The effect of financial reporting quality on corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from the Tunisian stock market

Positive Accounting Theory (Watts and Zimmerman, 1978) stipulates that financial reporting has two dimensions: market signaling and monitoring managerial behaviors. Through these signaling and stewardship means, a better financial reporting quality would have significant economic consequences in terms of efficient resources allocation, which results in improving firms’ investment decision. In this paper, we examine the impact of financial reporting quality on corporate investment efficiency. Our sample is based on 25 Tunisian listed companies for the period 1997–2013. The findings confirm that some characteristics of the financial information, namely, reliability and smoothness, appear to increase the investment inefficiency, while others, i.e., conservatism and relevance, seem have no significant effect on investment decisions. We attribute such results mainly to the contextual specificities of the Tunisian environment, such as, the institutional bodies and settings, the cultural values and some characteristics of the corporate governance system.     

Rational expectations and corporate dividend policy

The problem of expectations formation has been either ignored or treated with very restrictive assumptions in traditional dividend adjustment models. Since these models are typically used to explain the dividend decisions of individual firms, a more satisfactory treatment of the process of expectations formation is needed. In order to analyze the dynamic dividend adjustment process, this article proposes a model, more general than previous ones, that is consistent with the rational expectations hypothesis. A nonlinear regression method is used to estimate the parameters of the model and to test the validity of the rational expectations hypothesis in dividend decisions making. The partial adjustment model with rational expectations explains dividend adjustments reasonably well. The overall results suggest that firms make use of available earnings information to form optimal future earnings forecasts; specifically, a firm's dividend adjustment process is completed in about two and a half quarters. This article also finds that the fourth-order serial correlation problem disappears after a generalized Tobit model is used for the parameter estimation.     

The impact of corporate governance on Internet financial reporting

This study examines the association between corporate governance mechanisms and disclosure transparency measured by the level of Internet financial reporting (IFR) behavior. We measure corporate governance by shareholder rights, ownership structure, board composition, and audit committee characteristics. We develop a disclosure index to measure the extent of each sample firm’s IFR by presentation format, information content, and corporate governance disclosures. Results indicate that firms with weak shareholder rights, a lower percentage of blockholder ownership, a higher percentage of independent directors, a more diligent audit committee, and a higher percentage of audit committee members that are considered financial experts are more likely to engage in IFR. The findings suggest that corporate governance mechanisms influence a firm’s Internet disclosure behavior, presumably in response to the information asymmetry between management and investors and the resulting agency costs. Additional exploratory analysis indicates that the association between corporate governance and IFR varies with firm size. Our results suggest that new regulatory guidance in corporate governance leads to improved disclosure transparency via IFR.     

Risk reporting quality: implications of academic research for financial reporting policy

In this paper, I survey empirical research on the relevance of firms’ financial report information for the evaluation of their risk. I recommend that financial reporting policymakers require or encourage firms to enhance their risk reporting quality in four ways. First, firms should report comprehensive income statements that: (1) use fair value or a similarly information-rich accounting measurement attribute and (2) separate the components of comprehensive income that are primarily driven by variation in cash flows from those that are primarily driven by variation in costs of capital. Such comprehensive income statements would provide users of financial reports with the flexibility to calculate alternative summary accounting numbers and to perform different types of risk assessment analyses. Second, firms should conduct and disclose the results of back-tests of prior significant accrual estimates, indicating any identified trends in and drivers of revisions to those estimates, and describing the effects of those revisions on current or future summary accounting numbers. Third, firms should aggregate and present risk disclosures in tabular or other well-structured formats that promote the usability of the information. Identifying existing best disclosure practices and encouraging new best practices are the most natural way to do this. Fourth, for model-dependent risk disclosures, firms should disclose the primary historical and forward-looking attributes of the models and their implementation in practice, sensitivity of the model outputs, and benchmarking of the models to standard portfolios of exposures.     

The value of financial flexibility and corporate financial policy

We propose a novel approach to measure the value that shareholders assign to financial flexibility. In contrast to existing proxies for financial constraints, our measure is market-based, forward-looking and not directly influenced by past financial decisions. We find that firms for which shareholders consider financial flexibility more valuable have lower dividend payouts, prefer share repurchases to dividends, and exhibit lower leverage ratios. Moreover, these firms tend to accumulate more cash. Our analysis contributes to the growing literature on financial flexibility and indicates that—in line with prior survey evidence—financial flexibility considerations shape corporate financial policy.     

The link between bank monitoring and corporate dividend policy: The case of dividend omissions

This study investigates whether bank monitoring influences investor response to a borrowing firm's decision to omit its dividend payments. We establish a new link between the theories of banking and dividend policy in an examination of how bank monitoring and firm dividend signals complement one another to resolve information asymmetries. Results indicate that, for small firms, investors interpret the dividend decision as a function of bank monitoring and the dividend signals taken together. Also reported are the results of tests examining the differences between the monitoring effects of banks versus public and private non-bank lenders.     

