International Differences in GAAP and the Pricing of Earnings

This study investigates the information content of two alternative accounting earnings measures constructed under U.K. and U.S. GAAP. The analysis is based on the 20-F SEC filings by U.K. domiciled companies having ADRs listed in the U.S. The research design involves testing the association between U.K. stock returns and alternative accounting numbers. The evidence suggests that, for the sample examined, U.K. GAAP earnings changes have incremental information content after controlling for U.S. GAAP earnings changes, but that earnings levels measured under U.S. GAAP have some independent incremental information content after controlling for U.K. GAAP earnings. The results are consistent with GAAP adjustments having a significant transitory component. The empirical results display explanatory power which is broadly consistent with previous work and the GAAP earnings adjustments add marginally to the ability of earnings to explain returns.     

Earnings Benchmarks and the Information Content of Quarterly Foreign Earnings of U.S. Multinational Companies

The meeting of earnings benchmarks is considered important for investors. The chief financial officers of U.S. companies state that the three most important earnings thresholds to meet are the earnings in the same quarter last year, the analysts' earnings forecast for the current quarter, and zero earnings. These earnings benchmarks have been defined in terms of total earnings. For U.S. multinational firms, total earnings consist primarily of domestic earnings and foreign earnings. We conduct an event study where we examine (1) the stock market reaction to meeting or beating quarterly domestic and foreign earnings benchmarks and (2) the market reaction to the changes in quarterly domestic and foreign earnings, while we control for meeting or beating the analysts' earnings forecast and the analysts' earnings forecast surprise. We find that the quarterly financial statement disclosure of domestic and foreign earnings under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 131 supplies investors with valuable information that was not previously disseminated through financial analysts or other sources. The stock market reaction to meeting or beating foreign earnings from the same quarter in the prior year is stronger than the market reaction to meeting or beating domestic earnings from the same quarter in the prior year.     

The Effect of Arthur Andersen's Demise on Clients' Audit Fees and Auditor Conservatism: International Evidence

Using samples from 12 non‐U.S.A. countries, we find that following Arthur Andersen's failure in the United States of America, successor Big‐N auditors charged an audit fee premium for ex‐Andersen clients compared to existing clients and non‐Andersen switch‐ins. We show that this audit fee premium is not attributable to the Andersen switch‐ins having lower prior earnings quality or lower bargaining power than non‐Andersen switch‐ins. We also show that ex‐Andersen clients exhibit higher earnings quality after the switch than do ongoing clients and other switch‐ins. These results suggest that the audit fee premium is attributable to auditor conservatism. Furthermore, we find that risk assessments for ex‐Andersen clients are higher in countries with weak legal and extra‐legal institutions. We interpret this result as suggesting that the effect of lost auditor reputation is stronger when objective evidence of earnings quality is uncertain because of weaker supporting institutions. This is the first study to document a direct effect of countrywide institutions on audit risk assessment.     

企业国际化战略与管理层业绩预告准确度

以2007—2020年中国A股上市公司为样本,深入探讨企业实施国际化战略对管理层业绩预告准确度（管理层业绩预告偏差）的影响。研究发现,国际化战略与管理层业绩预告偏差之间并非存在简单的线性相关关系,而是存在一种类似“U型”曲线的相关关系,说明随着企业国际化经营程度的提高,管理层业绩预告偏差会呈现出先减后增的变化趋势。机制检验结果表明,企业实施国际化战略所引发的企业经营风险、盈余操纵动机与代理成本的“U型”变化是“U型”曲线关系产生的重要原因。进一步分析发现,这种“U型”曲线关系主要出现在非国有、外资股东持股比例较低、非双重监管、分析师治理水平较差和审计师治理水平较差的企业中。研究结论对于引导证券监管部门防范国际化经营企业业绩预告违规风险具有一定的实践意义。     

A Comparitive Study of the Use of Financial Graphs in the Corporate Annual Reports of Major U.S. and U.K. Companies

The use of graphs to disclose information in corporate annual reports represents a significant dimension in financial disclosure management. Surprisingly, no inter-country comparative analysis of this area of voluntary disclosure has been conducted. This study compares the graphical reporting practices in the 1990 annual reports of 176 leading U.S. and U.K. industrial companies. Ninety-two per cent of U.S. companies use graphs compared with 80% of U.K. companies; the mean number of graphs per company being 13.0 and 7.7, respectively. Sales, an earnings measure, earnings per share and dividends per share are the four most frequently graphed aggregate financial performance variables in both countries. Significant differences in several of the variables graphed are found and explained in terms of environmental factors. In both countries, evidence of graphical information manipulation exists in the form of selectivity, measurement distortion, and presentational enhancement. Moderate evidence supports the hypothesis that U.K. companies are more likely than U.S. companies to adopt interpretative shading. Regulators need to clarify the responsibilities of directors and auditors by setting graphical guidelines.     

