The Effect of Earnings–Announcement Timing on Earnings Management

This paper examines whether firms which delay earnings announcements engage in earnings management. The cross–sectional version of the modified Jones 1995 model is used to estimate 'normal' accruals. Prior research has documented that, on average, delayed earnings announcements are associated with negative earnings surprises. Our evidence suggests that the market anticipates unfavorable earnings news when it observes reporting delays. As a consequence, late reporters appear to make the most of a bad situation by employing income–decreasing accruals in big–bath–type earnings management and in contractual renegotiations. We find that the magnitude of income–reducing abnormal accruals is related to the reporting lag.     

Network based evidence of the financial impact of Covid-19 pandemic

How much the largest worldwide companies, belonging to different sectors of the economy, are suffering from the pandemic? Are economic relations among them changing? In this paper, we address such issues by analyzing the top 50 S&P companies by means of market and textual data. Our work proposes a network analysis model that combines such two types of information to highlight the connections among companies with the purpose of investigating the relationships before and during the pandemic crisis. In doing so, we leverage a large amount of textual data through the employment of a sentiment score which is coupled with standard market data. Our results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has largely affected the US productive system, however differently sector by sector and with more impact during the second wave compared to the first.     

大股东对上市公司掏空与支持的经济学分析

在公司的所有权安排中,大股东拥有公司的控制权,有能力为获取控制权的私人利益而侵占上市公司的资源。但是,当上市公司陷入经营困境时,大股东可能通过减少自己的侵占行为而使公司具有偿债能力,甚至会用自己的资源进行支持以防止公司破产。如果上市公司的投资回报率低于大股东的预期水平,或者预期上市公司无法继续生存下去时,大股东会以公司外部股东和债权人的利益为代价而对上市公司进行掠夺。     

Sustainability assurance provider participation in standard setting

This paper examines the participation of accounting firms in the development of sustainability standards by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). This study shows that the Big Four accounting firms have an active role in both the submission of comment letters on sustainability to the SEC and participation in the industry working groups (IWG) for the SASB. The SASB participation reveals that individuals located within the US and at international affiliates are participating at earlier career stages. In addition, this paper leverages LinkedIn data, identifying the career path of the individuals subsequent to their participation with the IWG, to determine how large accounting firms are retaining the skills and knowledge necessary for this field. Since the Big Four firms are market leaders in sustainability assurance, the finding that Big Four firms can retain individuals with financial assurance backgrounds differently than individuals with other backgrounds speaks to the unique skill set that financial assurance develops. This suggests that the career opportunities for interested financial assurance individuals within the sustainability sphere remain robust within the Big Four environment.     

Financial crisis,GDP variation and earnings management in Europe

The purpose of this study is to examine the consequences of the financial crisis on the European companies’ in conjunction with earnings management practice. It focuses on financially distressed companies that audited by a big 4 auditor during recession years. The study makes use of discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management and studies the influence of big 4 auditor, in order to shed more light on possible causes for shifting earnings. The findings of the study provide evidence that financially distressed companies that audited by a big 4 auditor exhibit lower discretionary accruals. The results reveal that Greek and Spanish companies reduce earnings management manipulation during recession. In contrast, Portuguese, Irish and Italian companies show mixed results. They tend to reduce earnings management practices, but there are reasons that influence managers’ behavior to increase earnings management. The findings of this study can be useful for both investors and standard setting authorities.     

理性与良知：“大跃进”时期的县级官员

“大跃进”时期的县级官员在整个国家的行政结构中处于一个夹层位置，一方面其命运取决于上级的好恶，另一方面对下级和民众的权力基本不受到制约，因此他们从理性的角度发出，只能对上惟命是从，但是他们中的一些人，对民众所遭到的痛苦，表现出良知的一面。有一部分县级官员为上级的错误和自己的过失承受了惩处，不过最根本的原因是行政体制所造成的，在一定程度上说，县级官员也是行政体制问题的牺牲品。     

