The Determinants of External Audit Costs in the New Zealand Life Insurance Industry

The contracting theory literature suggests that auditors' pricing decisions reflect the efficacy of contracting arrangements in firms. Drawing a framework from this literature, we test empirically the simultaneous effect of six firm-specific variables on external audit costs using 1988–1993 data drawn from New Zealand's (NZ) life insurance industry. These variables are: assets-in-place, reinsurance, internal governance, firm size, product-mix and organizational form. Consistent with expectations, our results indicate that audit fees are influenced by product-mix and firm size. However, the other variables are found not to be statistically significant. The empirical results thus provide mixed support for contracting theory.     

Product attributes and consumer acceptance of nutritionally enhanced genetically modified foods

Using data from a national survey, this study analyses US consumers’ acceptance of genetically modified foods that provide additional nutritional benefits. Using an ordered probit model, this study examines the relation between the willingness to consume genetically modified foods and consumers’ economic, demographic and value attributes. Empirical results suggest that despite having some reservations, especially about the use of biotechnology in animals, American consumers are not decidedly opposed to food biotechnology. Consumers’ economic and demographic variables are only weakly related to their acceptance of food biotechnology, especially when technology involves plant‐to‐plant DNA transfer. However, public trust and confidence in various private and public institutions are significantly related to their acceptance of food biotechnology. Overall, consumer acceptance of bioengineered foods is driven primarily by public perceptions of risks, benefits and safety of these food products.     

Does late 10K filing impact companies’ financial reporting strategy? Evidence from discretionary accruals and real transaction management

The study investigates how late 10K filers adapt their financial reporting strategy in the post‐late filing period in their response to bad publicity, negative market sentiment, and higher stakeholders’ scrutiny resulting from reporting delays. Both the level and change regressions show that late 10K filers significantly reduce the use of discretionary accruals from pre‐ to post‐late filing year. However, they simultaneously increase real transaction management over the same time period. The trade‐offs between the two earnings management techniques are more prominent when the late filers have a strong incentive to meet or beat earnings benchmarks. Our primary results are robust when late filings are caused by accounting, auditing, and internal control issues, and when the late filers cited no meaningful reason for late 10K filings. It is further evident that late filers with material internal control weaknesses and late filers that subsequently restate their financial statements make relatively higher trade‐offs than the matched non‐late filers. Finally, the trade‐offs between reduced accruals and increased real transaction management are stronger for the accelerated filers, and for the late filers audited by Big 4 auditors.     

POSTCRISIS M&As AND THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS

We find that mergers and acquisitions (M&As) occurring after the 2007–2009 financial crisis were significantly more value enhancing than precrisis M&As, in both the short and long term. This superior postcrisis performance can be attributed to an increase in external financing constraints following the crisis that caused a decline in general financing availability. This decline restricted the universe of potential acquiring firms to those that were less financially constrained, whereas the typical postcrisis target firm was more financially constrained. As a result, postcrisis acquirers were able to obtain targets at more attractive prices relative to their intrinsic value during the precrisis period when external financing was much less constrained. We also find that the typical postcrisis acquirer had greater long-term focus than their precrisis counterparts and used their financial strength to capitalize on strategic opportunities.     

Basel III and perceived resilience of banks in the BRICS economies

This study investigates how the additional capital and liquidity requirements of Basel III would increase the resilience of banks. In particular, using panel data from 2007 to 2014, we examine the resilience of banks in the BRICS economies. Our results suggest that a 10% increase in capital adequacy ratio (CAR), Tier 1 capital ratio (TRA), and leverage ratio (LEV), the resilience (as measured by Z-Score of banks) increases by about 2.18, 0.89 and 1.31%, respectively. Similarly, for a 100% increase in liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), the resilience of banks increases by 0.51%, 1.10% and 1.19%, respectively, in the models associated with CAR, TRA, and LEV. Hence, our findings suggest that the CAR is robust to increase the resilience of banks. Our study also reveals that the LCR and LEV are the most effective to increase the resilience of banks if implemented simultaneously. We also find that the stage of economic development does not matter in formulating policies for the BRICS economies, and finally, we provide empirical evidence that economy-wide risk, such as a financial crisis, does not affect the resilience of banks and it influences the resilience of banks in the BRICS economies in the same way before and after the crisis.     

Voluntary Financial Disclosure By Australian Listed Companies

As Australia becomes an increasingly important equity market, the level of information disclosed by Australian listed companies is likely to be of interest to a growing audience of prospective investors. This study tests the relation between five firm-specific variables drawn from agency theory and the general level of financial information voluntarily disclosed by companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The five variables are foreign listing status, firm size; leverage, assets-in-place and type of audit firm. The empirical evidence suggests that foreign listing status, firm size, and type of audit firm are significantly related to the level of information voluntarily disclosed by listed companies.     

US oil companies’ earnings management in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita

This study examines earnings management by US-based oil companies in the period immediately after the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We show that large petroleum refining firms – but not the smaller crude oil and natural gas production companies – recorded significant abnormal income-decreasing accruals in the fiscal quarter immediately after the impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita (Q4 of 2005). In addition, we show that these results are driven by abnormal current accruals. Prior studies show that some firms respond to periods of heightened political scrutiny by recording abnormal income-decreasing accruals (e.g. [Cahan, S., 1992. The effect of antitrust investigation on discretionary accruals: a refined test of the political cost hypothesis. The Accounting Review 67 (1), 77–96; Han, J., Wang, S., 1998. Political costs and earnings management of oil companies during the 1990 Persian Gulf Crisis. The Accounting Review 73 (1), 103–118]). Our results add to this stream of research by examining a political cost-increasing event that occurred after the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. The results suggest that in the post-SOX period managers continue to engage in income-decreasing earnings management during periods of heightened political cost sensitivity, at least in the case of large petroleum refining firms.     

Value-relevance of pension transition adjustments and other comprehensive income components in the adoption year of SFAS No. 158

In the present study, we examine the value-relevance of pension transition adjustments and other comprehensive income (OCI) components in the initial adoption year of Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (SFAS) 158—Employers’ Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Postretirement Plans. Using a sample of 697 Standard and Poor (S&P) firms with the fiscal year ending on December 31, 2006, we perform several cross-sectional regression analyses to test the value-relevance of transition adjustments and OCI components in presence of various earnings measures. The results indicate that there is a negative relationship between both the level and change in stock returns and the magnitude of pension transition adjustments. We also find earnings measures and some OCI components are significantly associated with stock returns. When analyzed separately, we find our main results are mostly confined to the sample large S&P 500 firms. We do not find any result for the S&P mid-cap and small-cap firms. The overall results suggest the stock market negatively reacts to the adverse impact of SFAS #158 pension transition adjustments on net worth and future cash flows when the impact is substantial in its magnitude in dollar terms. The study further provides useful insight into the information processing by documenting that the market evaluates accounting information more effectively when such information is recognized in the financial statements rather than disclosed only in the financial footnotes.     

U.S. POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND LOAN PRICING

Using U.S. Department of Justice data on state-level political corruption, we find that banks charge higher loan spreads (all-in-drawn spreads) to firms in states with higher corruption and that these effects are more pronounced for firms facing financial constraints but less pronounced for firms experiencing greater external monitoring. These results are robust to additional controls, alternative corruption measures, a measure of the lack of oversight of lobbyist activities, and the use of instrumental variables. Overall, our findings are consistent with the harmful corruption environment hypothesis, which states that banks charge higher loan spreads to firms in states with greater political corruption environments as these firms are susceptible to making suboptimal financial decisions to fend off rent-seeking behavior.