Income Inequality in Large U.S. Cities in the 1980s

Per capita personal income among states and regions has been shown to diverge during the 1980s following a long trend of income convergence. This paper investigates the divergence of income using median family income in the 1980s for the largest 51 U.S. cities. Producer services earnings and manufacturing earnings as a percent of total earnings are also investigated to shed light on income divergence. It is found that income and producer services earnings diverged in the 1980s unlike manufacturing earnings which converged. Convergence among regions for household income is also investigated. The results substantiate the common view of trends toward convergence prior to the 1980s and divergence thereafter.     

Capital Market Reactions to Accounting Earnings Announcements in an International Context

This study examines the association of four factors with U.S. securities market reactions to annual earnings announcements by non-U.S. multinational corporations and by a control sample of U.S. firms. The four factors examined are firm size, the magnitude of earnings change, timeliness, and the presence or absence of a concurrent dividend announcement. The non-U.S. corporations are from five countries - Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, and United Kingdom. Results for the group of non-U.S. firms indicate that firm size and timeliness are significant explanatory variables. For the control sample of U.S. firms, only size is significant.     

The pricing accuracy of alternative equity valuation models: Scandinavian evidence

In many decision contexts, there is a need for benchmark equity valuations, based on simplified modeling and publicly available information. Prior research on U.S. data however shows that the accuracy of such valuation models can be low and sensitive to the choice of model specifications and value driver predictions. In this paper, we test the applicability and pricing accuracy of three fundamental valuation (dividend discount, residual income, and abnormal earnings growth) models, all based on forecasts of company dividends, earnings, and/or equity book values. Extending prior research, we apply these models to Scandinavian firms with accounting data from the period 2005–2014, explicitly testing two approaches for the prediction of the value drivers—exogenously forecasted numbers versus projected historical numbers. Given access to the forecasted value drivers, the dividend discount model comes out as the most accurate valuation model. In particular, this holds in a comparison between the most parsimonious model specifications. The residual income valuation model generates the best pricing accuracy given the prediction of value drivers based on historical financial numbers. Notably, we observe pricing errors that in general are lower than what has been reported in prior U.S.‐based research for the dividend discount and the residual income valuation models. The pricing accuracy of the abnormal earnings growth models is surprisingly weak in the Scandinavian setting. However, these models improve somewhat after a couple of complexity adjustments, in particular with value driver predictions based on the projected history setting.     

Merger Premia and National Differences in Accounting for Goodwill

We examine the effects of international accounting diversity on the market for corporate control with particular reference to whether national differences in the treatment of purchased goodwill are associated with differences in premia offered by U.K. as opposed to U.S. acquirers of U.S. targets. We find merger premia associated with U.K. acquisitions to be consistently higher than those for U.S. acquisitions. Moreover, higher premiums offered by U.K. acquirors appear to be associated with not having to amortize goodwill to earnings. The evidence provided here suggests that national differences in accounting impact differentially on managerial behavior.     

Analysts' Earnings Forecasts and the Value Relevance of 20-F Reconciliations from non-U.S. to U.S. GAAP

This study extends existing research into the value relevance of reconciliations to U.S. GAAP by examining the role of analysts' earnings forecasts in explaining potential market reactions to the earnings reconciliation. One possible reason why the evidence on the value relevance of the earnings reconciliation is weak is that earnings are forecast by analysts. Their forecasts may pre-empt some of the information content of the earnings reconciliation disclosures. Our findings indicate that analysts' forecasts are value relevant and that they play a pre-emptive role for some firms. For others, however, the earnings reconciliation has information content that is not pre-empted by analysts' forecasts.     

Sex Discrimination in the Audiology Profession

A bstract . Male and female audiologists earn substantially different sums in the U.S. Inour survey of the practicing audiologists across the continental U.S., it was found that the male audiologists, on the average, earned $9,536 a year more in 1980 than did the female audiologists. The survey data, involving a well-defined profession where males and females were nearly equally represented, were analysed to check if the observed differential was due to sex-based productivity differences or to discrimination. Attributed to discrimination must be 64% of the earnings differential; it could not be explained by the relevant supply characteristics of audiologists, viz. experience, schooling, place of employment, marital status, regional concentration , etc. This conclusion was further confirmed by separate regressions of audiologists' earnings by attributing female supply characteristics to the male earnings structure and the male characteristics to the female earnings structure.     

Accuracy, Bias, and Dispersion in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts: The Case of Cross-Listed Foreign Firms

This paper examines differences in analysts' earnings forecast characteristics for foreign incorporated non-U.S. firms cross-listed in the U.S. stock markets relative to a control sample of purely domestic firms. Examining summary earnings forecasts over the calendar years 1984 through 1989, this paper provides evidence that there are statistically significant differences in bias and accuracy between domestic and cross-listed foreign firms. Consistent with prior research, we find a horizon effect in accuracy; i.e., accuracy improves as we get closer to the actual earnings announcement for both types of firms. However, the differences in accuracy between the cross-listed and domestic firms persist only in the earlier forecast horizons where analysts' forecasts are less accurate for foreign cross-listed firms compared with domestic firms. The evidence is also consistent with analysts' exhibiting less optimism with respect to cross-listed foreign firms compared with the domestic firms. Finally, the paper also documents that there is a greater consensus among analysts for foreign cross-listed firms than for domestic firms.     

