The Components of Accounting Ratios as Co-integrated Variables

Time series of accounting variables may often be non-stationary, i.e. they have a unit root, as in the common example of a random walk. This can lead to spurious results in time series regression analysis which uses such variables. The problem is overcome if the variables are co-integrated. This paper examines and tests the proposition that, where the variables are expressed in logarithmic form, calculating a ratio may capture the effects of co-integration. Thus, accounting ratios (calculated in logarithmic form) might be stationary, and therefore exempt from the econometric pathology associated with their component variables.     

企业并购重组中非经营性固定资产如何剥离

企业并购重组，均涉及到经营性固定资产重组和非经营性固定资本分离这一重大问题，一般企业非经营性固定资产的并购重组主要有两种方式；一是将非经营性固定资产全部纳入并购重组范围；二是将非经营性固定资产通过剥离，一部分纳入并购重组范围，另一部分不纳入并购重组范围，剥离时应把握重要原则，考虑被剥离非经营性固定资产在企业中的规模，作用和反面分析等因素。非经营性固定资产的具体剥离主要表现为：其一，拟定总协议，并在此基础上制定分协议；其二，双方产品和劳务交易价格的定价方式。     

Can material asset reorganizations affect acquirers’’ debt financing costs?——Evidence from the Chinese Merger and Acquisition Market

In this paper, we investigate whether material asset reorganizations (MARs), a special form of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions, can affect the acquirers’ cost of debt financing. Further, we examine the effect of acquiring firms’ accounting information quality on the cost of debt and on the association between MARs and debt costs. We predict that compared to conventional M&As, large-scale acquisitions through MARs can generate a much greater influx of assets from target firms. This raises the acquirers’ asset collateral and thus reduces the cost of debt. Because the quality of accounting information is a key factor affecting the cost of debt, we suggest that it has a spillover effect on the debt-cost effect of MARs. Using M&A transactions by listed companies in the Chinese A-share market from 2008 to 2014 as our sample, we find that MARs are associated with a higher asset collateral and lower ex post cost of debt than conventional M&As. Furthermore, we show that the acquiring firms’ accounting information quality has a significant negative effect on debt costs, and the negative association between MARs and the cost of debt is more pronounced when accounting information quality is higher.     

Corporate Reorganizations: Changes in the Intensity of Labor and Capital Expenditures

Using a new measure that indirectly captures a firm's restructuring efforts on the basis of changes in its labor and capital expenditure patterns, this study examines the link between restructuring and financial performance for an international sample of firms during the years 1989–1997. Results show that firms that curbed the growth in labor expense intensity (labor expense relative to sales), regardless of the accompanying changes in sales or in capital expenditure intensity, had significantly higher annual returns (despite having lower profitability) than firms that expanded their labor intensity. Financial market's response to a reduction in labor expense intensity appears to be more favorable if this reduction is accompanied by a reduction in capital expenditure growth when firms face declining sales, and an increase in capital expenditure growth when firm sales are growing.