我国数字经济发展战略与路径研究--基于国际经验的考察

当前我国经济正处于增速放缓、结构升级及经济发展动力转换的新常态阶段。寻找新的经济增长点和新动能是经济新常态时期的重要任务和目标,而发展数字经济则是目前最优的经济发展模式。2017年数字经济被写入政府工作报告,预示着数字经济作为继农业经济和工业经济发展模式之后的又一新型社会经济发展形态,已成为新常态下中国经济发展的新动能,也是推动我国供给侧结构性改革的重要抓手。但数字经济模式属于新型经济发展模式,目前尚无一个完整的发展参考体系,需要我国自寻探究发展道路。由此,本文在研究数字经济内涵及其战略意义的基础上,基于我国数字经济发展现状和国外发展战略提出了我国数字经济的具体发展路径。     

基于大数据环境的财务报销自动审核系统构建

为了有效地解决当前企业财务报销审核系统中审核差错大、运行效率低的问题,在大数据分析的基础上,对自动财务报销审核系统进行了优化。结合数值概率算法,对大量财务报销数据进行合理分类,并将分类后的数据传输到财务项目配置模块进行审批。优化财务审核安全评价流程,检查审核处理结构的准确性。对系统服务器和处理器模块的硬件配置进行了优化,达到了优化财务自动报销审核运行效果和准确性的设计目标。实验证明,基于大数据分析的财务报销自动审核系统的财务审核差错率较传统系统明显降低,系统运行效率较传统审核系统提高20%-50%。     

中药方剂浸浴联合外用钙泊三醇倍他米松软膏治疗寻常性银屑病患者的临床效果

目的探讨中药方剂浸浴联合外用钙泊三醇倍他米松软膏治疗寻常性银屑病患者的临床效果。方法选取2018年2月至2019年4月于沈阳市第七人民医院就诊的寻常性银屑病患者114例作为研究对象,以随机数字表法将其分为观察组和对照组,每组57例。对照组患者外用钙泊三醇倍他米松软膏进行治疗,观察组患者通过中药方剂浸浴联合外用钙泊三醇倍他米松软膏治疗。比较两组患者临床疗效、银屑病面积严重程度指数(PASI)评分以及不良反应发生率。结果观察组患者治疗有效率为82.46%,显著高于对照组的63.16%(P<0.05)。两组患者治疗2周、4周后的PASI评分均显著低于治疗前(P<0.05);观察组患者治疗2周、4周后的PASI评分均显著低于对照组(P<0.05)。观察组患者的不良反应发生率为14.04%,低于对照组的21.05%,但差异无统计学意义(P>0.05)。结论中药方剂浸浴联合外用钙泊三醇倍他米松软膏治疗寻常性银屑病能有效改善患者的临床症状,效果显著,且不良反应少。     

Localism and the Big Society: the asset transfer of leisure centres and libraries – fighting closures or empowering communities?

This paper critically examines the ‘asset transfer’ of leisure services from the public to the voluntary sector. Asset transfer might be theorised as ‘austerity localism’, in which volunteers are obliged to fill the gaps left by retreating public provision, or as ‘progressive localism’, which represents new opportunities through the localism and Big Society agendas to develop more locally responsive, cooperative and mutualist visions. In this way, asset transfer might overcome the limitations of the United Kingdom policies in which ‘Big Government’ is replaced by civic society. Drawing on qualitative interviews with key personnel (volunteers, managers and local authority officers) at 12 leisure facilities, a grounded assessment of the nuanced balance between ‘austerity localism’ and ‘progressive localism’ is provided, including three observations. First, the main impetus for transfer was cuts in local authority budgets which stimulated the emergence of local groups of volunteers. Secondly, the transfers themselves required interaction between local government and the volunteer groups; however, the nature of the relationship and support given varied and support was limited by austerity measures. Thirdly, volunteers do not automatically fill a gap left by the state: without support transfer viability relies on the financial and social capital among volunteer groups, and this is unevenly distributed. These findings suggest that the capacity for a ‘progressive localism’ to emerge through asset transfer is limited. However, where transfer has occurred, there are some progressive benefits of volunteer empowerment and a more flexible service.