国际税收情报的证据效力

国际税收情报是缔约国的主管机关相互交换的税收信息。它对于加强国际税收征管,减少税收逃避行为具有非常重要的作用。但是,在现实执法过程中,国际税收情报如何具体运用,是否是证据,是否具有证据效力,是否可以直接作为定案的依据等问题尚没有明确的法律规定。本文就国际税收情报的证据效力问题进行初步的分析和探讨,认为税务机关应当正确认识国家税收情报的性质,一方面应重视其提供的信息和线索,另一方面又不能直接把国际税收情报作为定案的证据。     

Firm Size and the Information Content of Annual Earnings Announcements: Australian Evidence

Abstract:   We investigate the effect of firm size on the market's short‐window response to annual earnings announcements for a large sample of Australian listed companies. Our research design involves regressions of unexpected earnings against unexpected returns. Non‐linearity in the returns‐earnings relationship is incorporated and other factors known to affect the response to earnings announcements are controlled for. Contrary to prior US research, our results show that firm size has either no effect on the response to earnings announcements (3 day window) or the response is significantly stronger for larger firms (twenty‐one day window). The information content of earnings announcements is present across firm size categories but the nature of the response differs with firm size and context.     

分部信息披露:经验证据与未来展望

分部信息的强制性披露一直是研究的热点问题之一.围绕着分部信息的披露全面而系统地综述了国外关于该问题的研究成果,研究表明其研究视角主要关注于本国研究,较少设计分部信息有关的国际比较(即横向比较),另外对于业务分部研究较多而对于地理分部的分析较为单薄.在以后的研究中有必要进行分部信息的国际比较研究和地理分部的研究,以推动该领域的研究进程.     

Sample Size and the Strength of Evidence: A Bayesian Interpretation of Binomial Tests of the Information Content of Qualified Audit Reports

Lindley (1957) demonstrated that, from a Bayesian standpoint, a given level of statistical significance P carries less evidence against the null hypothesis H _o the larger (more powerful) the test. Moreover, if the sample is sufficiently large, a result significant on H _o at 5% or lower may represent strong evidence in support of H _o, not against it. Contrary to Lindley's argument, a great many applied researchers, trained exclusively in orthodox statistics, feel intuitively that to'reject' the null hypothesis H _o at (say) α= 5% is more convincing evidence, ceteris paribus , against H _o the larger the sample. This is a consistent finding of surveys in empirical psychology. Similarly, in accounting, see the principles for interpreting statistical tests suggested by Burgstahler (1987). In econometrics, 'Lindley's paradox' (as it has become known in statistics) has been explained in well known books by Zellner (1971), Leamer (1978) and Judge, Hill, Griffiths, Lutkepohl and Lee (1982), but is not widely appreciated. The objective of this paper is to reiterate the Bayesian argument in an applied context familiar to empirical researchers in accounting.     

The Information Content of Australian Managed Fund Ratings

Abstract:  We examine the information content of managed fund ratings for Australian retail investors. Because fund ratings, premised on a quantitative-qualitative model, are highly transitory, we question whether investors formulate their investment decisions with respect to changes in ratings and whether ratings, in turn, react to fund flows. We find that information regarding fund flows can be obtained from ratings, and that rating changes can have far-reaching effects. Investors flock to newly upgraded funds while they penalize those that have been downgraded by withdrawing funds. Investors are constantly anticipating ratings revisions, particularly downgrades, and we attribute this phenomenon to the role of qualitative factors in the ratings.     

Measurement Errors and Information Content of Segment Reporting

This paper assesses the measurement errors inherent in segment reporting. Measurement errors are gauged by comparing the correlation of segment results with their industry to the corresponding correlation for single line-of-business firms operating in the same industry. The findings show that the measurement errors in segment information, particularly earnings, are larger than those in the financial information reported by single line-of-business firms. The cross-sectional variation in the measurement errors can be traced to cost/revenue allocations, management intervention in segment reporting, and the operational structure of multi-segment firms. Market tests indicate that the information content of segment information is inversely related to the estimated measurement errors. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Information Content of Internal Control Weaknesses: The Evidence from Japan

This paper investigates how capital markets in a code-law country, Japan, react to the disclosure of internal control weaknesses (ICW). The Japanese government attempted to implement a more concise, efficient, and, thus, less strict internal control reporting system than Section 404 of the US-SOX. In fact, for the first two years, the disclosure rate of ICW has been much lower in Japan than in the U.S. While market reactions to the disclosure of ICW are not significantly different from zero in our event study analysis, they become significantly negative after controlling for other information released around the disclosure date, audit quality, and other firm attributes. Our results are consistent with the notion that the disclosure of ICW is informative to the market because it is less frequent and exceptional in Japan.     

