Earnings management following chief executive officer changes: the effect of contemporaneous chairperson and chief financial officer appointments

Using a sample of listed Australian firms from 1999 to 2007, we examine the relationship between discretionary accruals and concurrent senior management appointments. Employing panel data regression models and focusing on a measure of discretionary accruals that excludes the effect of transparent write‐downs such as restructuring charges, we find that chief executive officer (CEO) appointments, as a general phenomenon, are not significantly associated with opaque earnings management in the year of appointment or the following year. However, we find that CEO changes accompanied by a concurrent change in board chairperson are associated with significant income‐decreasing earnings management in the year of appointment. We detect no significant relationship between contemporaneous CEO and chief financial officer changes and discretionary accruals. We find no evidence of earnings management in the first compete financial period following CEO appointment, regardless of whether or not concurrent Chair or chief financial officer appointments occurred.     

Copula‐Based Formulas to Estimate Unexpected Credit Losses (The Future of Basel Accords?)

The model used to estimate the capital required to cover unexpected credit losses in financial institutions (Basel II) has some drawbacks that reduce its ability to capture potential joint extreme losses in downturns. This paper suggests an alternative approach based on Copula Theory to overcome such flaws. Similarly to Basel II, the suggested model assumes that defaults are driven by a latent variable which varies as a response to an unobserved factor. On the other hand, the use of copulas allows the identification of asymmetric dependence between defaults which has been registered in the literature. As an example, a specific copula family (Clayton) is adopted to represent the association between the latent variables and a formula to estimate potential unexpected losses at a certain level of confidence is derived. Simulations reveal that, in most of the cases, the alternative model outperforms Basel II for portfolios with right‐tail‐dependent probabilities of default (supposedly, a good representation for real loan portfolios).     

国外亏损公司价值驱动因素研究述评

从亏损状态的持续性、非预期盈余、清算期权、亏损逆转的可能性和特殊事件的披露等方面对国外有关亏损公司价值驱动因素的研究进行梳理.发现现有研究存在的不足主要是研究范围过窄,研究层次不够深入,且以有效市场理论为基础难以指导当前中国证券市场的实际情况.针对我国资本市场,应将投资者的各种预期作为亏损公司价值的主要驱动因素,并在此基础上明确进一步研究的方向.     

Earnings Management in Response to the Introduction of the Australian Gold Tax*

Earnings from gold mining in Australia remained tax‐exempt for almost seven decades until January 1, 1991. In the early 1980s, rapid economic prosperity induced by escalated gold prices brought the Australian gold‐mining industry under intense political scrutiny. Using a variant of the modified Jones model, this paper provides evidence of significant downward earnings management by Australian gold‐mining firms, which is consistent with their attempts to mitigate political costs during the period from June 1985 to May 1988. In contrast, test of earnings management over a similar period in a control sample of Canadian gold‐mining firms produced insignificant results. Further, empirical results are robust to several sensitivity tests performed. During the period from June 1988 to December 1990, the Australian firms were found to have engaged in economic earnings management. This is consistent with the sample firms' incentive of maximizing economic earnings immediately prior to the introduction of income tax on gold mining. The findings of this study help to understand the impact of earnings management on the efficient resource allocation in an economy. They also contribute toward understanding the linkage between regulation of accounting for special purposes and general‐purpose financial reporting.     

Impact of family dominance on monitoring of earnings management by audit committees: Evidence from Hong Kong

This study examines whether the establishment of audit committees by Hong Kong firms would constrain earnings management, especially in firms with family-dominated corporate boards, a condition unique to Hong Kong. The study uses the methodology of three-stage (3SLS) regression analyses to control for endogeneity among earnings management, voluntarily established audit committee, and corporate board size. The results of regression analyses based on 523 observations for the period of 1999-2000 when the audit committees were first established by Hong Kong firms show that overall audit committees play a significant role in constraining earnings management even in the business environment of higher ownership concentration. The effectiveness of audit committees is, however, significantly reduced when family members are present on corporate boards, especially when family members dominate the corporate board.     

浅谈高等院校国防教育中增强忧患意识的途径

忧患意识是中华民族传统文化的精华,本文探讨了推进高等院校的国防教育应从国家安全的潜在威胁和可持续发展的现实隐忧两方面入手增强大学生的忧患意识。     

中国亏损上市公司盈余管理研究

盈余管理的研究已有近30年的历史。近年随着中国资本市场的建立和发展,盈余管理成为实证会计研究的一个重要领域和热点问题。然而过度的盈余管理行为会干扰盈余信息使用者,也会损害投资人等企业外部相关人的利益．甚至扰乱市场秩序,影响资本市场的健康发展。对亏损上市公司盈余管理的研究,不仅有助于证券监管机构对上市公司的管理,而且可以通过问题的发现找到原因并提出科学可行的内外部综合防范措施,提高中国证券市场的资源配置功能。     

突发事件对风险项目投资时机的影响研究

风险投资项目面临着很大的不确定性,包括市场性的和非市场性的,在以往的文献中大多都针对市场性的不确定性进行研究,文章研究了非市场性的不确定性对风险项目投资时机的影响。文章首先通过构造突发事件对风险项目影响的模型,并进行了推理,最后用数值分析的方法对其进行了模拟,结果表明：在同等情况下,突发事件对风险项目收入流影响越大,其投资的时机也就越晚;突发性事件发生的频率越大,其要求的投资时机也是越晚。     

双重增发条件下上市公司盈余管理实证研究

2006年和2008年证监会出台政策对增发新股公司的净资产收益率和现金分红均提出要求。以此为背景的实证研究发现,出于迎合政策中的双重增发条件目的,上市公司获取增发资格过程中为减少现金分红而实施了调减利润的盈余管理,而在增发当年和增发下一年存在调增业绩的盈余管理,并运用了应计项目和真实活动两种盈余管理方式。双重增发条件下上市公司盈余管理目的和行为的转化应引起投资者、分析师、审计师及政策制定部门的重视。