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Research Collection School Of Accountancy

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Full-Text Articles in Corporate Finance

Managerial Ownership, Corporate Monitoring And Audit Pricing, Soongsoo Han, Julia Higgs, Tony Kang Dec 2008

Managerial Ownership, Corporate Monitoring And Audit Pricing, Soongsoo Han, Julia Higgs, Tony Kang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We study whether managerial ownership and corporate monitoring (board quality and analyst coverage) relate to audit pricing. Managerial ownership has been identified as a fraud risk factor under SAS 99. However, the role of ownership is not clear. Under an alignment view, high levels of stock ownership align management with shareholders. Under an entrenchment view, high levels of ownership may motivate management to be self interested. Corporate monitoring, as measured by analyst coverage and overall board quality (Gomper’s index), are associated with information quality. Audit pricing will be affected to the extent that auditors perceive monitoring as being relevant to …


Analyst Coverage And The Cost Of Raising Equity Capital: Evidence From Underpricing Of Seasoned Equity Offerings, Robert M. Bowen, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng Sep 2008

Analyst Coverage And The Cost Of Raising Equity Capital: Evidence From Underpricing Of Seasoned Equity Offerings, Robert M. Bowen, Xia Chen, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Theorists have long recognized that information asymmetry among investors adversely affects the cost of raising equity capital (e.g., Diamond and Verrecchia 1991). When there is information asymmetry, relatively uninformed investors are reluctant to trade because of higher potential loss from transacting with informed investors (e.g., Glosten and Milgrom 1985; Kyle 1985). To trade, uninformed investors demand compensation for the risks of trading with informed investors (O’Hara 2003). In the case of issuing new equity, firms must issue shares at a discount to overcome the reluctance of uninformed investors. Such discounting leads to smaller proceeds to the firm and a higher …


Earnings Restatements, Changes In Ceo Compensation, And Firm Performance, Qiang Cheng, David Farber Sep 2008

Earnings Restatements, Changes In Ceo Compensation, And Firm Performance, Qiang Cheng, David Farber

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Prior research finds that earnings restatements are linked to CEOs' excessive option-based compensation and equity holdings. In this paper, we investigate whether firms that experience earnings restatements recontract with their CEOs to reduce their option-based compensation and if so, whether this leads to improved firm performance. Based on 289 restatement firms over the period 1997–2001, we find that the proportion of CEOs' compensation in the form of options declines significantly in the two years following the restatement. Furthermore, we document that this reduction is accompanied by a decrease in the riskiness of investments, as reflected in lower stock return volatility …


Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo Aug 2008

Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between managerial stock ownership and the firm’s information environment. We focus on three dimensions of the information environment: total, public, and private information precision (Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens 1998). Our results suggest that firms’ total and public information precision are positively related to managerial ownership. In contrast, there is no clear pattern in private information precision across different levels of managerial ownership. We also observe that managerial ownership has a greater impact on the firm’s public information environment after the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, suggesting that the regulation was effective in improving the firms’ …


Does Earnings Quality Affect Information Asymmetry: Evidence From Trading Costs, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Hemang Desai, Kumar Venkataraman Aug 2008

Does Earnings Quality Affect Information Asymmetry: Evidence From Trading Costs, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Hemang Desai, Kumar Venkataraman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The adverse consequences of poor earnings quality have been the subject of significant debate among academics, practitioners and regulators. However, the empirical evidence on pricing implications of earnings quality is sparse and controversial. We examine one potential consequence of poor earnings quality - its impact on information asymmetry. We document that poor earnings quality increases the adverse selection risk as manifested in trading costs and lowers liquidity in financial markets. Both innate and discretionary components of earnings quality contribute significantly to information asymmetry. Further, poor earnings quality exacerbates information asymmetry around earnings announcements, especially for firms where earnings represent the …


Cross-Country Analysis Of Auditor Specialization Premium: Effect Of Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Environments, Sirinidhi Bin, M. Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim Jul 2008

Cross-Country Analysis Of Auditor Specialization Premium: Effect Of Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Environments, Sirinidhi Bin, M. Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Previous literature has provided mixed evidence of a premium in audit fee for industry-specialist auditors in US and other developed countries. In this cross-country study spanning twelve non-US countries, we provide evidence of such a premium in the international context, implying that specialist auditors provide a higher level of investor assurance than non-specialists. Further, we show that the average audit fee in countries with effective legal, extra-legal and political institutions is higher but the specialization premium is lower than in other countries. We interpret this finding as evidence that while effective institutions increase the demand for average level of audit …


