Intellectual Capital,Monitoring, and Risk: What Predicts the Adoption of Employee Stock Options?

We use empirical analysis to analyze company characteristics associated with the adoption and maintenance of broad‐based stock option plans. First, a cross‐sectional analysis evaluates what company characteristics are now associated the incidence of such plans. Second, a longitudinal analysis examines the company characteristics that predict the adoption of such plans. Our results show that firms with higher levels of intellectual capital and capital intensity are more likely to adopt and maintain employee stock option plans.     

Informalization in gig food delivery in the UK: The case of hyper-flexible and precarious work

This article examines the process of informalization of work in platform food delivery work in the UK. Drawing on qualitative data, this article provides new analytical insight into what drives individual formal couriers to both supply and demand informalized sub-contracted gig work to undocumented migrants, and how a platform company enables informal work practices through permissive HR practices and technology. In doing so, this article shows how platform companies are enablers of informal labor markets and contribute to the expansion of hyper-precarious working conditions.     

Using meta‐analytic structural equation modeling to advance strategic management research: Guidelines and an empirical illustration via the strategic leadership‐performance relationship

This paper demonstrates how meta‐analysis can be combined with structural equation modeling (MASEM) to address new questions in strategic management research. We review this integration, describe its implementation, and compare findings from bivariate meta‐analyses, a direct‐effect structural equations model, and two mediating frameworks using data on the strategic leadership and performance relationship. Results drawn from 208 articles that collectively included data on 495,638 observations demonstrate the new insights available from MASEM while also suggesting a revision to conventional thinking on strategic leadership. Whereas some theories posit that boards of directors influence firm performance through monitoring and disciplining the top management team, MASEM provides more support for the view that boards mediate the top management teams' decisions. Implications for applying MASEM in strategic management are offered. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Auditor quality effects on the relationship between accruals,cash flows and equity returns: a variance decomposition analysis

In this paper, we examine the relative importance of the cash flow and accruals components of earnings in explaining the variation in UK company equity returns, together with the extent to which these relationships vary by auditor quality. We use a multivariate time-series approach that can be reconciled to a log-linear theoretical valuation model and, unlike the standard linear regression of returns on earnings components, accommodates time-varying discount rates. Based on a decomposition of the variance of equity returns, cash flows and accruals, our results indicate that both cash flow news and accruals news are important drivers of UK equity returns, although cash flows are more influential than accruals. We also find that variation in both earnings components has a more significant effect on returns for clients of large auditors. Finally, our results provide mixed evidence on the question of whether the impact of auditor quality is highest for the accruals component of earnings.     

Is the Risk Comparison Made by the Public Between EMF and Smoking or Asbestos a Valid One?

The possibility of adverse health effects from exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields (EMF) has caused considerable controversy in the scientific community and has received great attention in the media and among the general public with many comparing ELF EMF with tobacco smoking and asbestos. Although both smoking and asbestos are now classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group 1 or “established” carcinogens, this was not always the case. In this paper the evidence for the carcinogenicity of ELF EMF is compared with that for smoking and asbestos using the Bradford Hill model for establishing causality between exposure and disease. Application of the model shows that present data are insufficient to demonstrate that exposure to ELF EMF poses a definite human health hazard. However, while the bulk of the evidence is weak, there are several epidemiological studies which have reported an association between prolonged exposure to magnetic fields at levels above what is normally encountered and an increased risk in childhood leukaemia. On this basis IARC has classified ELF magnetic fields as a Group 2B or “possible” carcinogen.     

Government ownership,corporate governance and tax aggressiveness: evidence from China

This study investigates how government ownership and corporate governance influence a firm's tax aggressiveness. Using Chinese listed companies during 2003–2009, we find that compared with government‐controlled firms, non‐government‐controlled firms pursue a more aggressive tax strategy. In particular, non‐government‐controlled firms with a higher percentage of the board shareholdings and with a CEO who also serves as the board chairman are more aggressive. For government‐controlled firms, we find that board shareholding has an impact on tax aggressiveness and it does not differ between local and central government‐controlled firms. However, local government‐controlled firms in less developed regions where the implementation of corporate governance measures is generally less effective are more tax aggressive than those in other regions.     

How Do Investors Interpret Announcements of Earnings Delays?

