未预期盈余、审计意见与年报披露及时性——来自上海证券交易所上市公司年报的证据

以2001-2004年度所有沪市上市公司为样本,实证检验了未预期盈余、审计报告类型、公司业绩等多个因素对上市公司年报披露绝对及时性和相对及时性的影响。研究结果发现,未预期盈余为正的年报、被出具标准审计意见的年报以及业绩好的年报披露较早;反之亦然;当年会计师事务所变更的公司和亏损公司年报披露较晚。在变更年报预约披露日期的公司中,未预期盈余为正的公司、被出具标准审计意见的公司以及业绩好的公司通常提前披露年报;反之亦然。     

审计意见和年报披露会影响盈余质量吗?

本文使用沪深两市A股上市公司的面板数据,分析了审计意见和年报披露及时性与盈余质量的关系,认为二者与盈余质量之间存在显著的相关性:首先,年度财务报告被出具非标类型审计意见的上市公司,盈余质量较低;其次,年报披露越及时的公司,盈余质量越高。另外我们的研究结果还表明年报被出具非标审计意见的公司,会更晚披露财务报告,验证了变更年报预约披露日期(延迟披露)的公司则更容易被出具非标审计意见。     

上市公司会计信息披露及时性的改进建议

上市公司会计信息披露的及时与否,直接影响着会计信息使用者相关决策的成败。本文针对如何改进上市公司会计信息披露的及时性这个问题,主要从会计信息的提供者、监管者、鉴证者三方面,提出了完善公司治理结构、优化业务处理流程、允许调整会计年度、建立信息披露电子化体系、掌握现代审计理论与技术等若干改进建议。     

Private Equity Involvement and Earnings Quality

Abstract:  This paper examines the relation between private equity (PE) investors' involvement and their portfolio firms' earnings quality. We operationalize earnings quality through comparative analyses of conditional loss recognition timeliness. For a sample of unlisted Belgian firms, we find that PE involvement increases a firm's willingness to recognize losses more timely as compared to industry, size and life-cycle matched non-PE backed firms. Further, we document more powerful earnings quality effects for firms backed by independent and captive PE-investors as compared to firms backed by government-related PE-investors. Finally, we find no systematic variation in earnings quality across different levels of PE ownership. Our results are robust to the inclusion of various controls and remain unaffected when we consider the endogeneity of PE investments and compare pre- and post PE investment years. The current results provide novel evidence towards the understanding of PE investors' governance implications for portfolio firms' earnings quality.     

Did Houston Clients of Arthur Andersen Recognize Publicly Available Bad News in a Timely Fashion?*

Despite the allegations of audit failure and the enormous publicity surrounding Arthur Andersen's indictment, there is no systematic empirical evidence on characteristics of accounting information of clients of Arthur Andersen vis‐à‐vis other Big 6 auditors. I examine whether earnings of Andersen's Houston‐based clients are timely in reporting bad news about future cash flows. I find that relative to a control group consisting of Houston‐based clients audited by other Big 6 auditors, earnings of Andersen clients are less timely in reporting bad news. Further, it appears that operating accruals of Andersen clients are less effective in accelerating the timely recognition of bad news than operating accruals of non‐Andersen clients. The findings suggest that the clients of Andersen's Houston office engaged in aggressive accounting practices, including delayed recognition of publicly available bad news.     

Write‐Down Timeliness, Line‐of‐Business Disclosures and Investors' Interpretations of Segment Divestiture Announcements

Abstract:   This paper examines investors' anticipation and subsequent interpretations of asset write‐downs accompanying segment divestitures. Examining long‐window returns cumulated over the two years preceding the year of divestiture, we hypothesize and find that investors anticipate write‐downs of segment operating assets before divestiture and recognition occurs, with anticipation conditional on the timeliness of the write‐down and prior disclosure of the segments' operating results under segment reporting rules. Short‐window returns cumulated over the three days surrounding the announcement of the divestiture confirm that investor interpretations of asset write‐downs are similarly contingent on write‐down timeliness and prior disclosure.     

论大学生心理健康档案的时效性

研究表明,我国大学生的心理健康状况不容乐观。大学生心理健康档案有它的特殊性,文章探讨了大学生心理健康档案特殊性之一的时效性,并对大学生心理健康档案的建档周期及大学生心理健康教育工作队伍的素质要求提出了自己的建议。     

Financial Distress and the Earnings‐Sensitivity‐Difference Measure of Conservatism

Following Basu (1997 ), the difference between the sensitivity of accounting earnings to negative equity return (proxy for bad news) and its sensitivity to positive equity return (proxy for good news) is interpreted as an indicator of conditional accounting conservatism. However, there is concern that the earnings‐sensitivity difference (ESD) may be affected by factors other than conditional conservatism, and that this may impair its reliability as an indicator of conditional conservatism. Motivated by such concerns and by recognition that financial distress could contribute to an ESD through a conditional‐conservatism route and/or through a non‐conditional‐conservatism route, we examine the association between financial distress and the ESD for U.S. non‐financial firms. By decomposing the association into an element arising from accruals, which can reflect conditional conservatism, and an element arising from cash flow from operating activities (CFO), which cannot directly reflect conditional conservatism, we seek evidence as to whether such association arises through a conditional‐conservatism route or through a non‐conditional‐conservatism route. We find that positive association between financial distress and the ESD arises predominantly through the accruals component of earnings rather than the CFO component, consistent with it arising primarily because of a higher degree of conditional conservatism in relatively financially distressed firms. The inference that there is a positive association between financial distress and conditional conservatism is supported by other non‐equity‐return‐based measures of conditional conservatism. The evidence in this paper suggests that the effect of financial distress does not significantly impair the reliability of the ESD as an indicator of conditional conservatism.     

及时披露能抑制信息泄露吗?

以深交所2007-2009年披露年报的A股上市公司为样本,本文实证研究了我国上市公司信息披露的及时性对抑制信息泄露与内幕交易的现实效果。研究表明,年报披露及时性逐年提高,披露及时性与信息泄露程度显著负相关,及时披露对抑制信息泄露具显著效用;信息质量与及时性在抑制信息泄露方面具协同作用;与信息质量较好的公司比较,信息质量较差的公司因及时披露对信息泄露的抑制效果更显著,表明及时披露在抑制信息泄露方面对信息质量具替补作用。