Catering effects in corporate dividend policy: The international evidence

This study tests for the international presence of dividend catering across a sample of twenty-three countries. We find evidence of catering among firms incorporated in common law countries but not for those in civil law nations. Catering persists even after controlling for the effect of the firm’s lifecycle. We conclude that when the legal regime and its accompanying set of investor protections permit, investors force dividends from managers, but they also attempt to extract such payouts indirectly by placing a high value on dividend paying firms. The relative failure of civil law firms to cater might be explained by idiosyncratic behaviors in the consumption of the private benefits of control or a lack of interest in responding to temporary market misevaluations of their equity.     

Financial reporting quality and dividend policy: New evidence from an international level

This study examines the link between financial reporting quality and dividend payout across 76 countries. We find that financial reporting quality increases dividend payout after controlling for firm and country specifics. We also investigate different channels that moderate the relation between financial reporting quality and dividend payout. We find that the positive association between high-quality financial reporting and dividend payout is more pronounced when firms have free cash flow problems, face severe information asymmetry, and are located in countries with weaker minority shareholder protection rights. Interestingly, we find evidence that high reporting quality enhances firms' payment of dividend even when these firms already overpaying their shareholders. However, the relation becomes weaker when firms overpass the optimal level of dividend payout. The findings remain consistent after several robustness checks, thus highlighting the effectiveness of more transparent disclosure of financial information in reducing information asymmetry related to firms' internal agency costs and their relationships with external parties.     

Observations on corporate financial reporting in the name of politics

The paper argues a need to redraw the boundaries between politics, and academic and professional work in the corporate financial reporting field. The argument is pressed on grounds of intellectual honesty, in view of the under-determination by facts that can characterise social scientific theories, including accounting theories, that seek to legitimate or to change practice. An altered understanding of intellectual honesty is required of scholars and practitioners, one which seeks to maximise public awareness of the inherently disputable and questionable in the truth-claims of practices acting upon their welfares.     

Financial reporting quality and corporate innovation

This paper examines the relationship of financial reporting to corporate innovation. Given the importance of a high‐quality information system and coordination to innovation, I predict a positive association between financial reporting quality and future innovation. My empirical evidence is consistent with this prediction. I also find some evidence that the positive association between financial reporting quality and innovation is more pronounced for firms with intensive internal research and development activities and for firms in competitive industries. The main findings are robust to using an instrumental variable approach as well as controlling for alternative explanations. I find that firms with high‐quality financial reporting transform investment inputs into greater innovation outcomes and firm value. This study provides additional insight into the role of financial reporting quality and its relation to the real economy.     

The effect of financial reporting quality on CEO compensation structure: Evidence from accounting comparability

This study examines the effect of accounting comparability on the design of CEO compensation structure. After controlling for firm-specific attributes, we find that accounting comparability is positively associated with CEO equity-based compensation intensity and pay-performance sensitivity. This suggests that the improved comparability increases the usefulness of equity-based compensation and a firm is willing to offer more equity-based compensation contracts to CEOs and increase their pay-performance sensitivity. Further, we find that the impact of comparability on the CEO’s compensation contract increases with information asymmetry, which is consistent with the notion that accounting comparability is a quality of financial reporting that facilitates the use of equity-based compensation in a poor information environment. Our analysis also reveals that the effect of accounting comparability on CEO compensation structure is greater when a firm’s corporate governance is strong, consistent with the complementary relation between comparability and the exiting corporate governance in determining CEO compensation schemes. Overall, our evidence suggests that firms utilize more equity-based compensation as a proportion of total compensation under greater accounting comparability and enhance the alignment between equity-based compensation and firm performance.     

The impact of audit committee quality on financial reporting quality and audit fees

This study examines the association between the quality of audit committees on financial reporting quality and external audit fees in an environment where the formation of audit committees was unregulated. The study uses a sample of 87 New Zealand firms in 2001 when no regulations or listing rules existed for audit committees. The results show no significant association between the quality of an audit committee and the quality of financial reporting. These results are robust to alternative measures of earnings quality. Similarly, the quality of audit committees has little impact on the level of fees paid to external auditors. The results suggest that the benefits of ‘best practice’ audit committees may be less than anticipated by regulators and policymakers.     

Directors skill and financial reporting quality

Motivated by theoretical models in economics which show that there is matching between CEO skill and firm size, we introduce a new measure of director skill which is based on the aggregate size of firms on which the director serves as an independent director. We validate our measure by showing that it is positively associated with director experience, financial expertise, industry expertise and managerial experience. We then examine whether our average measure of skill across board members is positively associated with monitoring quality. Controlling for the endogenous relationships between board composition and financial reporting quality, we find a positive association between our board measure for skill and monitoring quality, and we show that directors have a causal impact on monitoring effort and outcomes. Furthermore, consistent with the enhanced monitoring provided by skilled directors, we document a positive association between the level of and changes in our measure and firm value.     

