The value relevance of earnings disaggregation provided in the Spanish profit and loss account

This study analyses the value relevance of the different components of the earnings figure that appear in the Spanish profit and loss account in order to determine the preferred level of disaggregation by investors. It is considered that the disaggregation may help to evaluate the earnings quality; that is, its predictive ability about future earnings. We use a valuation model based on Ohlson (1995), which models firm value as a function of book value of equity and earnings, adding the earnings components to determine whether they provide incremental price-relevant information beyond aggregate earnings. In addition, we allow the parameters to vary under some firm-specific circumstances. Our results support the usefulness of the earnings decomposition for valuation purposes, resting primarily on the disclosure of the corporation tax, particularly for either small companies, or with a high-risk profile or with low persistence of earnings. It seems that neither financial profit nor extraordinary earnings have additional information content over the bottom-line figure, which is consistent with the IASC's position on ordinary versus extraordinary items.     

契约型区域规划的困境

在行政性分权的市场环境下,规避或漠视地方间利益冲突是指令型区域规划失灵的根本原因。契约型规划强调规划是集体行动的契约,倡导构建一个不同利益主体表达、交流的平台,以减少规划实施过程中各自为政的阻力。基于利益博弈的视角,分析了区域规划的跨区性、综合性特征与规划实施的可操作性之间的内在矛盾,指出随着地方政府数量和规划内容的增加,区域规划成为集体行动契约的可能性越小,其实施的可操作性越低,契约型区域规划难以使城市合作摆脱囚徒困境。     

The correlation of spouses' permanent and transitory earnings and family earnings inequality in Canada

I develop a very flexible error-component model of family earnings dynamics to examine recent Canadian trends in the variance of family earnings and its components using the ‘permanent-transitory’ analytical framework. In contrast to most studies of family earnings inequality, the main focus of this paper is on the trends in the correlation between spouses' permanent and transitory earnings. I find strong evidence of an increase in the correlation of spouses' permanent earnings before 1993 and no evidence of such an increase after 1993. However, the correlation of spouses' transitory earnings steadily increased throughout the 1990s and well into the 2000s.     

The reporting of gross and net earnings in a postal survey

In a controlled experiment involving a sample comprising 8300 school leavers who entered the labour market in 1983/84, half of the sample were asked to report on gross weekly earnings (if employed) or expected gross earnings (if not employed). The other half were asked equivalent questions in terms of net earnings. Comparisons between the responses indicate that those in employment were able to provide consistent responses concerning gross and net earnings. Among the non-employed, however, there is reason to believe that those reporting expected net earnings may have underestimated the impact of the deductions due to tax and National Insurance contributions. The size of this understatement is such as to create a discrepancy of some 9 per cent (in terms of gross earnings) between the two sources of expected earnings.     

The effect of earnings forecast precision on firm value and insider trading under voluntary disclosure in Taiwan

Taiwan changed its earnings forecast policy from mandatory to voluntary disclosure in 2005. In this study, the inferences of voluntary earnings forecast are examined based on forecasts issued by listed firms. This study suspects that insiders have a temptation to strategically manipulate financial forecast information to influence markets and thus receive extra rents. Under the new earnings forecast disclosure policy, the number of disclosing firm decreases but the precision of earnings forecast increases. The empirical result from dynamic panel data evidences the forecast error of voluntary disclosure may negatively impact firm values. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between insiders＇ trading profit and manipulation of earnings forecasts. As volatility in insider manipulation increases, it is difficult for the investors to predict the real intention of insiders, and insiders may achieve greater benefits from trading. This study also observes that many listed companies hold investor conferences to provide earnings guidance in Taiwan. The reason may be that investor conference is more flexible and has less forecast error cost than the formal financial forecast. This study provides important insights into earnings forecast policy in emerging markets. The competent authority should improve corporate governance and develop monitoring functions to abate forecast manipulation.     

Competition among mechanism designers in a common value environment

A competitive economy is studied in which sellers offer alternative direct mechanisms to buyers who have private information about their own private use value for the commodity being traded. In addition the commodity has a common value to all buyers, perhaps represented by the future resale value of the commodity. A competitive equilibrium in mechanisms is described. In every such equilibrium it is shown that sellers must offer mechanisms that are allocationally equivalent to English ascending price auctions. The reservation prices that sellers set are shown to be below their ex post cost of trading the commodity. Received: 24 April 1998 / Accepted: 8 March 1999     

Immigrant earnings,relative to what? The importance of earnings function specification and comparison points

Immigrant relative earnings estimates are sensitive to the choice of comparison point and the specification of earnings. Non-sample mean comparisons (Borjas, 1985) understate relative earnings. Simple earnings specifications (linear education, quadratic experience) overstate relative earnings for both poorly and well-educated immigrants. Specifications which ignore omitted variables understate the relative earnings of poorly educated immigrants and overstate those of well-educated ones. Although measures of assimilation and changes in immigrant quality are insensitive to earnings specification, they indicate strong earnings growth for post-1964 immigrants, an overall decrease in immigrant quality, and an increase in Mexican immigrant quality.     

