Earnings Management in Public Family Firms under Economic Adversity

This paper explores the relationship between the ownership of public firms and their motivation to implement earnings management practices, providing evidence on whether family businesses differ from non‐family businesses in terms of earnings management practices. In addition, it focuses on the possibility of asymmetrical earnings management policies between periods of stability and economic adversity. Based on a sample of Portuguese listed family‐controlled firms for the 1999–2011 period and using a panel data approach, we find no significant differences in the incentive to manage earnings between public family and non‐family firms, suggesting a compensation between the alignment hypothesis, the long‐term orientation of family firms and the desire to pass firms onto succeeding generations, and the entrenchment effect. The evidence shows that earnings management decreases with firms’ profitability, and non‐family firms’ discretionary accruals are mainly influenced by the board of directors. In crisis periods, the discretionary accruals of family firms are especially influenced by firm size. After controlling for different earnings management measures, the determinants of earnings management practices seem somewhat sensitive to the earnings quality proxies. The results provide evidence that directors and policy makers should prevent earnings management procedures in particular situations.     

Managing corporate identity: An internal perspective

Management plays a key role in the development and maintenance of corporate identity, including paying particular attention to the internal and controllable aspects of the process. The progression of research that examines corporate identity is contingent on clarification of the scope of corporate identity management (CIM) and development of generalizable and applicable measures of the construct. This study develops an interdisciplinary measure of the CIM construct by drawing on the literature and primary data, such as exploratory research, a survey, and a follow-up phase. Overall, CIM involves (1) the endorsement of consistent behavior through the diffusion of a company’s mission, values, and goals; (2) the expression and pursuit of brand and image consistency in the organization’s symbols and forms of communication; and (3) the implementation, support, and maintenance of visual systems. The results suggest that CIM includes the dissemination of mission and values, consistent image implementation, and visual identity implementation.     

Purchasing power parity and uncovered interest parity: The Spanish case

This paper examines whether the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis holds in the long run when traded and non-traded goods are distinguished. Moreover, this hypothesis is analyzed jointly with the uncovered interest parity (UIP). The period from January 1986 to December 1995 was studied using monthly data corresponding to the consumer price index, short- and long-term interest rates, and spot exchange rates for Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain with each relative to Spain. Using Johansen's multi-equational cointegration technique, it was found that PPP does not hold even with the explicit consideration of the distinction between traded and non-traded goods as well as the difference between domestic and foreign interest rates. Furthermore, these two factors generate a systematic deviation between exchange rates and PPP.     

Implicit exchange regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: a first exploration

This paper attempts to identify implicit exchange rate regimes for currencies of the Central and Eastern European Countries vis-à-vis the euro. To that end, we apply a sequential procedure that considers the dynamics of exchange rates to data covering the period from 1977:01 to 2006:02. Our results would suggest that implicit bands have existed in many subperiods for almost all currencies under study. Once we detect de facto discrepancies between de facto and de iure exchange rate regimes, we propose a model in order to explain these decisions. Our results suggest a positive association between the previous inflation rate and the probability of a peg with the euro, and a negative association with past unemployment rate.

The interaction of the financing and investment decisions: Preliminary results in the Australian context

This paper investigates the presence of the interaction of investment and financing decisions in Australian firms. Using simultaneous equations incorporating the variables of investment, dividend, and new debt issue, interactive effects are found for two sub-periods.     

SYSTEMATIC RISK IN A PURELY RANDOM MARKET MODEL: SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR INDIVIDUAL PUBLIC UTILITIES

A minimum norm quadratic (MINQU-) type of OLS estimator is derived. The estimator is used to test if the betas of the single factor market (SFM) model are random for a sample of utilities for two contiguous periods. The estimated betas for individual utilities vary considerably over time. The statistical significance of such nonstationarity depends on both the utilities and period studied. The relative reduction in the mean square error (MSE) from using a GLS (and not OLS) estimator of beta, when beta is purely random, can be substantial for some utilities but is modest on average.     

Price as a quality signal in a strategic competition context: The role of a disclosure law

This paper analyses a firm's incentive to use price as a signal of quality in a duopoly competition, even though she can credibly and costlessly disclose her true quality. When a firm sets a higher price to signal higher quality, it has strategic effects on the price chosen by her rival. This could result in higher equilibrium prices and profits. Hence, a mandatory disclosure law is useful to prevent the practice of using of higher price as a device to signal higher quality, and in turn equilibrium prices would be lower. From a welfarist point of view, this argument justifies the establishment of such disclosure law.JEL Classification: D43, D82, K29I would like to thank Dolors Berga, Nicolas Boccard, Ramon Caminal, Carmen Matutes, José Luis Moraga and Ricard Torres for their useful comments. This paper has benefited from the comments of two anonymous referees. All the surviving mistakes are mine. Financial support from SEC2001-2793-C03-03 is gratefully acknowledged.     

On the concept of appropriate technology for less industrialized countries

A questionnaire-survey, based on notions of external dependence and passive receipt of technology, was addressed to a group of technical and development experts to investigate why the manufacturing technologies applied in the LIC's are considered inappropriate for their resources and conditions. The results are preliminary and cannot be statistically validated, but constitute suggestive and important evidence which raises serious doubts on the validity of conventional wisdom in this field. There are strong indications that LIC's are not generally mere passive recipients of technologies developed in IC's—many instances of technological development carried out in some of these countries were reported and the imported technologies are usually adapted to local conditions. The “inappropriateness” of some industrial technologies was due to factors such as: (a) Inadequate response to market requirements; (b) failure to use and/or adapt to the local supply of materials; (c) failure to adapt to a smaller scale of production; (d) insufficient use of labor due to price distortions and other restrictions; (e) import of unsuitable machinery; (f) selection of unsuitable technology due to restrictions on the acquisition of technology.     

Baltic Dry Index and the democratic window of opportunity

In their seminal paper, Brückner and Ciccone (2011) document that a significant effect of democratic change may be triggered by negative transitory economic shocks, and that rainfall can open a democratic window of opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). As a complement, this paper uses within-country variation in the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) as a source of transitory negative income shocks to SSA countries. The BDI reflects the cost of utilizing dry bulk carriers, which are specially designed vessels for transporting primary goods internationally, where these goods dominate the output and export sectors of the SSA economies. We find that positive BDI cost shocks are followed by significant contraction in income through trade channel and significant improvement in democratic institutions, where BDI can open a window of opportunity for democratic improvement. Instrumental variables estimates indicate that following a negative income shock of one percentage point, democracy scores improve by around 4–5 percentage points on average.     

Trade preferences and political equilibrium associated with trade liberalization

This paper, motivated by the so-called North–South problem in trade, analyzes ex ante trade preferences and the source of potential political conflicts regarding trade liberalization. Developing a dynamic extension of the traditional Heckscher–Ohlin model with imperfect labor mobility and tracking overall dynamic paths from the autarky to free-trade steady states, we demonstrate that in the presence of inter-sectoral migration barrier, bilateral free-trade agreements can be welcomed (opposed) by the majority of workers in a capital-abundant (labor-abundant) country, which is inconsistent with the welfare prediction by Stolper and Samuelson. This paper also proposes a numerical algorithm to solve for the entire transition path of the model under rational expectation. Our simulation experiments further reveal that preannounced and delayed implementation can facilitate a bilateral free-trade agreement by partially neutralizing short-run transitional gains and losses so as to persuade the losers to support the reform without affecting the beneficiaries’ trade preferences.