TIMELINESS OF ACCOUNTING REPORTS AND THEIR INFORMATIONAL CONTENT ON THE CAPITAL MARKET

Timeliness is recognized as an important characteristic of accounting information by the accounting profession, the users of accounting information, and the regulatory agencies. According to the evidence presented in this paper, accounting reports with shorter delay have a higher informational content than those with longer delay. At the time of release to the capital market, the effect of delay on the information content seems to be more significant in the case of the interim rather than the annual reports. This may be explained by the major characteristics which differentiate the information contained in the interim reports from that contained in the annual reports, the differences in their role in the investor's decision process, and the existence of substitute information.     

EXTERNAL CAPITAL MARKET CONTROL, CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING, AND FIRM PERFORMANCE DURING THE 1980s

The corporate restructuring activity of the 1980s, sparked by potential external capital market intervention, is believed to have been primarily directed at correcting the diversification mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s, which had led to poor corporate performance. Assuming that investor gains from corporate restructurings are unbiased expectations regarding future efficiency gains, many researchers concluded that the market for corporate control is an efficient external control mechanism and that the restructuring programs of the 1980s will, on average, be followed by substantial improvements in corporate performance. To examine whether those improvements were achieved, this paper analyzes the long-term operating and financial performance of the 50 most aggressive US participants in the takeovers and corporate restructuring activity during the 1980s. The results support the hypothesis that the market for corporate control is an efficient external corporate control mechanism of last resort.     

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MARKET AND ACCOUNTING BETAS FOR COMMERCIAL BANKS

This study examines the correlation between market equity betas and accounting asset and equity betas in the commercial banking sector. A sample of banks was taken from the COMPUSTAT tapes and annual equity and asset accounting betas (calculated with various indices) were estimated over varying time periods. Cross-sectional correlations were then determined for individual banks and five-bank portfolios. The results indicate that the correlations are comparable to those found in other non-banking studies of accounting and market betas. A noticeable difference in our study was the sensitivity of the correlations to the length of the estimation interval for the betas. The longest estimation intervals (16–18 years) produce few significant correlations in our sample. These correlations were significantly lower than those obtained using fifteen or fewer years of data. Construction of portfolios generally increases all the correlations but the longer time period correlations are still significantly lower. The correlations are largely invariant, however, to the choice of index used in the estimation of the betas.     

THE FUNDAMENTAL DETERMINANTS OF TRADING VOLUME REACTION TO FINANCIAL INFORMATION: EVIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EMPIRICAL CAPITAL MARKET RESEARCH

Prior empirical research indicates that trading volume reaction to new information increases with the heterogeneity of investors’ prior beliefs. We examine three potential factors that theoretical models of financial economists show determine trading volume reaction to new information: heterogeneous prior beliefs, differential interpretation, and the consensus effect—the extent to which the information causes their beliefs to converge or diverge. We find that these three factors have a distinct and significant incremental effect on trading volume, thereby suggesting that empirical trading volume models that exclude or fail to control for any of these determinants are misspecified with biased estimated coefficients.     

关于我国养老基金进入资本市场的难点和对策分析

养老基金进入资本市场投资运作现在已经成为世界各国通行的做法,其意义在于取得两者的互动和双赢.目前,我国实现养老基金与资本市场的顺利对接必须解决诸多难点和约束因素.本文以西方主要发达国家和典型发展中国家养老基金制度改革经验作为借鉴,围绕我国养老基金和资本市场现存问题和解决对策两条线索,分别论证了养老基金进入资本市场的前提是改革养老基金行政化管理体制,实行基金市场化运作,促进基金投向的多元化以及运作管理的民营化;养老基金进入资本市场的条件是提高上市公司质量,规范市场运作,建立养老基金投资监管体制,发展基金管理人.     

ACCOUNTING FOR THE COST OF CAPITAL: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION

One of accounting's oldest issues, accounting for interest costs, has become a subject of increased concern in recent years. This study empirically addresses the issue of whether the cost of equity capital should be charged against income. Fourteen measures of the cost of equity capital are examined. The empirical tests involve contemporaneous correlation of accounting betas for each income measure with market betas for a sample of 200 companies. The results of these association tests indicate that income measures, net of the cost of equity capital, may have greater information content than income as presently reported.     

EXTERNAL FINANCING,LIQUIDITY, AND CAPITAL EXPENDITURES

Using a large panel of industrial Compustat firms from 1971 to 1988, we find long-term external financing to be positively related to the period's capital expenditures on growth opportunities, but negatively related to beginning-of-the-period financial slack, broadly defined. These findings support the view that firms tend to match long-term sources of financing with long-lived assets, and short-term debt with short-lived assets. Our results also reinforce the belief that firms prefer internal to external financing. We find no evidence that firms favor financing capital expenditures with short-term debt, either permanently or temporarily.     

CAPITAL ACCOUNTING, USER NEEDS AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC SECTOR FINANCIAL REPORTING

This paper analyses the need for an adequate conceptual framework for financial reporting, particularly in the public sector, and examines several factors which may have worked against progress in the UK in developing such a conceptual framework in the past. The paper then analyses in detail the needs of potential users for capital accounting information in public sector financial reports, and the relevance of accruals accounting and different measurement bases in this context. Given the large amount of existing work outside the UK on the development of conceptual frameworks for financial reporting, the paper argues the need not for a new framework, but rather for a more focused analysis of several key conceptual issues that are relevant to meeting user needs.