Applicability Of The Conservatism Accounting Convention in China: Empirical Evidence

“Conservatism” is a widely accepted accounting convention in the industrialized world, but it has long been slated and prohibited in China under the orthodox ideological influences. To date, the conservatism convention has not been fully adopted or implemented in Chinese accounting although the Chinese government has made substantial efforts to reform its accounting system to bridge the gaps between the accounting practices in China and other industrialized countries in recent years. This study has, through a wide range questionnaire survey, empirically investigated the applicability of the conservatism accounting convention in China. We found that the survey respondents (consisted of business accountants, management, government officials, bank loan officers, investment analysts and auditors), in general, held no negative attitudes against the conservatism convention under the changing business environment in the country. There is clear evidence that various interested parties of business accounting would support an expanded adoption of “conservatism” in Chinese accounting. The study findings will facilitate a proper assessment of the future development of accounting standards and practices in China.     

全球视角下的金融会计教育：课程改革和能力培养

全球经济的一体化促成了以金融自由化为主轴的金融改革和公司改革。伴随着这场全球范围内的金融革命,中国经济将更快地融入到开放的世界金融体系中。中国资本市场的国际化必将推动我国会计改革的国际化进程。为了应对金融改革和会计改革的全球化趋势,金融会计教育也应进行以全球化为导向的教学改革。     

An analysis of the adoption, perceived benefits, and expected future emphasis of western management accounting practices in Chinese SOEs and JVs

This paper considers the adoption, perceived benefits, and expected future emphasis of western management accounting practices in the Chinese emerging market economy based on a sample of 64 joint ventures (JVs) and 115 State Owned Enterprises (SOE) gathered from a questionnaire survey. The study finds that the level of adoption of management accounting practices is most influenced by ownership type of the enterprise (JV or SOE) and to a lesser extent by the nature of the management accounting techniques to be adopted. A further significant finding is that management accounting practices such as budgeting for controlling costs, profit and sales budgeting, and target costing are perceived to be more beneficial for SOEs compared to JVs. However, responsibility accounting which is traditionally associated with SOEs and accounting for decision making is perceived to be less beneficial to SOEs compared with JVs.     

State-owned enterprises in China: A review of 40 years of research and practice

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are important components of the Chinese economy. Although SOEs are generally considered inefficient in operations, China’s economy, which relies heavily on SOEs, has been highly successful over the last four decades. This indicates the importance of SOEs in China’s past and future economic success. Therefore, in this study, we review the literature on economic theories and 40 years of practice of Chinese SOEs and discuss implications for future research. Our review consists of four parts: the theories of SOEs and their reform, the performance and financing strategies of SOEs, corporate governance in SOEs, and corporate social responsibility in SOEs.     

The scope of application of management accounting methods in Polish enterprises

The transformation of Poland’s economic system in the 1990s as a result of transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-based system involves significant changes in the regulatory context and in accounting practice and education.This paper presents the scope of application of management accounting concepts and methods in 60 Polish enterprises covered by a questionnaire survey carried out by the author between November 1998 and December 1999 in enterprises located in central and southern Poland. The selected companies were interviewed by means of a postal survey, with inquiry forms delivered in person in some cases.The detailed analyses carried out in this paper and the conclusions presented are also based on information obtained from documentary evidence kept by the enterprises and from direct interviews conducted in the course of work in teams engaged in analysis and assessment of cost accounting practices and in management accounting system design in a number of large and medium Polish enterprises.The empirical research carried out is aimed at verification of a number of hypotheses including the following: • modification of cost accounting systems and implementation of management accounting tools in Polish enterprises is brought about by many different factors, the most important being growth of competition and ownership changes in business entities, • Polish enterprises mostly implement the methods and techniques of operational management accounting, • short-term budgeting for cost centres is the most widely used method of management accounting.     

