Accounting Commons^™

The Assurance Market Of Sustainability Reports: What Do Accounting Firms Do?, Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, Silvia Romero, Silvia Ruiz

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The assurance of sustainability reports is a relatively new service offered by different providers such as accounting firms and consultants. The percentage of sustainability reports assured and the weight of the four largest accounting firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PWC) in this new market are evolving in time. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the role each one of the four major accounting firms (Big4) play in this assurance market. Using a generalized linear mixed model in an international sample, our results confirm that each Big4 accounting firm leverages its network of financial …

Trade Networks And Cross-Border Acquisitions: Evidence From United States Acquiring Firms, Seung Hun Han, Eun Jin Jo, Dong-Kyoon Kim, Duk Hee Lee

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study examines the impact of the trade networks of target firms' nation on the announcement returns of the cross-border acquisitions of United States acquirers. By using a sample of 818 cross-border acquisitions during 2000–2007, we find that the centrality measure of trade networks has a positive impact on announcement returns, after controlling for Hofstede's cultural distance measure between the acquiring and target nations and various firm- and deal-specific factors. In sum, trade network analysis, based on strength centrality, better explains the performance of acquiring firms than does the bilateral trade openness measurement used in previous studies.

The Price Contagion Effects Of Financial Reporting Fraud And Reputational Losses: Evidence From The Individual Audit Partner Level, Ferdinand A. Gul, Chee Yeow Lim, Kun Wang, Yanping Xu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates the existence of price contagion effects for the low-quality audits of individual audit partners and the associated reputational losses in China. Low-quality partners are identified as those whose clients have been sanctioned by regulators for financial reporting fraud. Our evidence shows that sanctions induce a significant stock price decline among the contagion firms that share common low-quality partners and common low-quality audit firms; however, the decline is greater for the former. We also find that the price contagion effects of low-quality partners are more pronounced for firms located in regions with weak institutional development and less pronounced …

Territorial Tax System Reform And The Financial Behavior Of Multinational Firms, Jing Xing, Stephen Bond, Giorgia Maffini

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate whether the move from the worldwide tax system to the territorial tax system in Japan in 2009 affects the financial behavior of overseas affiliates of Japanese multinational companies. The reform substantially reduces the tax costs of profit repatriation in the form of dividends for Japanese overseas affiliates. We use this reform as a quasi-natural experiment to investigate whether and how the tax system affects multinationals’ cash holding and financing policies. Findings from our study sheds some light on possible outcomes of similar tax reforms in countries such as the United States. Based on a sample of Japanese overseas …

In Fair Value We Trust, Or Not, Joyce Tang, Nick Leong, Pan, Gary, Keng Kevin Ow Yong, Chu Yeong Lim, Tee Yong Jeffrey Ng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The objective of financial reporting is to provide financial information that is useful to existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors (IASB’s Conceptual Framework ED/2015/3). General purpose financial reports provide information about the financial position of a reporting entity, as well as information about the effects of transactions and other events that will change a reporting entity’s economic resources and claims (para 1.12 ED/2015/3). Investor confidence and trust in the financial statements is a crucial component for financial markets to function smoothly. This report presents the attitudes and concerns of over 700 respondents toward fair value accounting. The survey …

The Timeliness Of State And Local Governments By Gasb: An Evaluation Of Efficacy Of Financial Reports, Achraf Seyam, Alexander Hinners, Lauren Freire, Victor Parbat

Publications and Research

In March 2011, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued a research brief titled “The Timeliness of Financial Reporting by State and Local Governments Compared with the Needs of Users.” This study formally exposed an apparent gap between the time-of-issuance of governmental financial reports and their usefulness according to a large and diverse group of survey participants. According to the GASB in the aforementioned report, nearly a quarter of the government entities take longer than six months to issue their annual reports, with many evidencing release times of a year or more. Comparatively, the users surveyed indicated that report usefulness …

Beating Market Expectations, Analysts’ Forecasts Dispersion And The Pricing Of Credit Default Swaps, Mauricio A. Melgarejo

