审计报告改革对权益资本成本的影响研究

传统审计报告的模式化披露无法满足投资者价值信息获取需求,“审计期望差距”问题日益严重。基于2016年12月颁布的新审计报告准则,选取A+H股上市公司为研究对象,考察审计报告改革对上市公司权益资本成本的影响。结果表明,审计报告改革会显著降低权益资本成本。进一步发现,关键审计事项披露数目越多,权益资本成本越低;审计报告改革降低权益资本成本的效应在信息不对称程度高、内部控制水平低、媒体环境差以及代理冲突高的公司中更为明显。这不仅为审计报告改革的经济后果提供了证据,而且对于提高投资者决策效率以及维护资本市场秩序也具有一定的现实意义。     

机构投资者持股、治理环境与审计意见购买

以2003—2018年A股上市公司为样本的分析表明,机构投资者持股能显著抑制基于签字审计师变更的审计意见购买行为。这种抑制作用的发挥需要依赖良好的内外部治理环境,因机构投资者类型而存在显著差异,但不因机构投资者稳定性或专注性而发生显著变动。此外,在控制持股比例后,机构投资者数量的抑制作用不再显著。上述结果为机构投资者治理成效提供了积极证据,也为相关部门更好地培育中长期投资者、提高上市公司质量提供了借鉴。     

资本市场开放与公司内部控制质量——基于“沪港通”的证据

以中国“沪港通”交易制度的实施为政策背景,采用多时点双重差分模型,考察资本市场开放对标的公司内部控制质量的影响,研究发现,“沪港通”交易制度的实施显著提升了公司的内部控制质量,在控制其他因素并经过安慰剂检验、去除A+H股影响、改变周期范围等稳健性检验后,结论依然成立。机制检验表明,“沪港通”主要通过内部和外部两种机制对公司内部控制质量产生影响,其中,内部机制是对股价波动性风险控制,外部机制是审计师声誉风险与政府部门监管。     

外部监督、股权激励与股权代理成本

基于股权代理成本角度,采用2010年中国沪深两市发行A股的非金融类上市公司截面数据,并运用最小二乘法和logistic二元逻辑回归模型,研究了外部监督、股权激励与股权代理成本之间的关系。研究发现,股权代理成本高的公司更加倾向于寻求有效的外部监督,聘请高质量的会计师事务所;股权激励并不能起到完善公司内部治理机制的作用,反而会提高股权代理成本;股权激励会提高公司对外部审计质量的要求。     

基于利益相关者视角的统计数据质量管理体系研究

统计数据质量涉及到数据的生产者、使用者、提供者和监督者等利益相关者,不同主体关注的数据质量维度各有侧重。文章提出作为统计数据质量评估主体的统计机构,应突破自身作为数据生产者的局限,兼顾数据生产者、使用者、提供者和监督者的不同质量要求,采取与之相应的评估指标、方法和多样化的评估形式,全面评估统计数据质量,实施有针对性的数据质量管理策略。最后,给出简短结论与未来展望。     

Working on the Railroad: Public Accounting Talent in the United States—The Case of Haskins & Sells (Now Deloitte)

Nineteenth century US railroads were the first ‘big businesses’ and had profound influence on society. This paper addresses one source of talent for the early US public accounting profession—railroads. Following the end of the US Civil War (1861–65), industrial expansion was a revolutionary experience, with large trusts appearing in the wake of the railroad's maturing influence on the development of a vast continental economy. Accounting practice also was impacted by railroads. For example, the development of annual reports, income measurement, the standardization of reporting by regulators, developing fixed and variable cost, and throughput concepts for capital intensive business—all were related to the railroads. This paper focuses on a significant link between the emerging public accounting profession and the railroads by examining how an early major US public accounting firm relied upon accounting skill developed within railroads as an important source of talent. Arguably, talent is the most important resource of a professional firm. While it is a commonly held view that the immigration of UK accountants in the late nineteenth century was the source of public accounting talent, this paper provides evidence of a competing explanation—the sourcing of talent from a firm (Haskins & Sells) that continues to the present day as Deloitte. Key leadership and personnel of that time gained their experience while working on the domestic railroads.     

The Long-run Effects of the Italian Pension Reforms

The paper analysesthe reforms of the Italian mandatory pension scheme for employeeslegislated in the 1990s. To assess the effects of the reforms,a microsimulation model calibrated on cross-section data is developed.The model is aimed at estimating the average income of a memberof a cohort, as well as the average per capita income of allindividuals alive in a given year. The long-run effects of thereform are analysed, comparing the characteristics of alternativefinancing schemes. A substantial improvement of the equity aswell as the long-run sustainability of the Italian public pensionschemes emerges. However, the dreary demographic scenario callsfor further tightening of eligibility rules sometime in the nextdecades if long-run sustainability of public debt is to be achieved.On the basis of sensitivity analysis, some changes aimed at hedgingthe system against unexpected shocks are suggested.     

Fair Value Accounting and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Adoption of SFAS 159

We examine how fair value accounting affects debt contract design, specifically the use and definition of financial covenants in private loan contracts. Using SFAS 159 adoption as our setting, we find that a small but significant proportion of loans (14.5%) modify covenant definitions to exclude the effects of SFAS 159 fair values. Only a limited number of these modifications exclude assets elected at fair value (less than 7%), while all exclude liabilities elected at fair value. Notably, we document that covenant definition modification is unassociated with ex ante fair value elections. We find that covenant definition modification positively varies with common incentive problems attributed to fair value accounting and negatively varies with benefits attributed to fair value accounting. Our results suggest that fair value accounting is not uniformly detrimental for debt contracting and fair value adjustments are included when they are most likely to improve performance measurement.     

供应链协同管理模式下的信息共享机制研究

首先分析了传统供应链管理中存在的问题,通过研究供应链协同管理的内容,提出不同合作层次企业的四种协同管理模式。在此基础上,构建了供应链信息共享的组织结构,建立了信息共享的激励与约束机制。最后对信息共享机制下的供应链效益做出经济分析。     

Implementing Sustainability Reporting （SR）： （Neo-） Institutional Theory Insights in the Analysis of the SGR Group,Italy and CityGas,Bulgaria

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the corporate characteristics and contextual factors influence the choice of managers in initiating the sustainability report/reporting （SR） and to understand the role of organisational dynamics. The research design develops through a deductive and inductive approach. The deductive approach is based on an analysis of the Social and Environmental Accounting Research （SEAR） strands which use the theoretical framework of （neo-） institutional theory to inquire the adoption and diffusion of SR. The inductive method is based on a research case that focuses on the SGR Group. ＂How can the rico-institutional theory help explain the process of SGR＇s SR implementation in Italian and Bulgarian companies＂？ The study identifies both the internal and contextual factors associated with the SR development and the regulative, normative, and cognitive dimensions/factors that affect the implementation and institutionalisation of SR in Italy and Bulgaria, in accordance with the different institutional environments in which the social and sustainability accounting projects are developed.