Does Internal Corporate Governance Complement or Substitute for External Auditing? Evidence from China's Anti‐corruption Campaign

Two competing hypotheses have been developed for the relationship between internal corporate governance and external auditing. One proposes a complementary relationship, while the other suggests it is substitutable. This study takes advantage of China's recent anti‐corruption campaign as a quasi‐natural experiment to explore this relationship. Using a difference‐in‐differences approach, we find that, after the campaign, internal corporate governance improved more in SOEs (state‐owned enterprises) than in non‐SOEs. SOEs were less likely to choose Big 10 auditors after the campaign, while audit firms assigned less experienced auditors to their SOE client firms and charged lower audit fees. These effects were more pronounced in SOEs that exhibited greater improvement in corporate governance. Overall, we find the anti‐corruption campaign improved corporate governance in SOEs but, at the same time, reduced external audit quality, which supports the substitution view. We argue that this result might be driven by the fact that SOEs have limited demand for high‐quality accounting information because the Chinese government maintains strong control over the capital markets.     

Ultimate Ownership and Adjustment Speed Toward Target Capital Structures: Evidence from China

We investigate whether ultimate ownership affects firms’ adjustment speed toward target capital structures for Chinese publicly listed companies over the period 1999–2009. We divide our sample into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs according to their ultimate ownership. We find that SOEs have higher leverage ratios and slower adjustment speeds toward target capital structures. Our results are consistent with the trade-off theory, implying that the political resources of SOEs can lead to a higher persistence and slower leverage adjustment speeds in comparison to non-SOEs. Finally, our results also raise a question: Why do Chinese companies adjust their capital structure so fast?     

Mediating instruments and making markets: Capital budgeting, science and the economy

We examine in this paper how certain instruments link science and the economy through acting on capital budgeting decisions, and in doing so how they contribute to the process of making markets. We use the term “mediating instruments” to refer to those practices that frame the capital spending decisions of individual firms and agencies, and that help to align them with investments made by other firms and agencies in the same or related industries. Our substantive focus is on the microprocessor industry, and the roles of “Moore’s Law” and “technology roadmaps”. We examine the ways in which these instruments envision a future, and how they link a multitude of actors and domains in such a way that the making of future markets for microprocessors and related devices can continue. The paper begins with a discussion of existing literatures on capital budgeting, science studies, and recent economic sociology, together with the reasoning behind the notion of “mediating instruments”. We then address the substantive issues in three stages. Firstly, we consider the role of “Moore’s Law” in shaping the fundamental expectations of an entire set of industries about rates of increase in the power and complexity of semiconductor devices, and the timing of those increases. Secondly, we examine the roles of “technology roadmaps” in translating the simplified imperatives of Moore’s Law into a framework that can guide and encourage the myriad of highly uncertain and confidential investment decisions of firms and other agencies. Thirdly, we explore one particular and recent example of major capital investment, that of post-optical lithography. The paper seeks to help remedy the empirical deficit in studies of capital budgeting practices, and to demonstrate that investment is much more than a matter of valuation techniques. We argue, through the case of the microprocessor industry, for greater attention to investment as an inter-firm and inter-agency process, thus lessening the fixation in studies of capital budgeting on the traditional hierarchical and bounded organization. In addition, we seek to extend and illustrate empirically the richness of the notion of “mediating instruments” for researchers in accounting, science studies, and economic sociology.     

非国有股东治理与国有企业去僵尸化——来自国有上市公司董事会“混合”的经验证据

国有企业是党和国家事业发展的重要基础,如何有效解决部分国企的僵尸化现象是做强做优做大国有企业和实现经济社会高质量发展的关键环节,本文研究新时代全面深化国企混改背景下非国有股东治理对国有企业去僵尸化的影响作用。研究发现:非国有股东参与国企高层治理可以显著降低冗员规模和提升资本密集度,进而降低国有企业的僵尸化倾向,而仅持股等股权结构维度的治理影响较弱;当非国有股东参与国企治理的能力更强时,可以更好地发挥前述治理作用。通过细分僵尸企业识别指标,本文发现非国有股东治理可以在抑制低息贷款获取和改善盈利能力两方面降低相应国企的僵尸化程度,促使其正常经营运转。最后,经过良好治理的国有企业生产能力和市场价值得到显著提升。本文结论表明,非国有股东治理对国有企业去僵尸化和发展壮大具有积极的促进作用,这不仅对僵尸企业治理和国企改革的学术文献进行了有益补充,还为在全面建设社会主义现代化国家新征程中更好地统筹国有企业中流砥柱作用提供了政策参考价值。     