Mauricio Melgarejo

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of beating analysts’ forecasts and the impact of analysts’ forecast dispersion on the pricing of firms’ credit default swaps (CDSs). CDS premium is the compensation required by investors for bearing firms’ credit default risk. Sell-side analysts collect market, industry and firm information and provide important information in the form of stock recommendations, stock price targets and accounting number forecasts. For that reason, the information contained in their forecasts may provide additional information to investors to price CDSs. My results show that firms that beat analysts’ earnings and revenue forecasts, and …

The Stock Market’S Reaction To Accounting Information: The Case Of The Latin American Integrated Market Abstract, Mauricio A. Melgarejo, Eduardo Montiel, Luis Sanz

Mauricio Melgarejo

The purpose of this paper is to explore the stock market’s reaction to quarterly financial statements. We focus our study in two countries that are participating in the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA): Peru and Chile. We find that the cumulative abnormal returns and the absolute value of the cumulative abnormal trading are explained principally by the quarterly earnings surprises around the financial statements release date. We find that these effects are more pronounced in small firms, confirming that due to the lower level of pre disclosure information accounting numbers are the main source of information. Key words: Accounting Information, …

The Accounting Court: Some Speculations On Why Not?, Gary Kleinman, Pamela Strickland, Asokan Anandarajan

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The accounting court proposed by Spacek (Account Rev 33(3):368, 1958) was a potent and controversial idea. The court would provide a venue to which auditing firms and clients could bring disputes over the application of accounting principles and over time would build a database of casework illustrating the court’s decisions on proper application and interpretation of accounting principles. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on the accounting court and on standard setting by analyzing group value orientations and motivations that should promote the likelihood of an accounting court appearing in these times. We base our analysis in value …

A Case Study In The Use And Potential Misuse Of Non-Gaap Financial Measures, Benoit Boyer, Ralph Lim, Bridget M. Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

Firms reporting under US GAAP are allowed to supplement financial information with non-GAAP measures. We examined 6 Firms in the chemical industry and looked at what information was presented (Dow, Du Pont, Monsanto, FMC, PPG, Praxair). We use the 2014 Annual Report so that we would have comparable data for all companies. For 2 firms we looked at numbers presented in Cap IQ and in Bloomberg and compared them to the numbers presented by the company (Dow and Du Pont). The numbers reported by the firms and the analysts differed greatly.

Nevada Continues To Lead Delaware And All Other States And Jurisdictions In 2014 Securities And Exchange Commission Trading Suspensions, Anthony J. Cataldo Ii, Xi (Cici) Cheng, Paul Christ, Thomas Miller

Paul Christ

No abstract provided.

Nevada Continues To Lead Delaware And All Other States And Jurisdictions In 2014 Securities And Exchange Commission Trading Suspensions, Anthony J. Cataldo Ii, Xi (Cici) Cheng, Paul Christ, Thomas Miller

Thomas Miller

No abstract provided.

Anti-Money Laundering Programs For Casinos - A Comparison Of Macao And Us Practices, Carlos Siu, Malcolm Greenlees

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Anti-Money Laundering Programs for Casinos: A Comparison of Macao and US Practice.

Recent world events have reemphasized the importance of controlling and reporting of terrorism financing – one of the major reasons for National and International Anti Money Laundering procedures since the early 1980’s.

Although initially focused on commercial banking operations, casinos have been brought under the scope of that legislation since 1990 – as “money service businesses.” The explosive growth of the Macao casino business on the world gaming since 1995 has led to implementation of new rules for the casinos operating in that jurisdiction.

