Agricultural taxation in developing countries: a survey of issues and policy

This study surveys the experience of agricultural taxation in developing countries in the context of the ongoing policy debate about the tax structure and administration affecting agricultural producers. Using the examples of a number of countries, it analyzes the conceptual and practical problems associated with different tax regimes. Governments in most countries have reduced indirect (export) taxes on agricultural producers. However, the revenue from direct taxes on farmers has not increased. A major problem in most countries has been the measurement of (actual) agricultural income. Different measures for presumed income have been used with varying success. They seem to have the most potential for increased revenue in many countries, but their effective implementation is constrained by the political and administrative considerations.     

Has Adoption of IFRS Increased Non–North American Institutional Investment in the Canadian Stock Markets?

We investigate whether non–North American (non‐NA) institutional investment in firms listed on the Canadian stock markets increased between the pre‐ and post‐IFRS adoption periods relative to such investment in firms listed on the U.S. stock markets. Prior to IFRS adoption, Canada had high‐quality financial reporting standards that were similar to the U.S. standards. As consequences of IFRS adoption, Canadian financial statements became more comparable with European and other IFRS country financial statements and less comparable with neighboring U.S. financial statements. Thus, a question of interest is whether the enhanced comparability with non‐NA companies was beneficial in terms of attracting non‐NA investment to Canadian companies versus U.S. companies. We find that there was no significant change in non‐NA institutional investment in Canadian firms relative to U.S. firms for the very largest (fifth quintile) and for smaller (first, second, and third quintiles) Canadian companies. However, intermediate‐sized Canadian companies in the fourth size quintile lost non‐NA institutional investment relative to their U.S. peer companies, suggesting that non‐NA investors cared more about comparability with U.S. peer companies than non‐NA peer companies for companies in this size quintile.     

Corporate ownership concentration and audit fees: The case of an emerging economy

The paper investigates the effects of corporate ownership concentration on audit fees in emerging economies, using Bangladesh as a case. Prior studies have indicated that audit fees in Bangladesh are significantly low. Also, the Bangladeshi private sector is dominated by high ownership concentration. Agency theory predicts that in an efficient market, managers in a highly concentrated ownership situation will have sufficient incentives to have more rigorous audits performed. However, managers in emerging economies, where the markets are not as strong, may not have similar incentives. We test whether audit fees in Bangladesh are related to corporate ownership concentration. Our results indicate that audit fees have a significant negative relationship with sponsor and institutional ownership concentrations. This indicates that in Bangladesh, companies actually pay lower audit fees when these are dominated by sponsor and institutional shareholders. For the public shareholders, we find a negative, but statistically insignificant relationship. The results seem to suggest that corporate ownership pattern may be a major factor in explaining the low audit fees in Bangladesh.     

Changes in the Public Accounts Committee of a Less Developed Democratic Country: A Field Study

This paper complements prior studies on the public accounts committees (PACs) by considering the notions of ‘agency’ and ‘structure’ of institutional theory in tandem in understanding the changes in structures and activities of the PAC of a less‐developed democratic country – Bangladesh. While prior studies examined ‘external’ institutional pressures on the development and operation of the PAC in various settings, the role of internal and external institutional agents in this context has not been their primary focus. Our empirical evidence from a qualitative field study indicates that over the past two decades, Bangladesh's PAC underwent significant changes to its internal governance structures and administrative processes. While these changes were indirectly driven by pressures from international donor agencies, PAC members and the national audit office played a key role as institutional agents in initiating and institutionalising the changes in PAC governance and operation.     

Use of social media by university accounting students and its impact on learning outcomes

The proliferation in the use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, among university students is well documented. With many universities providing student resources in formats suitable for iPad, laptop, and mobile phone use, the use of social media for university activities has become easier. This study explores the use of social media by university accounting degree students to support their academic activities in an informal setting. It explores the impact these media have on learning outcomes. Our findings suggest that university accounting degree students use social media for a number of academic-related purposes. Students establish and maintain fluid mentor/mentee relationships around academic activities related interactions through the social media. We have found that the use of Social Media is significantly associated with students’ grades.     