“营改增”与企业金融化--来自制造业的经验证据

本文利用2010-2018年A股制造业上市公司数据,考察"营改增"对不同产权性质企业金融资产配置结构的影响。研究发现:在"营改增"影响下,国有企业的长期金融资产配备增加,实体投资"挤出"效应明显存在,说明国有企业配置金融资产以利润最大化为动机;非国有企业的短期金融资产持有量明显减少,融资约束有所缓解,说明非国有企业配置金融资产以资金储备为动机。     

国企混合所有制能治疗僵尸企业吗？ —— 一个混合所有制类啄序逻辑

本文使用1998-2013年中国工业企业数据库,采用国际前沿方法识别出僵尸企业,然后比较了国企控股、国企参股以及转制民企这三种混合所有制改革策略治疗僵尸国企的效果。实证结果表明:相对于纯国企,混合所有制改革对僵尸国企具有显著的治疗效果;在多种混合所有制改革策略中,转制民企优于国企参股,国企参股优于国企控股,这形成了一种“国企混改类啄序”现象;然而,上述“啄序”现象并非对所有国企都适用,对于那些所处行业垄断程度高、企业政治级别高的国企,单纯民营化导向的混改对僵尸企业治愈的效果较差;最后,混合所有制改革治疗僵尸国企的主要渠道,是降低了国企的期间费用(主要是管理费用)。本文的结果为处置僵尸企业和渐进式改革提供了重要的理论依据。     

When to go abroad: economic policy uncertainty and Chinese firms’ overseas investment

We study how economic policy uncertainty (EPU) influences firms’ overseas investments for Chinese listed companies. We find a significant negative relationship between EPU and firms’ overseas investments after controlling for firm characteristics and macroeconomic variables. Chinese firms seem to reduce their overseas investments on fixed income securities when facing domestic policy uncertainty. The negative relationship is pronounced for financially constrained firms, firms relying on government subsidies and with low overseas revenues, and SOEs. Firms operating in high marketisation regions can mitigate the negative effect of EPU on firms’ overseas investments. Our results remain significant when considering endogeneity problems.     

Exploring the nexus between banking sector reform and performance: Evidence from newly acceded EU countries

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between banking sector reform and bank performance – measured in terms of efficiency, total factor productivity growth and net interest margin – accounting for the effects through competition and bank risk-taking. To this end, we develop an empirical model of bank performance, which is consistently estimated using recent econometric techniques. The model is applied to bank panel data from ten newly acceded EU countries. The results indicate that both banking sector reform and competition exert a positive impact on bank efficiency, while the effect of reform on total factor productivity growth is significant only toward the end of the reform process. Finally, the effect of capital and credit risk on bank performance is in most cases negative, while it seems that higher liquid assets reduce the efficiency and productivity of banks.     

货币政策与宏观审慎政策共同支持宏观经济稳定

货币政策是维持宏观经济稳定运行的重要政策工具,但2007—2009年国际金融危机表明,仅仅保持物价水平稳定,忽视金融风险,并不足以维持宏观经济稳定。近年来中国提出双支柱宏观政策框架以支持宏观经济稳定,这一创新具有重要的理论与现实意义。我们首先提出了双支柱宏观调控的框架,强调应该注重两类政策目标的协同与矛盾、政策传导渠道的相互交叉与影响、冲击类型与开放条件的差异等,从而保证双支柱宏观调控对宏观经济的稳定效应。接下来,我们建立了一个DSGE两国模型,作为分析双支柱宏观调控稳定宏观经济的案例研究。研究表明,第一,金融冲击下,货币政策有助于稳定宏观经济,且随着汇率制度从固定转向浮动,货币政策稳定宏观经济的效果会明显加强。第二,在货币政策的基础上,增加以跨境资本流入税为代表的宏观审慎政策工具,可以有效遏制金融市场的顺周期机制,进一步提高宏观经济的稳定性,从而验证了双支柱宏观调控的有效性。第三,双支柱宏观调控的有效性与汇率制度有关,当汇率灵活性水平较低时,双支柱宏观调控对宏观经济的稳定效果更好。     

Does external finance pressure affect corporate disclosure of Chinese non-state-owned enterprises?