Fraudulent financial reporting in China: Evidence from corporate renaming

Using a sample of listed Chinese companies during 2010–2019, we examine whether corporate renaming is associated with fraudulent financial reporting. We find that companies that change their corporate names without making underlying changes to business fundamentals are more likely to commit financial reporting fraud. The positive association between corporate renaming and financial reporting fraud is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises and companies with a lower ownership concentration. There is further evidence that corporate renaming is more likely to be associated with disclosure-related fraud (e.g., failure to disclose or delayed disclosure) and that the likelihood of fraudulent behavior increases with the frequency of corporate renaming. Overall, the findings of this study provide evidence of a new red flag for regulators and investors investigating financial fraud. This study is timely and has policy implications for market regulators hoping to establish and improve emerging capital markets in which the information environment is generally considered weak and opaque.     

External finance and dividend policy: a twist by financial constraints

This study assesses distorting effect of financial constraints on the inverse relationship between internal and external finance by examining impact of an exogenous financing shock (i.e. a regulation released in China in 2008) on dividend policies in a quasi‐natural experimental setting. Our result shows that in the absence of the regulation, the inverse relationship holds. However, the relation is twisted by the 2008 regulation. Compared with unconstrained firms, financially constrained firms are more willing to pay dividends and are more restrained to reduce cash dividends after the regulation, despite the fact that their external financing capacities are further constrained.     

The influence of corporate governance mechanisms on the quality of financial reporting and auditing: Perceptions of auditors and directors in Singapore

This study uses two hypothetical cases to examine the perceptions of auditors and directors in Singapore about corporate governance practices relating to the quality of financial reporting and auditing. In the first case, the strength of the audit committee, the existence of an internal audit function and the strength of a corporate code of conduct were manipulated. All three variables were perceived to have some influence on financial reporting and audit quality. However, some interesting differences were found between the perceptions of auditors and directors. Auditors place more weight on the internal audit function, possibly due to their familiarity with the role that internal audit can play in reducing audit risk and enhancing controls. Directors have more confidence in board enforcement of a strong code of conduct, possibly reflecting the view that this encourages staff to adhere to higher ethical standards. In the second case, audit partner rotation, outsourcing of internal audit services and whether the audit firm audited all companies within a group were manipulated. Auditors believed that their ability to resist management pressure was enhanced when they audited all companies within the group. No significant differences were found for the other variables, suggesting that neither group believes that these practices impair audit independence.     

Retail minority shareholders and corporate reputation as determinant of dividend policy in Australia

This paper investigates the influence of retail minority shareholders in the determination of corporate dividend policies of Australian companies. While retail investors are typically also minority shareholders and therefore perceived in academic literature to have limited influence on corporate dividend decisions, casual empiricism suggests the contrary. We hypothesise that corporate reputation serves as a device aligning managers' incentives with retail minority shareholder interests, and that the propensity to manage for corporate reputation is positively related to the degree of retail shareholder base. We find empirical evidence of managers of Australian companies catering to the retail investors' preference for dividends when setting dividend policy, even when they are minority shareholders, so long as the proportion of these retail shareholders relative to the total shareholder base is high. Our results are robust when controlled for the factors of size, profitability, financial leverage, signalling, agency costs and franking credits.     

The spillover effect of fraudulent financial reporting on peer firms' investments

We investigate how high-profile accounting frauds affect peer firms' investment. We document that peers react to the fraudulent reports by increasing investment during fraud periods. We show that this finding is not driven by frauds that have a higher ex ante likelihood of detection or by an association between fraud and investment booms. In addition, we find that peers’ investments increase in fraudulent earnings overstatements, and in industries with higher investor sentiment, lower cost of capital and higher private benefits of control. We also find evidence consistent with equity analysts potentially facilitating the spillover effect.     

CEO pay ratios and financial reporting quality

We address the Dodd Frank Act controversy about the usefulness of the CEO pay ratio to investors by investigating the relationship between that ratio and financial quality, measured by the level of discretionary accruals and the likelihood of restating previously issued financial statements. We test two conflicting explanations of pay disparity: (1) competition for CEO talent and (2) managerial rent-seeking. Though we find that the unconditional relationship between the CEO pay ratio and financial quality is negative, the sign of this relationship is sensitive to CEO power and competence. Our findings suggest that the pay ratio does shed light on the fairness of compensation structures.     

Innovation,financial reporting quality,and audit quality

We examine the relation between innovation and financial reporting quality (FRQ) and the implications of audit quality for this relation. We first document a negative relation between innovation and FRQ. This result is consistent with greater earnings management at higher innovation firms, likely because of the more opaque information environment that gives managers the opportunity to act opportunistically. We then examine whether audit quality moderates the observed negative relation between innovation and FRQ because audit quality constrains managers’ opportunities to manage earnings. We find results consistent with the predicted moderating effect. Lastly, we verify that these findings hold in a difference-in-differences test designed around an exogenous event, state R&D tax credits.