The investment performance,attributes, and investment behavior of ethical equity mutual funds in the US: an empirical investigation

This paper examines the investment performance of US ethical equity mutual funds relative to the market and their traditional counterparts using a survivorship-bias-free database. We detect selectivity and market timing performance of fund managers using two models. First, we use Treynor and Mazuy’s (Harv Bus Rev 44:131–136, 1966) model to determine these performances from a quadratic regression of fund returns on market returns. Second, we use a comprehensive and integrated model derived by Bhattacharya and Pfleiderer (A note on performance evaluation. Technical Report 714, Stanford, California, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, 1983) and Lee and Rahman (J Bus 63:261–278, 1990) to simultaneously capture stock selection and market timing skill of fund managers. This model extracts timing skill from the relationship between managers’ forecast and realized market return. In addition, the R² approach developed by Amihud and Goyenko (Rev Financ Stud 26:667–694, 2013) for evaluating selectivity is also used in this paper. Our empirical results indicate that ethical funds perform no worse than their traditional counterparts, although ethical and traditional funds do not outperform the market. We find some evidence of superior security selection and/or market timing skill among a very small number of ethical and traditional funds. It appears that matching traditional funds have slightly more abnormal (superior as well as inferior) performance than ethical funds in our sample.     

Public re-release of going-concern opinions and market reaction

This paper examines the market reaction to the public announcement of going-concern (GC) opinions through the news media. In the early 2000s, NASDAQ and AMEX required firms listed on their exchanges to publicly announce previously disclosed information, such as the issuance of a GC opinion, through a press release or the news media. We examine the stock market reaction to the re-release of GC opinions. We find significant abnormal stock return volatility and trading volume at the re-release of this information. Further, based on an analysis of intraday transactions, we find higher abnormal trading activity in small trades around the re-release of the GC opinion, but largely no changes in large trades during the same period. In this respect, the investors that initiate the small trades act as if they are surprised by the information contained in the press release of GC opinions. Such an action, in turn, can be viewed as evidence of a delayed response to the information in GC opinions by a section of investors.     

Reply to the Discussion Note on the “The Effect of IFRS Adoption Conditional Upon the Level of Pre-adoption Divergence”

Pathak (2014) has raised both conceptual and methodological questions about Cai, Rahman, and Courtenay (2014). In this reply, we attempt to address the questions. The discussion arising from these questions suggests that IFRS adoption and the implications of IFRS are complex issues. Cai et al. (2014) try to illustrate that IFRS adoption is not a single-step solution. It has various stages. Some countries take gradual steps towards IFRS adoption and others embrace IFRS in one big step. Cai et al. (2014) also explain that IFRS adoption is associated with other institutional arrangements within a country. The issue of the manner in which IFRS is adopted across countries needs further investigation to better assess the country level impediments of IFRS adoption and how IFRS adoption affects market efficiency.     

Determinants of corporate social disclosure: Empirical evidence from Bangladesh

We explore the potential firm and industry characteristics that determine the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure practises by Bangladeshi listed firms. We use a CSR disclosure checklist to measure the extent of CSR disclosure in the annual reports and a multiple regression analysis to examine the determinants of CSR disclosure. Our study finds that CSR disclosure has positive and significant relationships with export-oriented sector, firm size and types of industries. We also find a negative relationship between CSR disclosure and family ownership. The overall findings of our study provide empirical evidence which suggests that a number of firm and industry characteristics are important determinants of the extent of CSR disclosures in a developing country like Bangladesh. Our findings can help the policy makers to adopt necessary regulatory reform to improve the CSR practises and enhance organisational legitimacy.     

Labor unemployment risk and firm risk

This paper examines the effect of labor unemployment risk on firm risk. Using unemployment insurance benefits as a proxy for unemployment risk, we find an economically significant positive relation between unemployment risk and firm risk. This positive relation is more pronounced for firms that are more labor-intensive, have a higher layoff propensity and are more financially constrained. While existing literature that employs corporate policy measures such as debt and cash holdings suggests an opposite relationship, our paper presents evidence that the effects stemming from earnings management, earnings quality and reporting quality appear to dominate.