We examine whether external finance pressure influences information disclosure of Chinese non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs), which are often entrepreneurial firms. Existing Chinese stock exchange regulations stipulate that firms need to meet certain earnings performance criteria to qualify for rights issue or avoid delisting. These regulatory criteria create pressures for firms in need for external equity financing to manipulate earnings in order to meet and beat the performance targets. To examine this, we exploit an exogenous event of Chinese accounting standards change in 2007, when firms are given greater accounting disclosure discretion. Following this change, we find evidence consistent with increased earnings manipulation among NSOEs that barely meet these performance targets. This effect is also more pronounced among such NSOEs with weaker political connections, which increases their dependence on the capital market for external financing. Our findings have policy implications for the financing of NSOEs and entrepreneurial firms in emerging economies.     

A game of accounting numbers in asset pricing: Evidence from the privatization of state-owned enterprises

This study examines a public policy issue: whether government officials engage in earnings management to collude with private investors in the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). We find that the managers of listed Chinese SOEs, who are de facto bureaucrats, employ income-decreasing earnings management to reduce the price of shares to be sold to private investors. We also find that more aggressive income-decreasing earnings management is associated with a lower CEO turnover rate in the year following the privatization. These findings highlight the need to consider the opportunism of government agents when accounting information is used in redistribution of state assets.     

Stock liquidity and enterprise innovation: new evidence from China

We employ data of 6194 firm-year observations for 1058 listed companies in the period 2006–2013 to investigate the interaction between stock liquidity and enterprise innovation in China and confirm that an increase in stock liquidity raises the number of patents granted, R&D investment, and the innovation efficiency of state-owned enterprises, while it decreases innovation significantly in private firms. These findings are also supported by quasi-natural experiments under the split-share structure policy reform and the adjustment of the stamp duty rate using propensity score matching and difference-in-difference methods. We then identify two possible mechanisms through which liquidity increases innovation: the entry of long-term and strategic institutional investors and the gradual privatization of SOEs. Several policy implications are provided in accordance with our findings.     

Financialized accounts: Share buy-backs, mark to market and holding the financial line in the S&P 500

In recent years the US corporate sector has deployed more cash from operations to finance the repurchase of outstanding share capital for treasury stock. Shares repurchased for treasury stock can help flatter earnings per share, fund senior management share option compensation schemes and finance corporate acquisitions. In financialized accounts these are now significant transactions which, it is argued, serve the financial interests of managers and investors.The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is now demanding a “greater use of fair value measurements in financial statements” with the result that share options and corporate acquisitions will be “marked to market”. This will force a financialized ratchet because managers in the S&P 500 will need step up cash extraction if they are to hold the financial line.     

供给侧结构性改革进程中技术创新效率研究

本文以生产要素内部配置结构调整对边际产出弹性影响为基础,建立包含生产要素内部配置结构的科布-道格拉斯生产函数,对中国工业企业技术创新效率进行实证分析。主要结论有:区域外商投资工业企业比例的增加能提升资本和劳动力边际产出弹性;区域内资工业企业比例的增加能提升劳动力边际产出弹性;政府科技资助与工业企业技术创新效率之间并非简单的线性关系。提高工业企业技术创新效率需要政府科技资助形成一定规模;劳动者素质提高对工业企业技术创新效率产生积极影响。政策建议是:继续加大对外开放力度,优化区域生产要素配置结构;扩大政府科技资助规模,优化政府科技资助结构;有效引导高素质人才流动。     

美联储政策变化、国际资本流动与宏观经济波动

本文构建包含国际投资者、外资企业和银行流动性冲击的DSGE模型来探究美联储货币政策变动和政策不确定性对我国宏观经济的影响和作用机制。研究发现:(1) 美联储加息会导致我国产出、投资和通货膨胀的下降、汇率贬值、国际资本外流和银行系统流动性紧张。随着金融摩擦程度的增加和银行杠杆率的上升,美联储加息对我国产出、投资和资产价格的负面影响会进一步增强。(2) 美联储货币政策不确定性的增加会直接导致外资企业的投资、劳动需求和产出的下降,并对我国总产出、总投资和资产价格产生明显的负向外溢效应,进一步加剧我国宏观经济的波动。(3)为应对美联储的利率变动,适当限制国际资本流动能有效稳定我国经济波动和改善社会福利,而实施固定汇率和央行盯住美国利率的政策会加大宏观经济的波动,并导致社会福利下降。