Audit Partner Tenure, Audit Firm Tenure, And Discretionary Accruals: Does Long Auditor Tenure Impair Earnings Quality?, Chih-Ying Chen, Chan-Jane Lin, Yu-Chen Lin Jun 2008

Audit Partner Tenure, Audit Firm Tenure, And Discretionary Accruals: Does Long Auditor Tenure Impair Earnings Quality?, Chih-Ying Chen, Chan-Jane Lin, Yu-Chen Lin

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Mandatory audit partner relation has been adopted in some countries while audit firm rotation is still being debated in many places. Most of the extant research on the relation between auditor tenure and earnings quality provides evidence at the audit firm level. However, since audit firm tenure is correlated with partner tenure and audit firm rotation is more costly than partner rotation, it is important to know whether earnings quality is related to audit firm tenure, partner tenure, or both. We investigate this issue using a sample of Taiwanese companies for which the audit report must be signed by two …


The Association Between Excess Audit Fees And Audit Quality: A Us-Uk Comparison, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Yong Keun Yoo Jun 2008

The Association Between Excess Audit Fees And Audit Quality: A Us-Uk Comparison, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Yong Keun Yoo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Prior studies that examine the association between excess audit fees and audit quality (measured by discretionary accruals) using US data fail to document a significant association. However, there is no convincing explanation for this result to date. In this study, we test a cancellation hypothesis, which suggests that the non-association might be due to the cancellation effect between the risk-effort effect and the bonding effect that excess fees capture. To the extent that excess fees capture the compensation for effort the auditor puts in for a risky client, which is not captured in the existing audit fee models (the risk-effort …


Do Family Firms Provide More Or Less Voluntary Disclosure?, Xia Chen, Shuping Chen, Qiang Cheng Jun 2008

Do Family Firms Provide More Or Less Voluntary Disclosure?, Xia Chen, Shuping Chen, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the voluntary disclosure practices of family firms. We find that, compared to nonfamily firms, family firms provide fewer earnings forecasts and conference calls, but more earnings warnings. Whereas the former is consistent with family owners having a longer investment horizon, better monitoring of management, and lower information asymmetry between owners and managers, the higher likelihood of earnings warnings is consistent with family owners having greater litigation and reputation cost concerns. We also document that family ownership dominates nonfamily insider ownership and concentrated institutional ownership in explaining the likelihood of voluntary disclosure. Using alternative proxies for the founding family's …


Governance Role Of Auditors And Legal Environment: Evidence From Corporate Disclosure Transparency, Sam Han, Tony Kang, Yong Keun Yoo May 2008

Governance Role Of Auditors And Legal Environment: Evidence From Corporate Disclosure Transparency, Sam Han, Tony Kang, Yong Keun Yoo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines whether auditor size associates with disclosure transparency. Given thatprior studies generally focus on discretionary accruals to investigate the relation betweenauditor size and financial reporting quality, there is little evidence on how auditor size relates toother attributes of reporting quality. Further, studies that examine this associationinternationally produce mixed results as to how auditor size relates to reporting quality indifferent legal origins. Focusing on corporate disclosure transparency (i.e., disclosure levels), wefind that auditor size and disclosure level are positively associated across countries and that theassociation is stronger in code law regimes than in common law regimes. The latter findingsupports …


Non-Audit Service Fees And Audit Quality: The Impact Of Auditor Specialization, Chee Yeow Lim, Hun-Tong Tan Mar 2008

Non-Audit Service Fees And Audit Quality: The Impact Of Auditor Specialization, Chee Yeow Lim, Hun-Tong Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We posit that the effect of non-audit fees on audit quality is conditional on auditor industry specialization. Industry specialist auditors are more likely than nonspecialists to be concerned about reputation losses and litigation exposure, and to benefit from knowledge spillovers from the provision of non-audit services. We find evidence that audit quality measured by increased propensity to issue going-concern opinion, increased propensity to miss analysts' forecasts, as well as higher earnings-response coefficients increases with the level of non-audit services acquired from industry specialist auditors compared to nonspecialist auditors.