The information content of earnings and turnover announcements in France

Annual net income is seen by shareholders as the most important figure, since it is, for individual accounts, the basis of appropriation of profit by the shareholders' general meeting. However, firms publish interim figures at a higher frequency to allow investors to react quickly to frequently updated information that gives them a more accurate view of the evolution of the firm. In the United States, according to regulation S-X, the interim quarterly reports must disclose the net income. In France, firms must publish their quarterly turnovers and their half-year income statements in addition to their annual accounts. Whereas American publications are practically homogeneous in nature in terms of earnings disclosure, the information content of French quarterly reports differs from that of the half-year and annual accounts. Such French irregularities in information content mean that interim and annual announcements do not have the same value for the shareholders. Because of the heterogeneous nature and the time frame of the disclosed information, one may wonder if French market reactions to the announcements of interim publications exhibit significantly different characteristics from those observed for quarterly releases in other countries. This can only be appreciated through a differential analysis of French market response to interim and annual announcements.     

The distribution of lifetime earnings: a problem of intertemporal aggregation

Summary The main reason to study lifetime earnings as opposed to annual earnings is that the former are purged of life cycle influences. If annual earnings are described by a random variable, it logically follows that lifetime earnings are also random. This paper examines the implications of this statement, starting from the basic assumption that annual earnings of a new entrant to the labor force are a drawing from a two parameter lognormal distribution. It is found that the probability distribution function of lifetime earnings can be derived explicitly if one is willing to define lifetime earnings as a geometric mean.     

Panel estimates of a two-tiered earnings frontier

This paper uses panel data to estimate a two-tiered instead of a one-tiered frontier model. The innovation is to develop a two-step maximum likelihood procedure yielding consistent estimates of inefficiency, while at the same time accounting for heterogeneity. The model is applied by estimating a ‘two-tiered’ earnings function to obtain indices of worker and firm incomplete labour market wage information using panel data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1969–84). The estimation preserves the traditional quadratic age-earnings profile, but measures the extent to which employers often pay more than necessary to hire a worker (incomplete employer information), while at the same time, employees often accept wages less than they could otherwise command (incomplete employee information). The results indicate that employees acquire less information than employers. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capital market reactions to earnings announcements: empirical evidence on the difference in the information content of IAS-based earnings and EC-Directives-based earnings

Listing on a foreign stock exchange and the aim to attract international investors usually forces European quoted companies to adapt information supplied in financial statements to different information needs of international investors. Because of the dominance of the American stock market, this adaptation raises especially the question whether Anglo-American-oriented accounting standards (for instance IAS — International Accounting Standards) convey a higher information content for investors than continental-Europe-oriented accounting standards (for instance EC-Directives). The study examines the information content of earnings announcements, i.e. abnormal returns resulting from un-expected earnings, for a sample of Swiss quoted companies which have changed the accounting standard used for presenting Swiss GAAP consolidated financial statements to either EC-Directives or IAS and can therefore contribute to this discussion. The results of the study suggest that IAS-based earnings announce-ments convey a statistically significant higher information content than earnings announcements based on the Swiss GAAP if a variance-approach is used. For investors in the Swiss capital market, the switch from Swiss GAAP to IAS has therefore increased the information content of financial statements. But comparing IAS-based and EC-Directives-based earnings announcements, the results suggest that for investors IAS-based earnings do not possess a statistically significant higher information content than EC-Directives-based earnings. This result has been achieved despite the fact that for Swiss financial analysts financial statements based on IAS convey a significant higher information content than financial statements based on EC-Directives. Avoiding problems in specifying a model for unexpected earnings by standardizing the mean of the abnormal returns of each event window to a positive value does not lead to a different conclusion if the variance approach is used.     