上市公司分部信息披露动因与约束

分部信息的披露主体主要是上市公司.公司出于竞争投资者有限的资金等目的有自愿披露分部信息的动因.由于分部信息披露存在成本,在没有管制的情况下,企业出于自身利益最大化考虑,将通过对收益和成本的权衡来决定分部信息披露.由于分部信息披露的外部性、分部信息分布的不对称性等,不能完全依赖于自愿披露,必须对分部信息披露进行适度的管制,强制公司披露分部信息.     

Heterogeneity of Funds and Information Disclosure: Evidence

Institutional investors, especially public funds, play an important role in governing listed firms as they grow in Chinese stock markets. We classify each fund as “dedicated,” “transient,” or “mixed,” according to the concentration, turnover, and profit sensitivity of their stock holdings. We find that listed firms with more shares held by dedicated funds have a higher disclosure quality, while firms with more shares held by transient funds have a lower disclosure quality. These findings are consistent in different model settings. In addition, dedicated funds improve the disclosure quality of non-state-owned enterprises more than state-owned enterprises. Dedicated funds can benefit from the lower debt-financing cost and higher stock liquidity of firms with better disclosure quality.     

The Information Content Of Calls Of Debt: Evidence From Long-Run Stock Returns

We examine the long‐run performance of the common stock of firms following calls of both straight and convertible debt from 1945 to 1995. Using a sample of 718 calls of straight debt, we find an average abnormal return in the five years following the call of between 0.16% and 0.34% per month, which compounds to an economically and statistically significant 11% to 22% over the five‐year period. This evidence of overperformance following calls shows a distinct symmetry between the straight debt and equity markets. Issues of debt and equity are both followed by long‐term underperformance, whereas stock repurchases and debt calls are both followed by long‐run overperformance. For our sample of 713 calls of convertible debt, we find little systematic evidence of abnormal performance following the call. Some researchers suggest that calls of convertible debt provide negative signals to the market. Our results provide no support for this claim. In contrast, our evidence of marginal positive long‐run returns provides weak support for the model that calls of convertible debt signal the realization of profitable investment options, and for the price pressure hypothesis.     

The Earnings Information Content of Dividend Initiations and Omissions

Previous studies have found that dividend initiations and omissions convey important information about subsequent earnings changes. However, this finding may be subject to a sample survival bias. We find that survivorship does not affect the positive relation between dividend changes and past earnings changes. Also, we find dividend omitting firms are able to generate significantly positive earnings one to two years after the omission. However, contrary to previous findings, firms' earnings are not significantly increased following the dividend initiation. The results suggest that survivorship tends to bias inference toward finding that dividends signal future earnings.     

分部信息披露会计准则的国际比较及启示

以各国相关机构发布的与分部信息披露相关的会计准则为切入点,在对分部信息披露的目的、可报告分部的确认基础、分部信息的披露内容以及披露方式和披露期间进行国际比较分析的基础上,将分部信息以附表的形式在年度报告中予以披露,而且在对可报告分部的确认时应缩小确认标准并出台相关指南给企业以明确指导,尽量减少管理层的专业判断和主观认定.     

The Value Relevance of Equity Method Fair Value Disclosures

We assess the valuation implications of the fair value disclosures made for publicly traded securities accounted for under the equity method. We test the association between investors' stock price metrics and fair value disclosures while controlling for book values on a sample of 172 investor firm-years during 1993–1997. Our results indicate that the information in the fair value disclosures is incremental to the information provided by both an investment's equity method book value and equity method reported income. This suggests that there is nothing unique about investments in publicly traded common stock that involve significant influence that makes the fair value disclosures irrelevant for firm valuation.     

交易量的信息含量:台湾期权市场的证据

本文应用台湾股指期权市场详细的交易数据,对台指期权交易量的信息含量进行了全面系统的实证检验。我们从全市场、不同投资者以及不同在值程度期权分类角度分别构建了多个五分钟交易量指标,并检验它们对未来台指走势的预测能力。我们发现,全市场的期权交易量指标基本不具备未来指数走势预测能力,但境内机构投资者和境外机构投资者交易量中包含显著的预测信息,价外期权的信息明显地优于价内期权和平价期权。     

Industry Information Transfers: The Effect of Information Environment

This study extends the information environment theory of Atiase (1985) that suggests an inverse relation between the information available about a firm and the security price reaction to its release of earnings. Non-announcing firms' security price responses are found to be inversely related to their market value but directly related to the number of peer firm articles appearing in the Wall Street Journal and the historical earnings correlations within their industry. The results suggest that information environment affects the security price relevance of a firm's own and its peer firms' earnings.     

Information Asymmetry and Earnings Management: Some Evidence

This paper conducts an empirical investigation of the relationship between information asymmetry and earnings management predicted by Dye (1988) and Trueman and Titman (1988). When information asymmetry is high, stakeholders do not have sufficient resources, incentives, or access to relevant information to monitor manager's actions, which gives rise to the practice of earnings management (Schipper, 1989; Warfield et al., 1995). Empirical results suggest a systematic relationship between the magnitude of information asymmetry and the level of earnings management in two different settings.