The Association Between Audit Fees And Auditors' Opinions On Internal Control Weakness Under Section 404 Of The Sox, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Soo Young Kwon, Yoonseok Zang Dec 2007

The Association Between Audit Fees And Auditors' Opinions On Internal Control Weakness Under Section 404 Of The Sox, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Soo Young Kwon, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires top management toestablish, maintain, and regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the internal controlover financial reporting (ICOFR), and obtain an auditor’s attestation. In this paper, weidentify 232 firms that received “Ineffective” audit opinion on the effectiveness ofICOFR due to one or more material weakness in internal control (WIC). We examinethe association between audit fees and the WIC for pre- and post-SOX period. Wefind that highly levered clients with the WIC paid greater audit fees even in the preSOXperiod and continuously paid the high fees in post-SOX period, whereas theloss-making clients with WIC paid …


Legal Systems And Earnings Quality: The Role Of Auditor Industry Specialization, Chee Yeow Lim, Soo Young Kwon, Patricia Mui Siang Tan Nov 2007

Legal Systems And Earnings Quality: The Role Of Auditor Industry Specialization, Chee Yeow Lim, Soo Young Kwon, Patricia Mui Siang Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper extends prior studies in auditor industry specialization to an international setting and examines if the impact of industry specialist auditors on earnings quality is dependent on the legal environments. Using data for 28 countries over 20 industries from 1993 to 2003, we find that clients of industry specialist auditors have lower discretionary current accruals and higher earnings response coefficients than clients of nonspecialist auditors. In addition, we find that the impact of auditor industry specialization on earnings quality increases as the legal environment weakens. Collectively, the results suggest that the benefits from engaging the services of industry specialist …


Monitoring: Which Institutions Matter?, Xia Chen, Jarrad Harford, Kai Li Nov 2007

Monitoring: Which Institutions Matter?, Xia Chen, Jarrad Harford, Kai Li

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Within a cost–benefit framework, we hypothesize that independent institutions with long-term investments will specialize in monitoring and influencing efforts rather than trading. Other institutions will not monitor. Using acquisition decisions to reveal monitoring, we show that only concentrated holdings by independent long-term institutions are related to post-merger performance. Further, the presence of these institutions makes withdrawal of bad bids more likely. These institutions make long-term portfolio adjustments rather than trading for short-term gain and only sell in advance of very bad outcomes. Examining total institutional holdings or even concentrated holdings by other types of institutions masks important variation in the …


Do Direct Cash Flow Disclosures Help Predict Future Operating Cash Flows And Earnings?, Steven Francis Orpurt, Yoonseok Zang Oct 2007

Do Direct Cash Flow Disclosures Help Predict Future Operating Cash Flows And Earnings?, Steven Francis Orpurt, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Motivated by recent FASB, IASB and CFA Institute comments, we extend the scant literature on direct method cash flow disclosures by exploring their predictive ability. A primary stated purpose of the direct method is to better forecast future operating performance. To test this purpose, we use a FERC (future ERC) methodology, finding that firms voluntarily producing direct method statements reflect more information about future earnings in their current stock returns than other firms. Supporting our FERC analysis, we document that substantial articulation errors exist when direct method cash flow components are estimated from either indirect method cash flow statements or …


Are Us Family Firms Subject To Agency Problems? Evidence From Ceo Turnover And Firm Valuation, Xia Chen, Zhonglan Dai Sep 2007

Are Us Family Firms Subject To Agency Problems? Evidence From Ceo Turnover And Firm Valuation, Xia Chen, Zhonglan Dai

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates the impact of the founding family's presence in US public firms on the extent of agency problems related to CEO turnover decisions and on firm valuations after poor performance. In particular, we focus on three types of US public firms: family CEO firms, professional CEO family firms (family firms managed by a hired CEO outside the founding family), and non-family firms. We hypothesize that, the agency problem arising from the expropriation of small shareholders by large shareholders in family CEO firms and the agency problem arising from the separation of ownership and control in non-family firms, lead …


Auditor Locality, Audit Quality And Audit Pricing, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Aini Qiu, Yoonseok Zang Aug 2007

Auditor Locality, Audit Quality And Audit Pricing, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Aini Qiu, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Exploring The Role That Forecast Surprise And Forecast Error Play In Determining Management Forecast Precision, Jong-Hag Choi, Linda Myers, Yoonseok Zang, David Ziebart Aug 2007