Unlike in the case of delays of 10‐K or 10‐Q filings, the SEC does not require managers to disclose delays of earnings announcements to the public. Thus, for companies that are unable to report earnings by their expected date, managers face a decision: remain silent or announce the delay. Prior research has investigated all earnings delays, whether or not they are accompanied by announcements of the delay announcement, and found that the market reaction is slightly negative, on average, for companies that allow their expected earnings dates to pass without disclosing results. It's not clear, however, whether this negative reaction was due to the absence of news or to the information contained in the announcements of the earnings delays. The authors' recent study documents that earnings delay announcements are associated with an average one‐day abnormal stock return of a negative 6%. This statistically as well as economically significant reduction in value is consistent with anecdotal evidence in the popular business press as well as predictions of disclosure theories, in particular the explanation that concerns about legal liability and managerial reputation motivate managers to disclose bad news. The study also shows that almost all managers who announce earnings delays attempt to influence the market reaction by disclosing the underlying cause. Finally, the study shows that the market reaction to earnings delay announcements is positively related to future earnings changes, consistent with the role of these disclosures in providing a signal of deteriorating financial performance.     

Quelques questions concernant les principes de la théorie des probabilités

Abstract

Il y a environ deux ans qu'avec un ami j'ai fait une vi site chez un mathématicien allemand, un adepte des mathématiques pures. En nous promenant dans la vieille ville d'université, notre hôte a exprimé quelques pensées qui ont resté dans ma mémoire. Il lui semblait, disait-il, que les mathématiques de nos temps devraient de plus en plus s'approcher des applications. Après l'activité intense des derniers lustres dans le domaine des théories bien abstraites des mathématiques pures — nommons p. ex. les théorèmes d'existence, la théorie des ensembles, l'intégrabilité des fonctions etc. — ce domaine avait besoin d'être laissé en repos pour quelque temps. Il était à attendre, que les intérêts des mathématiciens se tournent vers les questions qui, — sans être moins dignes du nom de mathématiques pures, — sont plus approchées des mathématiques appliquées, et en premier lieu vers la théorie des probabilités. J'ai souvent dit, qu'il y avait deux criterès pour l'admissibilité économique ou sociale des recherches scientifiques: ou la recherche doit-eUe s'attacher à la solution de qnelque question pratique, dont l'importance est évidente, ou qu'elle do it être utile pour 1a formation de nos idées générales sur la vie et sur l'univers. Sans nous arrêter sur la question si ce sont les difficultés économiques du temps qui causent ladite tendance de la science, nous autres actuaires, nous pouvons constater avec satisfaction que la branche des mathématiques pures qui nous intéresse spécialement, la théorie des probabilités et ses ramifications, satisfait d'une manière toute particulière à l'un et à l'autre de ces critères. En effet, les principes de notre science touchent aux extrêmes régions de la pensée humaine, et nous appliquons la théorie encore à nos soucis quotidiens.     

Les potentiels à n dimensions et la fonction de probabilité

Abstract

Je me suis proposé, il y a plusieurs années, d'étudier quelques questions de l'Analyse qui doivent avoir, quoique peut-être pas trop directement, une grande importance pour la théorie des probabilités. J'ai voulu pénétrer les énigmes qui enveloppent encore les connections qui existent certainement entre les formules fondamentales de cette théorie, d'une part, et les créations de la physique mathématique, d'autre part. J'ai surtout pensé aux résultats qui se rap portent aux équations à dérivées partielles, contenant l'expression différentielle de Laplace. Sans doute, la dénudation des secrets les plus intimes d'une théorie, la révélation des analogies frappantes des domaines différents, dans l'esprit de Riemann et Klein, abstraction faite de la beauté brillante de ces recherches, a aussi une grande valeur pratique pour la science. Je crois donc qu'on do it être reconnaissant quand on parvient à des résultats de cette espèce, si peu importants qu'ils peuvent apparaître.     

Litteraturanmeldelse

This article examines the notion of distortion of copulas, a natural extension of distortion within the univariate framework. We study three approaches to this extension: (1) distortion of the margins alone while keeping the original copula structure; (2) distortion of the margins while simultaneously altering the copula structure; and (3) synchronized distortion of the copula and its margins. When applying distortion within the multivariate framework, it is important to preserve the properties of a copula function. For the first two approaches, this is a rather straightforward result; however, for the third approach, the proof has been exquisitely constructed in Morillas (2005). These three approaches unify the different types of multivariate distortion that have scarcely scattered in the literature. Our contribution in this paper is to further consider this unifying framework: we give numerous examples to illustrate and we examine their properties particularly with some aspects of ordering multivariate risks. The extension of multivariate distortion can be practically implemented in risk management where there is a need to perform aggregation and attribution of portfolios of correlated risks. Furthermore, ancillary to the results discussed in this article, we are able to generalize the formula developed by Genest &; Rivest (2001) for computing the distribution of the probability integral transformation of a random vector and extend it to the case within the distortion framework. For purposes of illustration, we applied the distortion concept to value excess of loss reinsurance for an insurance policy where the loss amount could vary by type of loss.