The current research describes …

Endogeneity In Ceo Power: A Survey And Experiment, Zhichuan Li

Business Publications

The endogeneity problem has always been one, if not the only, obstacle to understanding the true relationship between different aspects of empirical corporate finance. Variables are typically endogenous, instruments are scarce, and causality relations are complicated. As the first attempt to summarize different econometric methods that are commonly used to address endogeneity concerns in the context of corporate governance, we explore the relation between CEO power and firm performance, as an experiment, to illustrate how these methods can be used to mitigate the endogeneity problem and by how much. After carefully dealing with the endogeneity issues, we find strong evidence …

The Question Of Financial Career Paths: Which Graduate Program And/Or Professional Certification Leads To The Greatest Income And Level Of Satisfaction Based On A Survey Of Professionals Working Within The Accounting/Finance Fields?, Tanner M. Shaw

Honors Theses

Thousands of men and women across the United States graduate from accounting and finance undergraduate programs and find themselves uncertain about what the future holds and what steps should be taken in order to maximize their odds of meeting their personal goals related to job satisfaction and level of income. This study aims to evaluate graduate degree and non-graduate-degree alternatives, as well as the CPA and CFA professional designations in terms of the likelihood of each route leading to high job satisfaction and a high level of income. To that end, a survey of successful accounting and finance professionals was …

Effect Of Automated Advising Platforms On The Financial Advising Market, Benjamin Faubion

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis outlines the cost to investor differences between a traditional financial advisor and the growing group of highly competitive automated Robo-Advisors.

Correlation Between Shareholder Concentration And Firm Performance With Regard To Midcap Companies, Wynn Lemmons

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The research herein explores the correlation between performance and shareholder concentration. This paper compares the performance of a group of companies with a single shareholder stake of over 10% from the universe of the S&P 400 Midcap Index to the performance of the index itself over a period of eight years (January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2016). When run as a simulated portfolio, the group selected generated a slight amount of positive alpha, but the results were ultimately statistically insignificant.

How To Decrease Employee Turnover Rates Within Public Accounting Firms, Hannah Jankowski

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Student Debt: Impact On Student Choices, Kelsey Cavanaugh

Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day (2011-2017)

In 2010 student loans became the second largest portion of US debt. Today, the estimated total is 1.4 trillion. Over the last decade the average debt per student has increased 56%, which is double the inflation rate for that period. The graduating class of 2014 left college with an average of about $29,000 of debt. Lastly, the number of federal borrowers today is 7.5 million and growing. This presentation examines how student debt affects students’ spending choices after college and what has changed in these patterns over the last decade.

Initial Public Offerings (Ipos), Kevin Keller

Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day (2011-2017)

As an investor, the first rule is to never get caught up in your emotions. There are thousands of different (exciting) investment opportunities in today’s world, and some of them tend to be a bit riskier than others. These consist of stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and several others. However, where do most of these investment tools originate? In order for a stock to be publicly traded on the stock exchange, it must undergo what it called an initial public offering (which I will refer to as an IPO). Since the primary objective is to raise …

Thought Leaders: Faculty Who Shape Business Theory And Practice Through Research

Business Exchange

Profiles of seven DePaul professors and the research they are conducting in areas as diverse as work-life balance and investor behavior: James D. Shilling, Real Estate Studies; R. David McLean, Investment Management; Kelly Richmond Pope, Accountancy; Andrew Gallen, Marketing; Alyssa J. Westring, Management; William Sander, Economics; and Misty Johanson, Hospitality Leadership.

Media Coverage And The Stock Market Valuation Of Tarp Participating Banks, Tee Yong Jeffrey Ng, Florin P. Vasvari, Regina Wittenberg-Moerman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the impact of media coverage of the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) under the Troubled Assets Relief Program on the equity market valuation of participating bank holding companies (CPP banks). We document substantial negative coverage of the CPP and its participants over the five quarters following the program's initiation. We find that the extent of negative media coverage about the CPP exerted substantial downward pressure on the stock returns of CPP banks, decreasing their valuation relative to bank holding companies not participating in the program. We show that our findings cannot be explained by differences in the banks’ financial …

Do Analysts Understand The Economic And Reporting Complexities Of Derivatives?, Hye Sun Chang, Michael Donohoe, Theodore Sougiannis