Exploring The Role That Forecast Surprise And Forecast Error Play In Determining Management Forecast Precision, Jong-Hag Choi, Linda Myers, Yoonseok Zang, David Ziebart

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Systematic Share Price Fluctuations After Bankruptcy Filings And The Investors Who Drive Them, Mark C. Dawkins, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Linda Smith Bamber Jun 2007

Systematic Share Price Fluctuations After Bankruptcy Filings And The Investors Who Drive Them, Mark C. Dawkins, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Linda Smith Bamber

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Beginning in the 1990s, firms often continue to trade on the major national exchanges after Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings. For bankruptcies filed from 1993-2003, we find that the more negative the filing period price reaction, the more favorable the immediate post- filing returns, on average. This reversal is not attributable to bid-ask bounce, it holds after controlling for other factors associated with post-filing returns, and it appears more attributable to the activities of large traders than to small traders. Supplementary tests reveal that the pattern of post-filing returns differs significantly for bankruptcies filed in bull versus bear markets. Bankruptcies filed …


Bonding To The Improved Disclosure Environment In The Us: Firms Listing Choices And Their Capital Market Consequences, Ole-Kristian Hope, Tony Kang, Yoonseok Zang Jun 2007

Bonding To The Improved Disclosure Environment In The Us: Firms Listing Choices And Their Capital Market Consequences, Ole-Kristian Hope, Tony Kang, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines whether the current reporting and disclosure requirements for foreign registrants in the United States affect foreign firms' decisions to list on a U.S. exchange. We find that while firms from a weak disclosure environment are more likely to cross-list and either trade over-the-counter or be placed privately among institutional investors, they are less likely to list on an exchange in which firms are required to comply with U.S. GAAP. This is consistent with the idea that the decrease in the potential private control benefits accruing to managers discourages them from listing on an organized exchange. We further …


Who Trades On Pro Forma Earnings Information?, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Erv Black, Ted Christensen, Rick Mergenthaler May 2007

Who Trades On Pro Forma Earnings Information?, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Erv Black, Ted Christensen, Rick Mergenthaler

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In recent years, many companies have emphasized adjusted‐GAAP earnings numbers in their quarterly press releases. While managers use different names to describe these nonstandard earnings metrics, the financial press frequently refers to them as “pro forma” earnings. Managers and other advocates of pro forma reporting argue that these disclosures provide a clearer picture of companies' core earnings. On the other hand, regulators, policymakers, and the financial press often allege that managers' pro forma earnings disclosures are opportunistic attempts to mislead investors. Recent evidence suggests that while many pro forma earnings disclosures are altruistically motivated, some may represent managers' attempts to …


Comprehensive Income, Future Earnings, And Market Mispricing, Jong-Hag Choi, Somnath Das, Yoonseok Zang Mar 2007

Comprehensive Income, Future Earnings, And Market Mispricing, Jong-Hag Choi, Somnath Das, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Insider Trading And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo Dec 2006

Insider Trading And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We hypothesize that insiders strategically choose disclosure policies and the timing of their equity trades to maximize trading profits, subject to the litigation costs associated with disclosure and insider trading. Accounting for endogeneity between disclosures and trading, we find that when managers plan to purchase shares, they increase the number of bad news forecasts to reduce the purchase price. In addition, this relation is stronger for trades initiated by chief executive officers than for those initiated by other executives. Confirming this strategic behavior, we find that managers successfully time their trades around bad news forecasts, buying fewer shares beforehand and …


Institutional Holdings And Analysts’ Stock Recommendations, Qiang Cheng, Xia Chen Oct 2006

Institutional Holdings And Analysts’ Stock Recommendations, Qiang Cheng, Xia Chen

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Prior studies document that institutional investors outperform the mar- ket. We investigate whether this superior performance is partly derived from institutional investors use of sell-side analysts stock recommenda- tions. First, we find that the quarterly change in institutional ownership is positively correlated with consensus recommendations. After control- ling for other determinants of institutional holdings, the quarterly change in institutional ownership is on average 0.90 percent higher for firms with favorable recommendations than for those with unfavorable recommendations. Second, using large trades to proxy for institutional trading, we find that there are more buyer-initiated than seller-initiated large trades around favorable recommendations …


