Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Ethical Implications Of Friendly Takeovers: A Financial Manager’S Story, Barbara Tarasovich

WCBT Faculty Publications

Case study in which Bernadette was heading the corporate acquisitions team. It was important for Bernadette to be certain that there was no unethical behavior on the part of the project and management team responsible for the acquisition and integration of these companies. The pressures to achieve synergies can often result in people problems, cultural value, and ethical differences that impede the smooth integration of companies. For each acquisition, Bernadette needed to ensure that the newly acquired assets were secure. In addition, she had to ensure that the acquired companies were not employing inappropriate accounting practices in order to inflate …

Women In The Workforce: An In-Depth Analysis Of Gender Roles And Compensation Inequity In The Modern Workplace, Rebecca L. Ziman

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper explores the increase in participation and education of American women in the workforce with a special focus on women in business and accounting roles. The paper then goes on to discuss the wage gap between genders, how to remedy inequality in the workplace, and highlights several reasons why pursing a solution to gender inequality is beneficial for both the employee and the company.

Should Religious Organizations Worry About Irs Audits?, Sarah J. Webber, Janet S. Greenlee

Accounting Faculty Publications

A great deal of media attention has focused on recent perceived financial abuses of churches and religious organizations. Cases of fraud within religious organizations have fueled the public perception that churches require some form of monitoring to prevent financial abuse. However, the IRS has limited authority to audit religious organizations under section 7611, and the results of such audits are generally unavailable to the public.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, we obtained the outcomes of all section 7611 IRS audits of religious organizations conducted between 2001 and 2010. We found that although the number of both churches and …

Non-Audit Fees, Institutional Monitoring, And Audit Quality, Chee Yeow Lim, David K. Ding, Charlie Charoenwong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We posit that the effect of non-audit fees on audit quality is conditional on the extent of institutional monitoring. We suggest that institutional investors have incentives and the ability to monitor financial reporting quality. Because of the reputation concerns and potential litigation exposure, auditors are likely to provide high audit quality, when they also provide non-audit services to clients, particularly when clients are subject to high institutional monitoring. We find evidence that, as non-audit fees increase, audit quality (measured by performance-adjusted discretionary current accruals and earnings-response coefficients) reduces only for clients with low institutional ownership but not for clients with …

Political Connection And Firm Value, James S. Ang, David K. Ding, Tiong Yang Thong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study the effect of political connection (PC) on company value in an environment where low PC is due to better institutions and not confounded by favorable social/cultural factors. We find that in Singapore, the only country that fits this description, PC in general adds little to the value of a company. However, in industries that are subject to more stringent government regulations, PC appears to be somewhat important. Robustness checks show that alternative PC variables give rise to similar results, and the addition of control variables do not drastically change the findings. Politically connected firms have higher managerial ownership …

Demanda De Institucionales Por Emisiones De Medianas Empresas, John Pineda Galarza

John Pineda Galarza

En abril de 2013 se concretó la primera emisión de papeles comerciales en el ámbito del Mercado Alternativo de Valores (MAV) la cual fue un éxito pues se logró una demanda de 3 a 1, sin embargo los inversionistas institucionales brillaron por su ausencia. En el presente artículo, se analizan los principales desincentivos que tienen inversionistas institucionales como las AFP para invertir en instrumentos emitidos por medianas empresas, planteando en ese sentido algunos temas pendientes en relación con el MAV.

Standard Costing Variances: Potential Red Flags Of Fraud?, Cecily A. Raiborn, Janet B. Butler, Lucian Zelazny

Accounting Faculty Publications

This article focuses on how standard cost variances can be used in detecting potential fraudulent activities. Each primary type of variance (material, labor, and overhead) is addressed with a discussion of possible inappropriate causal factors. Additionally, internal controls, graphic techniques, and other methods that can be implemented to combat fraud are provided.