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate whether and how the complexity of derivatives influences analysts earnings forecast properties. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that, relative to a matched control sample of non-users, analysts earnings forecasts for new derivatives users are less accurate and more dispersed after derivatives initiation. These results do not appear to be driven by the economic complexity of derivatives, but rather the financial reporting of such economic complexity. Overall, despite their financial expertise, analysts routinely misjudge the earnings implications of firms derivatives activity. However, we find evidence that a series of derivatives accounting standards has helped analysts improve their forecasts …

Securing Big Data Provenance For Auditors The Big Data Provenance Black Box As Reliable Evidence, Deniz Appelbaum

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The purpose of this article is to highlight a main issue regarding reliable audit evidence derived from Big Data—that of secure data provenance. Traditionally, audit evidence external to the client has been regarded as superior to other forms of evidence. However, regarding external “messy” Big Data sources that may be material to aspects of the audit, these sources may lack provenance and verifiability. That is, the origins of the data may be unclear and its log files incomplete. According to the standards, such evidence should be considered as less reliable for audit evidence. External auditors, as outsiders of the client, …

The Expectation Differences Among Stakeholders In The Financial Valuation Fitness Of Auditors, James Digabriele

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is an expectation gap among accounting academics, accounting practitioners, and users of financial statements in the financial valuation fitness of auditors. Complex reporting standards and current market expectations have the potential to create differences between what third-party users consider to be the responsibilities of the auditor and what auditors believe to be their responsibilities in auditing fair value estimates. Design/methodology/approach-This study surveys the perceptions of accounting academics, accounting practitioners, and users of financial statements and the degree to which an expectation gap exists in the financial valuation fitness of auditors. …

Bank Competition And Financial Stability: Evidence From The Financial Crisis, Brian Atkins, Lynn Li, Jeffrey Ng, Tjomme O. Rusticus

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the link between bank competition and financial stability using the recent financial crisis as the setting. We utilize variation in banking competition at the state level and find that banks facing less competition are more likely to engage in risky activities, more likely to face regulatory intervention, and more likely to fail. Focusing on the real estate market, we find that states with less competition had higher rates of mortgage approval, experienced greater housing price inflation before the crisis, and a steeper housing price decline during it. Overall, our study is consistent with greater competition increasing financial stability.

Assessing Accountability In U.S. Public Education, Anne Kelly, J. Orris

Anne Kelly

Public education accountability rests almost exclusively with schools rather than governments. This paper explores its three dimensions: economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Performance indicators of these dimensions were developed which facilitated testing of significant differences in means over time using analysis of variance. Only salary and wage expenditures per instruction personnel exhibited greater economy. Instructional equipment per pupil was related to increased efficiency. Several indicators suggested enhanced effectiveness. Student/teacher ratio declined and top performers in public schools improved in achievement. Graduation rate, an indicator of achievement and participation, significantly rose in recent years. In summary, several effectiveness indicators revealed encouraging trends …

Designing Ca/Cm To Fit Not-For-Profit Organizations, Deniz Appelbaum, Stephen Kozlowski, Miklos A. Vasarhelyi, Joel White

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose – The purpose of this project is to undertake continuous auditing and monitoring (CA/CM) implementations working with small-to-medium-sized (SME) not-for-profit (NFP) organizations of varying sizes, business purposes and levels of technical sophistication. Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses a project using a case study approach with an SME NFP entity. Findings – The findings support the discussions in the literature regarding CA/CM adoption in organizations, particularly regarding its implementation benefits and challenges. Research limitations/implications – The project is not complete in that additional case studies could possibly offer additional applicability to the findings. Practical implications – This case study illustrates …

2015-2016 Financial Summary, Morehead State University. Budget & Financial Planning Office.

Morehead State University Financial Summaries Archive

2015-2016 Financial Summary of Morehead State University.

Using Option Theory To Determine Optimal Ira Investment, Treba Marsh, Todd A. Brown, Mary Fischer

Faculty Publications

Given the current uncertain economic trends, the decision to contribute to a personal retirement account can be a financial challenge taking a great deal of courage. Using the option theory, this paper presents arguments to justify the optimal contribution to maximize an IRA investment return.