The Association Between Audit Quality And Abnormal Audit Fees, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang Aug 2006

The Association Between Audit Quality And Abnormal Audit Fees, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a sample of 9,820 firm-year observations over the 2000-2003 period, this paper examines whether, and how, audit quality proxied by unsigned discretionary accruals is associated with abnormal audit fees, i.e., actual audit fees in excess of expected, normal audit fees. The results of various regressions reveal that the association between the two is insignificant for the full sample, significantly positive for the subsample of clients with positive abnormal fees, and insignificantly negative for the subsample of clients with negative abnormal fees. The above results suggest that auditors’ incentives to compromise audit quality differ systematically for more profitable clients (with …


Impact Of Gender And Ethnic Composition Of South African Boards Of Directors On Intellectual Capital Performance, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn Jan 2006

Impact Of Gender And Ethnic Composition Of South African Boards Of Directors On Intellectual Capital Performance, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines the association between the gender and ethnic composition of boards of directors and firm performance in a transitional nation. In contrast to prior research that largely focuses on firm performance within a financial context, this study concentrates on intellectual capital performance. Using data collected from 84 South African, empirical results indicate a positive association between the percentage of female and non-white directors on the board and a firm’s intellectual capital performance. Additional analysis shows the designation of female directors as an insider has a negative effect of intellectual capital performance. Designation of female and non-white directors as …


Accounting Restatements: Are They Always Bad News For Investors?, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Joshua Livnat Jan 2006

Accounting Restatements: Are They Always Bad News For Investors?, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Joshua Livnat

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates a large sample of financial statement restatements over the period 1986-2001, and compares restatements caused by changes in accounting principles to those caused by errors. Typically, investors perceive restatements as negative signals due to three potential reasons: (a) the restatement indicates problems with the accounting system that may be manifestations of broader operational (and managerial) problems, (b) the restatement causes downward revisions in future cash flows expectations, and (c) the restatement indicates managerial attempts to cover up income decline through “cooking the books.” We provide evidence that market reactions to restatements due to errors are generally negative. …


Accounting Conservatism And Managerial Incentives, Young Koan Kwon Nov 2005

Accounting Conservatism And Managerial Incentives, Young Koan Kwon

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There are two sources of agency costs under moral hazard: (1) distortions in incentive contracts and (2) implementation of suboptimal decisions. In the accounting literature, the relation between conservative accounting and agency costs of type (1) has received considerable attention (cf. Watts 2002). However, little appears to be known about the effects of accounting conservatism on agency costs of type (2) or trade-offs between agency costs of types (1) and (2). The purpose of this study is to examine this void. In a principal-agent setting in which the principal motivates the agent to expend effort using accounting earnings, this study …


Client, Industry And Country Factors Affecting Choice Of Big N Industry Expert Auditors, Michael Ettredge, Soo Young Kwon, Chee Yeow Lim Sep 2005

Client, Industry And Country Factors Affecting Choice Of Big N Industry Expert Auditors, Michael Ettredge, Soo Young Kwon, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates client choice of industry specialist auditors from among the Big N (Big 4 or 5) in an international (non-U.S.) setting. We investigate client-specific, industry-level and country-level factors hypothesized to enhance or decrease Big N clients' demand for industry expertise. Using data for 29 countries and 14 broad industries from 1993-2005, we find that international client choice of industry specialist Big N auditors is positively associated with client size, client growth opportunities, and client capital intensity. The choice of industry specialists from among the Big N is more prevalent in countries where levels of investor protection, quality of …


Firm Ownership Structure And Intellectual Capital Disclosures, Stephen Firer, S. M. Williamson May 2005

Firm Ownership Structure And Intellectual Capital Disclosures, Stephen Firer, S. M. Williamson

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the association between three ownership structure characteristics and voluntary intellectual capital (IC) disclosure practices. Data for this study is hand collected from the 2000 annual reports of 390 Singapore publicly traded firms. Empirical results indicate Singapore publicly traded firms more closely owned were less likely to voluntarily disclose IC related information than were those where executive directors had smaller holdings in the entity. Finally, findings indicate government linked corporations (GLCs) will likely make more voluntary IC disclosures than non-GLCs. Overall, this study makes several unique contributions to the literature. First, the …