe a systematic difference in the size of market's reaction to earnings announcements depending on the degree of market segmentation in the firm's country of domicile. This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence that accounting disclosure plays an important role in the integration of global capital markets.     

分析师盈利预测压力与企业投资效率——来自中国A股市场的证据

证券分析师盈利预测是市场预期的一个典型替代变量,其超出企业内部经营预期的部分会对企业产生压力,从而干扰经理人的决策和行为。通过构建盈利预测压力测算模型研究证券分析师盈利预测压力对企业投资决策的影响,并进一步考察分析师跟踪和企业政治联系对二者关系的调节作用。研究发现,分析师盈利预测压力与投资不足正相关,与过度投资不相关。这表明企业在面临分析师盈利预测压力时更倾向于减少投资,而不是冒险将资金用于高风险项目。进一步研究发现,分析师跟踪以及企业政治关联会负向调节盈利预测压力对投资不足行为的影响,外部监督的增强以及资源获取渠道的拓宽能够纠正企业在盈利预测压力下的非效率投资行为。     

The Risk-Relevance of Accounting Data: Evidence from the Spanish Stock Market

This paper analyses the relevance of accounting fundamentals to inform about equity risk as measured by the cost of equity capital. Assuming the latter is a summary measure of how investors make decisions regarding the allocation of resources, the strength of the association between the cost of capital and the accounting‐based measures of risk indicates how important these measures are for market participants when making economic decisions. To infer the cost of equity capital, we use the O'Hanlon and Steele's method, which is based on the residual income valuation model. Moreover, we use the insights from this model to provide a theoretical underpinning for the choice of the accounting variables related to risk. The sample refers to the non‐financial firms listed in the Madrid Stock Exchange along the period 1987–2002. Our results support our initial expectations regarding the association between the cost of equity capital and the accounting‐based risk variables, thereby supporting the usefulness of fundamental analysis to determine the risk inherent in share's future payoffs. In particular, we highlight the role of investing risk, which has been ignored in previous research. Our results are also robust to measures of risk other than the cost of capital such as the variability in total returns and the firm's systematic risk (β).     

The Information Content of Guidance and Earnings

I compare the information content of quarterly earnings guidance and quarterly earnings by examining their associations with current and future stock returns when the two signals are bundled at earnings announcements. At the bundled announcement, I find a significantly stronger association between announcement returns and guidance news. From the day after the bundled announcement through the next earnings announcement, both signals generate abnormal return drifts of about 200 basis points. However, the timing of the post-announcement returns differs considerably. For guidance, about 50% of the post-announcement drift occurs at the next earnings announcement. In contrast, for earnings, about 20% of the preceding drift reverses at the next earnings announcement. Investor ignorance of the drift following guidance news coupled with a fixation on post-earnings announcement drift potentially explains this surprising difference in the timing of the post-announcement returns. Overall, this study indicates that bundled quarterly earnings guidance contains more information than quarterly earnings and that investors incorrectly overweight the earnings news and underweight the guidance news during the post-announcement period until the next earnings announcement.     

The Basu Measure as an Indicator of Conditional Conservatism: Evidence from UK Earnings Components

Following the work of Basu in 1997, the excess of the sensitivity of accounting earnings to negative share return over its sensitivity to positive share return (the Basu coefficient) has been interpreted as an indicator of conditional accounting conservatism. Although this interpretation is supported by substantial evidence that the Basu coefficient is associated with likely demands for conservatism, concerns have arisen that it may reflect factors not directly related to conservatism, and that this may adversely affect its validity as an indicator of that phenomenon. We argue that evidence on the validity of the Basu coefficient as an indicator of conditional conservatism can be obtained by disaggregating earnings into components, classifying those components by whether or not they are likely to be affected by conditional conservatism, and examining whether the Basu coefficient arises primarily from components likely to be affected by conditional conservatism. We implement this procedure for UK firms reporting under FRS 3: Reporting Financial Performance from 1992 to 2004. Although a substantial proportion of the Basu coefficient emanates from cash flow from operating and investing activities (CFOI), which cannot directly reflect accounting conservatism, its incidence across other components of earnings is predominantly within those components likely to be affected by conditional conservatism. Also, although the bias documented by Patatoukas and Thomas in 2009 is present in all of our aggregate earnings measures, it is heavily concentrated in the CFOI component of earnings and largely absent from components classified as likely to be affected by conditional conservatism. With the important caveat that researchers should test the robustness of their results to the exclusion of the element of the Basu coefficient due to cash flows, our findings are consistent with the conditional conservatism interpretation of the coefficient.     