The economic profitability of pre-IPO earnings management and IPO underperformance

The purpose of this paper is to test the market performance of a zero-investment trading strategy based on the knowledge of IPO underperformance and estimates of pre-IPO earnings management. This trading strategy is implemented by forming two-firm portfolios that take short positions in the IPOs and long positions in control firms matched by industry and market capitalization. The first test shows that significant positive abnormal returns can be earned trading on the knowledge of IPO underperformance. However, the relationship between the level of abnormal returns and the level of pre-IPO earnings management is not found to be significant. Overall, our results suggest that existent pre-IPO earnings management plays important roles although investors may not sophisticated enough to measure the level of earnings management.     

盈余管理与审计意见的实证分析

盈余管理一直以来是会计实证研究的一个热点问题,本文主要从上市公司的盈余管理对审计意见的影响进行分析,研究发现,公司的盈余管理行为并未对审计意见的类型产生重要影响。但对于财务状况较差的上市公司而言,其盈余管理程度越高,其被出具非标准无保留审计意见的可能性越大。     

The impact of computer use on earnings in a developing country: Evidence from Ecuador

This paper examines the earnings premium to computer use in a developing country: Ecuador. We use different approaches to examine whether the premium is causal. Controlling for an extensive set of observables, we find an earnings difference between users and non-users of around 20%. Using first differences, the premium drops and is no longer significant in a specification that includes proxies for workers' computer experience and knowledge. Estimates of the impact of the intensity of computer use are also small and in most cases insignificant. Estimates of the pencil premium are substantial in level specifications, but become insignificant in fixed effect specifications. Taken together, also in the setting of a developing country we do not find evidence in favour of the computer premium reflecting a causal impact.     

价值链管理环境下基于作业成本法的供应商选择评价模型

价值链管理环境下,企业首要任务之一就是要选择良好的供应商合作伙伴,目前常用的综合评估方法具有较大的主观性.本文依据价值链管理的特点,从成本的视角考察了战略性供应商的选择评价问题.首先面向供应商管理及采购的过程界定出战略性供应商成本,战略性供应商成本包含了与采购价格、质量、时间等关键因素相关的成本信息.利用作业成本法(ABC)对战略性供应商成本进行估计,提出了基于作业成本法的供应商选择评价模型.     

The allocation of specific assets,relationship duration,and contractual coordination in buyer–seller relationships

This study explores the interaction effect of bilateral dependence and relationship duration on contractual coordination. In particular, the study compares how the allocation of specific assets, unilateral or mutual, affects contractual coordination across buyer–seller relationships with a short prior history as opposed to a long one. Data from a survey of 157 industrial purchasing relationships demonstrates that unilateral investments in specific assets by either the buyer or the supplier are more strongly supported by contractual coordination as the length of the relationship increases. On the other hand, contractual coordination of mutually deployed specific assets is significantly relaxed as relationships evolve over time.     

上市公司利润操纵的经济学分析

本文根据契约理论和信息经济学理论阐述了利润操纵的原因.同时,笔者提出完善产权制度、改进公司治理结构、运用声誉机制和法律机制、加强道德建设等可以防范利润操纵.     

The influence of contractual and relational factors on the effectiveness of third party logistics relationships

Outsourcing has become popular in both management literature and practice, but few studies have examined the effects of two important and potentially complementary elements – contractual and relational elements – on the effectiveness of logistics outsourcing relationships. It is theorized that contract formality, the thoroughness of contract negotiations, trust and commitment increase the effectiveness of 3PL provider–client relationships. For empirical validation a survey was carried out in the 3PL industry among both 3PL providers and clients. Using PLS path modelling, we observed that for both LSPs and clients, contract formality, trust and commitment are all positively related to relationship effectiveness. The results for negotiation thoroughness are mixed. The model explains 59% (LSPs) and 60% (clients) of the variance in relationship effectiveness. It is concluded that both ‘hard’ contractual aspects and ‘soft’ relationship aspects are important for effective supply chain collaboration. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided.     

The value of information in a sealed-bid auction

In this paper, we explore bidders' incentives to gather information in auctions, when there is one bidder with only public information and another with some private information. We find that the bidder with only public information makes no profit at equilibrium, while the bidder with private information generally makes positive profits. Moreover, the informed bidder's profits rise when he gathers extra information, and the increase in greater when the information is collected overtly than when it is collected covertly. When the uniformed bidder can observe some of the better-informed bidder's information, he prefers to make his observations covertly. If the seller has access to some of the better-informed bidder's information, or if he has affiliated information of his own, he can raise the expected price by adopting a policy of making that information public. However, there are cases where a policy of publicizing his information would lower the expected price. The distinguishing feature of these latter cases seems to be that the seller's information is complementary to the information of the better-informed bidder.