A Statistical Analysis Of Public Sector Corruption And Economic Growth, Kaycea Campbell

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

This study reports on the results of a statistical analysis in which the relationship between the independent variable of corruption, as measured by the World Bank, and the dependent variable of economic growth, as measured by percentage of GDP growth per year, was examined. The purpose of this study is to apply empirical methods to the debate on corruption and growth, in which neoclassical theory predicts that corruption retards growth but in which other models, such as Lewis growth and the Kuznets Curve, suggest that corruption may actually speed up growth in underdeveloped countries. The main finding of the study …

The Importance Of Information Integrity: In A Data-Driven World, Unreliable And Inaccurate Information Can Lead To Bad Decision-Making, Sridhar Ramamoorti, Madhavan K. Nayar

Accounting Faculty Publications

What is information integrity? It is the trustworthiness and dependability of information. The credibility of information depends on whether we are getting it from sources we can trust. After all, the value of information to the decision-maker and problem-solver consists first in its integrity, and then in its usefulness and usability. Why? Because, even the best chef knows that you can't make a good omelet out of bad eggs! Consider the emerging trend of big data (see" Big Data" on page 34). According to IBM, people create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day (a quintillion is 1 followed by …

Teaching Federal Corporate Law, Verity Winship

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Neoliberalism And The Law: How Historical Materialism Can Illuminate Recent Governmental And Judicial Decision Making, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Neoliberalism can be understood as the deregulation of the economy from political control by deliberate action or inaction of the state. As such it is both constituted by the law and deeply affects it. I show how the methods of historical materialism can illuminate this phenomenon in all three branches of the the U.S. government. Considering the example the global financial crisis of 2007-08 that began with the housing bubble developing from trade in unregulated and overvalued mortgage backed securities, I show how the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which established a firewall between commercial and investment banking, allowed this …

What Effect Does Financial Law Have On The Wealth Management Industry (And Wealth) In Emerging Markets?, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

What effect does financial law have on wirehouses' ability to gather customers and their assets in emerging markets? In this presentation, I look at the data showing the primal importance of law in explaining wealth managers' ability to gather assets. I present a synthesis of some of the research on legislative/regulatory change and the growth of the wealth management industry.

Last Of The Tai-Pans: Improving The Sustainability Of Long-Term Financial Flows By Improving Hong Kong’S Corporate Governance, Bryane Michael

Bryane Michael (bryane.michael@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)

Hong Kong leads the rank tables as an international financial centre. However, the data indicate that some parts of her corporate governance arrangements probably detract from – rather than contribute to – that leading position. In this brief, we show how excessive shareholding concentration, probably self-dealing, insufficient minority shareholder recourse to mechanisms aimed at protecting their investments, and Hong Kong’s close links with several “tax havens” probably weaken Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre. We present 18 recommendations aimed at increasing the volume of international financial capital coming to the city by improving Hong Kong’s corporate governance.

Insider Trading Restrictions And Top Executive Compensation, David J. Denis, Jin Xu

Purdue CIBER Working Papers

The use of equity incentives is significantly greater in countries with stronger insider trading restrictions, and these higher incentives are associated with higher total pay. These findings are robust to alternative definitions of insider trading restrictions and enforcement, and to panel regressions with country fixed effects. We also find significant increases in top executive pay and the use of equity-based incentives in the period immediately following the initial enforcement of insider trading laws. We conclude that insider trading laws are one channel through which cross-country differences in pay practices can be explained.

Adapting To The New Shareholder-Centric Reality, Edward B. Rock

All Faculty Scholarship

After more than eighty years of sustained attention, the master problem of U.S. corporate law—the separation of ownership and control—has mostly been brought under control. This resolution has occurred more through changes in market and corporate practices than through changes in the law. This Article explores how corporate law and practice are adapting to the new shareholder-centric reality that has emerged.

Because solving the shareholder–manager agency cost problem aggravates shareholder–creditor agency costs, I focus on implications for creditors. After considering how debt contracts, compensation arrangements, and governance structures can work together to limit shareholder–creditor agency costs, I turn to available …

A Transactional Genealogy Of Scandal: From Michael Milken To Enron To Goldman Sachs, William W. Bratton, Adam J. Levitin

All Faculty Scholarship

Three scandals have reshaped business regulation over the past thirty years: the securities fraud prosecution of Michael Milken in 1988, the Enron implosion of 2001, and the Goldman Sachs “ABACUS” enforcement action of 2010. The scandals have always been seen as unrelated. This Article highlights a previously unnoticed transactional affinity tying these scandals together—a deal structure known as the synthetic collateralized debt obligation involving the use of a special purpose entity (“SPE”). The SPE is a new and widely used form of corporate alter ego designed to undertake transactions for its creator’s accounting and regulatory benefit.

The SPE remains mysterious …