价格波动性与股票预期回报——基于中国市场的初步证据

基于国际资本市场数据的研究发现,股票价格的波动率和股票未来的回报率负相关,而且风险差异不能解释这个现象,文章使用中国股票市场的数据发现了相同的结论。在1998年1月到2003年12月期间内,基于过去一个月内股价波动率的对冲组合在未来六个月内能够取得0.32%的月风险调整超额回报率。M iller(1977)认为股价波动性代表了投资者对股票价值评估的不确定性和异质性,因为卖空限制的存在,波动性高的股票的价格更多地反映了乐观投资者的看法,因而出现高估价值的错误定价。文章分析认为M iller的错误定价理论能够解释股价波动率与未来回报率之间的负相关关系。     

内部控制信息披露的市场反应——来自沪深股市的经验证据

研究发现,内控信息披露引致市场的正面反应,累计异常超额收益为正;强制与自愿披露内控信息相比,强制内控信息披露获得的超额收益率更高。同时,上市公司规模大小、是否"四大"审计等也影响内部控制信息披露的异常超额收益率的高低。     

Stock Options and Firm Performance: New Evidence from the French Market

This study investigates the effect of stock option‐based compensation on the short‐term and long‐term performance of French companies. To the best of our knowledge, we provide the first empirical evidence describing the market reaction following initiations and renewals of Employee Stock Option (ESO) plans in France. We find that the French market reacts positively to initiations of ESO plans but does not consider their renewal as relevant information. Our results on the long‐term effect of ESO plans suggest that neither the size nor the value of the grants affect the firm's accounting and market performance. Similarly, corporate performance prior to the grant has no explanatory power of the size or value of the grant. This implies that, over our sample period, the relationship between option‐based compensation and corporate performance in France was inexistent, regardless of the direction considered.     

The Information Content of Stock Prices,Legal Environments,and Accounting Standards: International Evidence

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the impact of accounting standards on the information content of stock prices using a sample of 44 countries from around the world. We find that the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards or US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles per se does not make stock prices more informative, but that better accounting standards are helpful only in countries having effective legal environments. In particular, we find a significantly negative relationship between stock price synchronicity and the quality of accounting standards in countries with a common-law legal origin and generally better shareholder protection. Our findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction in Zhang [(2013). Accounting standards, cost of capital, resource allocation, and welfare in a large economy. The Accounting Review, 88(4), 1459–1488] that improving accounting standards effectively would increase social welfare in general.     

盈余管理与股票价格信息效率研究——基于非机会主义动机的视角

本文选取2008—2017年我国A股上市公司的数据,分析了盈余管理会改变公司所披露的财务报告的信息质量对公司股票价格的信息效率的影响。研究表明:盈余管理程度越大,公司股票价格信息效率越高。区分了机构投资者持股、两权分离度和分析师关注度等公司治理环境差异的进一步研究发现:对于机构投资者持股比例高的公司、两权分离度低的公司以及分析师关注度高的公司而言,盈余管理行为能够显著提高公司股票价格效率。     

股指期货对中国股市的稳定作用研究：羊群效应视角

股市中羊群效应是股市投资者盲目跟风的非理性行为。严重的羊群行为会造成市场的"暴涨暴跌"现象。本文基于羊群效应测度模型,对2006-2014年的股市数据进行实证检验,研究发现沪深300股指期货的推出弱化了股市的羊群行为,对股市的平稳运行有很大的促进作用。相对于主板市场,股指期货的推出对中小板市场羊群行为的抑制作用较小。这一发现为股指期货的"稳定器"功能提供新的证据。     

业绩预告披露与盈余管理关系的实证研究——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

本文以新会计准则实施后沪深A股上市公司为研究对象,研究了业绩预告披露与盈余管理的关系.研究发现:披露业绩预告公司的盈余管理程度显著高于未披露的公司;强制披露业绩预告公司的盈余管理程度显著高于自愿披露的公司;且上市公司在披露业绩预告前预期到了盈余管理后的盈利状况,盈余管理的主要目的是为了"规避"或"迎合"业绩预告制度.研究还发现资产规模小、盈利能力差与负债高的公司更可能从事盈余管理.最后,结合实证研究结论,为提高业绩预告信息的可靠性、进一步完善业绩预告制度,提出了相关政策建议.