Testing neoclassical convergence in regional incomes and earnings

The time-series properties of per capita income and per capita earnings in the regions of the United States are tested for consistency with the neoclassical growth model's prediction of convergence. We find evidence for per capita income convergence for U.S. regions during the 1929–1990 period after allowing for a trend break in 1946. These findings support the neoclassical model's prediction of convergence. The evidence for per capita earnings convergence is, however, less conclusive. Shocks to per capita earnings are found to be more persistent than shocks to per capita income. This implies that the regional distribution of transfer payments tends to smooth the effects of deviation on relative regional per capita earnings and reinforce trends in per capita income convergence.     

Racial Differences in Returns to Educational Investment in the South

Abstract . The paper calculates rates of return to educational investment in the South and highlights differences in returns according to race and sex. The results of this investigation are compared with the results of earlier studies, and it appears that there has been a relative increase in the returns to Black education in the South. For most education levels, Blacks still earn lower returns than Whites, but the recent narrowing of earnings rates suggests that southern Blacks have made significant progress in their drive for equality of opportunity.     

Occupational and industrial mobility in the United States

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and using both the original and the new series of occupation and industry codes, we investigate occupational and industrial mobility of individuals over the 1969–1980 and 1981–1993 periods in the U.S. We find that workers changed both occupations and industries more frequently in the later period. We also find that for men occupational and industrial changes are associated with lower earnings, though this effect has lessened somewhat over time; while for women the results are mixed. Our results also indicate that older and better paid men are less likely to shift occupation or industry.     

Occupational change,employer change,internal migration,and earnings

"In this paper I use microdata from the [U.S.] Panel Study of Income Dynamics to measure the financial returns to intercounty and interstate migration for individuals in a temporal framework accounting for gains that accrue over time....To account for the indirect effects of migration on earnings, explanatory variables are created by interacting migration status with: (1) occupational change, (2) employer change and (3) changes in both occupation and employer. These interaction terms are then included in the earnings functions. Earnings are estimated for three years subsequent to the migration decision to account for the financial returns to migration accruing over time. Results indicate that, when estimating earnings, the use of a simple migration dummy variable will mask the indirect effects of migration on earnings."     

The Corrosive Effect of Offshore Financial Centers on Multinational Firms’ Disclosure Strategy

Abstract

This study investigates whether U.S. multinational firms with subsidiaries located in offshore financial centers (OFCs) (i.e. offshore firms) are more likely to be opaque in their voluntary disclosure relative to U.S. multinationals without such subsidiaries (non-offshore firms). We use management earnings forecasts to capture corporate voluntary disclosure. Consistent with the opportunism view, but inconsistent with the efficiency argument, our results (including robustness checks) show that offshore firms are less likely to issue earnings forecasts, disclose forecasts less frequently, exhibit a stronger tendency to withhold bad news forecasts, and release less precise forecasts than non-offshore firms. Moreover, of the three distinct dimensions of OFCs’ institutional environment, namely, low taxation, lax regulation, and secrecy policy, each plays a role in negatively shaping firms’ disclosure strategy. Thus, OFCs’ institutional features exacerbate the opacity that plagues firms seeking to avoid taxes via their OFC subsidiaries. Our results are consistent with the notion that, beyond the scope of taxes, multinational firms’ use of OFCs has a corrosive effect on market information dynamics. Hence, OFCs have a much wider impact on the U.S. economy as well as other major economies than just tax avoidance or evasion.     

How Does Education Affect the Earnings Distribution in Urban China?*

It is widely believed that investing in education could be an effective strategy to promote higher standards of living and equity. We empirically assess this claim by estimating returns to education across the whole earnings distribution in urban China and find supporting evidence. In particular, we find that returns to education are more pronounced for individuals in the lower tail of the distribution than for those in the upper tail and that returns to education are uniformly larger for women than men. We also find that returns to education increased over time across the whole earnings distribution.     

Women and poverty: Beyond earnings and welfare

Women’s poverty rates are higher than men’s, with single mothers having extremely high poverty rates. This article first briefly examines poverty measures and U.S. poverty rates among men and women. The author then describes and evaluates three categories of economic research on poverty: the lack or inadequacy of employment and earnings; family structure and welfare; and earnings capacities, care-giving responsibilities and employment. Finally the author assesses the policies to alleviate women’s poverty derived from these explanations.     

半强制分红政策与再融资企业的盈余管理——来自PSM的证据

证监会2006年颁布实施了半强制分红政策,对有再融资需求的上市公司的分红比例做了硬性规定。通过PSM（倾向得分匹配）方法研究半强制分红政策的实施对上市公司盈余管理的影响,结果表明半强制分红政策的实施导致了再融资上市公司为了达到相应分红比例的监管门槛而进行更多的盈余管理。进一步研究还发现：在再融资上市公司中,国有企业的盈余管理程度高于非国有企业,其应计盈余管理程度和真实盈余管理程度都较高;而非国有企业盈余管理的程度显著低于国有企业,并且其盈余管理主要是依靠较为隐蔽的真实盈余管理,尤其是依靠真实盈余管理方式中的产品成本来进行操纵。