Contracting and Reporting Conservatism around a Change in Fiduciary Duties*

We exploit an influential 1991 Delaware court ruling to examine simultaneously two types of conservatism that play important roles in resolving creditor–owner agency conflicts: contracting conservatism and reporting conservatism. The ruling expanded managerial fiduciary duties in favor of creditors for Delaware-incorporated firms in the vicinity of insolvency. In those firms, following the ruling, debt contracts are less likely to include conservative adjustments to accounting numbers used for covenant compliance (i.e., contracting conservatism decreases), while public financial reporting becomes more conservative (i.e., reporting conservatism increases). The decrease in contracting conservatism is concentrated in firms that exhibit a greater increase in reporting conservatism, suggesting that reporting conservatism is more cost-effective in resolving agency conflicts. In addition, the substitution effect is more pronounced in firms facing greater business uncertainty and firms with greater board independence.     

Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years

We commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ball and Brown [1968] by chronicling its impact on capital market research in accounting. We trace the evolution of various research paths that post–Ball and Brown [1968] researchers took as they sought to build on the foundation laid by Ball and Brown [1968] to create a body of research on the usefulness, timeliness, and other properties of accounting numbers. We discuss how those paths often link back to the groundwork laid and questions originally posed in Ball and Brown [1968].     

延迟退休年龄下隔代抚育与劳动参与的抉择*——基于工资收入随机性假定的研究

隔代抚育会对延迟退休年龄政策在促进劳动力供给上产生挤出效应。为了对此进行验证，本文在工资收入随机性的假定及延迟退休5年的情景下，模拟了面临孙辈照护需求的女性临近退休者提前退休所产生的福利变化。进一步，本文采用CHIP和CHARLS的微观调查数据，对不同群组的收入增长率和收入风险进行了估计，继而分析了当面临孙辈照护需求时这些收入特征对退休决策者制度退休和退休后劳动参与抉择产生的影响。总体上，在延迟退休年龄政策下，隔代抚育将对女性劳动力供给产生挤出效应。当面临孙辈照护需求时，女性临近退休者的制度退休抉择主要受自身收入增长率和收入风险的影响，收入增长率越低，或收入风险越高，她们提前退休的意愿就越强烈；制度退休后的劳动参与则更多地受子女收入增长率的影响，子女收入增长率越高，劳动参与的概率越低。     

银企关系与会计信息稳健性——中国资本市场的经验证据

本文以Watts（2003）的契约理论为基础，分析股东与债权人之间利益冲突对会计信息稳健性的影响。虽然会计信息稳健性有助于保护债权人的利益，但是如果股东可以作为公司的债权人，则投资者对会计信息稳健性的需求下降。本文采用Basu（1997）模型分析了2004年中国上市公司会计信息稳健性，发现国家控制的上市公司的会计信息稳健性程度较低，而民营控制的上市公司会计信息稳健性程度较高，但是股东特征对会计信息稳健性的影响，随着银行在公司中利益的增加而趋于一致。     

Auditor conservatism and voluntary disclosure: Evidence from the Year 2000 systems issue

This study further examines the phenomenon of conservative auditor behaviour by considering the level of voluntary disclosure of Year 2000 remediation information in company annual reports. Previous studies have provided evidence of conservative auditor behaviour by examining the link between Big 6 auditor choice and accruals (Francis and Krishnan 1999; Becker et al ., 1998; Defond and Subramanyam 1998). Protecting their reputation capital increases Big 6 auditor incentives to act conservatively to avoid litigation risk. We propose and find that Big 6 auditor clients disclose more Year 2000 remediation information than non–Big 6 auditor clients.     

非审计服务、盈余管理与审计质量——来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文以2001～2004年A股上市公司为研究对象,在国内首次验证了会计师事务所向审计客户同时提供审计与非审计服务,是否会允许管理当局有较大的盈余操纵空间,以探讨非审计服务的提供是否会影响注册会计师独立审计的质量。实证研究结果显示:在我国,控制了其他影响因素后,非审计服务的提供与异常应计数正相关,但不具有统计显著性。这表明,在我国,没有证据显示,非审计服务会的提供会损害注册会计师审计独立性及审计质量。     

产品市场竞争与财务保守行为——以燕京啤酒为例的分析

企业财务保守行为近年来在资本结构研究中颇受关注。本文构造了一个两阶段模型 ,考察当企业必须加大投资的条件下 ,产品市场未来竞争程度与企业当前债务规模的关系。模型表明 ,当企业预期未来竞争程度越激烈 ,当前选择的债务规模也越低 ,从而产生财务保守行为。本文对燕京啤酒财务保守行为进行了分析 ,证实了本文的模型。     

Conditional and Unconditional Conservatism:Concepts and Modeling

We develop a model that captures the distinct natures of and interactions between conditional and unconditional conservatism. Under unconditional conservatism, the book value of net assets is understated due to predetermined aspects of the accounting process. Under conditional conservatism, book value is written down under sufficiently adverse circumstances, but not up under favorable circumstances. The specification of earnings provided by the model yields hypotheses about how unconditional conservatism and other factors preempt conditional conservatism and so affect the asymmetric response of earnings to positive and negative share returns, both current and lagged, documented by Basu (1995, “Conservatism and the Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester’ 1997, “The Conservatism Principle and the Asymmetric Timeliness of Earnings.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 24, 3–37).This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

上市公司会计稳健性的时序演进与行业特征研究

会计稳健性（accounting conservatism）是财务报告的一个重要特征和惯例。稳健原则的贯彻实施是我国会计改革与国际接轨的突出特征。为分析中国的会计稳健性在实证上的特征，本文采用中国上市公司1993～2003年的数据，运用basu（1997）模型，计算了上市公司分年度的会计稳健性以及行业特征。实证研究发现，随着中国会计制度的改革，证券市场监管和处罚力度的强化，注册会计师的脱钩改制，会计稳健性在1998年后逐渐增强，2001年以后上市公司的会计具有稳健性，会计稳健性具有行业特征，在制造业尤其明显。