Overvaluation and earnings management: Does the degree of overvaluation matter?

We examine whether the choice of earnings management strategies employed by managers of overvalued firms depends on the degree of market overvaluation. By distinguishing between substantially overvalued (SOV) and relatively overvalued (ROV) firms, we find that SOV firms significantly inflate earnings using both accruals-based and real earnings management. In contrast, managers of ROV firms do not engage in accruals-based earnings management and their firms’ accounts tend to report higher discretionary expenses. The reported higher discretionary expenses of ROV firms are comparable to the discretionary expenses of firms in the expanding stage of their business life cycle, a pattern consistent with ROV firms increasing discretionary expenses to finance growth and hence justify the high market valuation. Overall, we show that the existing evidence on income-increasing earnings management by overvalued firms is mainly driven by the pressure to sustain the high market valuation of firms that are substantially overvalued.     

提高盈余透明度能带来资本市场和企业双赢吗？——基于企业投资行为视角

盈余透明度作为企业盈余质量是否有效传递的关键,连接着资本市场与企业。在未来更加市场化的股票发行注册制下,盈余信息直接关系着投资者的判断与决策。盈余透明度的提高减少信息不对称,有利于抑制企业机会主义行为,有效保护投资者权益。但盈余透明度提高在有利于资本市场发展的同时,能否给企业自身发展带来好处呢？本文以我国2009-2018年A股上市公司为样本,探究盈余透明度与企业投资行为的关系,找出盈余透明度对企业投资效率的正向影响,证明提高企业盈余透明度是一种双赢的行为,既是机会主义行为防治的有效手段,优化资本市场环境,又是企业健康发展的有力助推因素。     

Performance measures and short‐termism: An exploratory study

We examine the relationship between performance measurement systems and short‐termism. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of senior managers drawn from a major telecommunications company to determine the extent to which the diagnostic and interactive uses of financial and non‐financial measures give rise to short‐termism. We find no evidence to suggest that the use of financial measures, either diagnostically or interactively, leads to short‐term behaviour. In contrast, we find a significant association between the use of non‐financial measures and short‐termism. Results suggest that the diagnostic use of non‐financial measures leads managers to make inter‐temporal trade‐off choices that prioritise the short term to the detriment of the long term, while we find interactive use is negatively associated with short‐termism. We find an imbalance in favour of the diagnostic use over the interactive use of non‐financial performance measures is associated with short‐termism. Overall, findings highlight the importance of considering the specific use of performance measures in determining the causes of short‐termism.     

基金抱团对我国上市公司投资效率的影响

基于委托代理理论,运用社会网络分析方法,依据2007-2018年我国A股上市公司数据和公募基金数据,探究公募基金抱团行为对我国上市公司投资效率的影响。结果表明：基金抱团行为对上市公司投资效率产生了消极影响,盈余管理具有中介作用;与国有企业相比较,基金抱团对非国有企业投资效率的影响力更大。鉴于此,应强化对基金团体交互行为的识别和监管,从而发挥基金团体的外部治理作用,促进企业投资效率的提高。     

Implications of Components of Income Excluded from Pro Forma Earnings for Future Profitability and Equity Valuation

Abstract:  This study addresses three research questions relating to total exclusions, special items, and other exclusions. Are each of these pro forma exclusion components forecasting irrelevant? Are each of the exclusion components value irrelevant? Are the valuation multiples on the exclusion components justified by their ability to forecast future profitability as predicted by the Ohlson (1999) model? Findings are generally consistent with the market-inefficiency results presented in Doyle et al. (2003) . Total exclusions are valued negatively by the market despite the prediction that total exclusions will be valued positively. Valuation results also suggest that stocks with positive other exclusions are overpriced.     

The Predictive Value of Expenses Excluded from Pro Forma Earnings

We investigate the informational properties of pro forma earnings. This increasingly popular measure of earnings excludes certain expenses that the company deems non-recurring, non-cash, or otherwise unimportant for understanding the future value of the firm. We find, however, that these expenses are far from unimportant. Higher levels of exclusions lead to predictably lower future cash flows. We also find that investors do not fully appreciate the lower cash flow implications at the time of the earnings announcement. A trading strategy based on the excluded expenses yields a large positive abnormal return in the years following the announcement, and persists after controlling for various risk factors and other anomalies.     

透视中国上市公司的“迎合投资”行为

采用2003～2008年中国沪深股票市场的A股上市公司作为研究样本,在市场非理性背景下研究投资者情绪对上市公司投资行为的影响。区分市场情绪低落和高涨时期,发现只有在市场情绪高涨时期公司投资才对投资者情绪敏感;而在市场情绪低落时期,上市公司通过盈余管理导致错误定价配合公司投资决策。作为投资者短视代表的换手率对上市公司迎合投资行为的影响呈倒U型,说明并不是换手率越高,公司投资对投资者情绪的迎合越明显。     

《The influence of institutional investors on myopic R＆D investment behavior》述评

机构投资者作为证券市场中的重要力量,越来越受到理论界和实务界的关注。论文对宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院会计学教授布赖恩-布希（Brian Bushee）的论文＂The influence of institutional investors on myopic R＆D investment behavior＂（机构投资者对企业短视研发投资行为的影响,以下简称Bushee（1998））进行评价并提出相关的建议和研究方向。     

Pricing and Mispricing Effects of SFAS 131

Abstract:  We investigate the effects of the introduction of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 131 (SFAS 131) on the market's valuation of foreign earnings. Thomas (1999) documents that investors discount the value of foreign earnings for US multinational companies. He conjectures but does not test the possibility that this finding is due to poor disclosure related to foreign operations. We find strong evidence that the introduction of the standard is positively associated with the pricing of foreign earnings. In addition, we use both the Mishkin (1983) test and a zero-investment hedge portfolio test and find that investors' mispricing of foreign earnings lessens (and in fact disappears) after SFAS 131. This study is one of the first attempts to show that improved disclosure reduces mispricing.     

Valuation Implications of Investment Opportunities and Earnings Permanence

This study investigates the value-relevance of accounting earnings in the presence of investment (growth) opportunities after making two theoretical and methodological research design refinements. First, we test for the incremental effect of growth on firms earnings response coefficients after controlling for the extent of transitory earnings under the assumption that the value-relevance of earnings with respect to growth should be stronger when earnings are more permanent. Second, we perform comprehensive factor analysis using market-based and accounting-based measures to construct a composite proxy for investment opportunities. We find that firms investment opportunities and the relative permanence of current earnings affect the value-relevance of those earnings. Additionally, we find that the interaction between permanent earnings and investment opportunities produces an even stronger price response to earnings.     

Political embeddedness and firms’ choices of earnings management strategies in China

We examine whether and how political embeddedness influences financial reporting quality in China by investigating how government ownership and political connections affect Chinese listed firms’ choices of earnings management strategies. The results show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and in particular, central SOEs, are more likely to substitute accrual-based earnings management strategies with costlier but less detectable real earnings management strategies than non-SOEs. The results also indicate that politically connected enterprises (PCEs) are more likely to employ less detectable real earnings management strategies than non-PCEs, so much so that PCEs’ total earnings management level is higher than that of non-PCEs.