Short-sale refinancing and earnings response coefficient: evidence from China

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingli Liu ◽  
Ying Jiang ◽  
Lizhong Hao

Purpose Although short selling has been legalized in China for nearly 10 years, due to the existence of short-sale constraints, its impact on corporate governance of listed companies remains unclear. This paper aims to examine the impact of short-sale refinancing on earnings quality after the short-selling constraints have been released. The authors further explore whether this impact is subject to the nature of property rights and shareholding structures. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a sample of A-share firms in China for the period 2014–2016. The authors use earnings response coefficients (ERC) as a proxy for earnings quality. To empirically examine this issue, a matching sample is generated by using propensity score matching method (PSM) to reduce sample selection bias. Findings This study provides evidence that deregulation of short selling has positive external effect on corporate governance. The results indicate that the potential short-selling opportunities can effectively suppress earnings manipulation and improve earnings quality. However, the impact of short selling on earnings quality varies for companies with different nature of property rights and shareholding structure. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between short selling and earnings quality in the unique setting of short-sale refinancing. This study provides new evidence on the impact of short selling at the micro level and calls for further deregulation of short selling. In addition, this study contributes to existing studies on short-sale refinancing by examining an emerging market.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameneh Bazrafshan ◽  
Naser Makarem ◽  
Reza Hesarzadeh ◽  
Wafaa SalmanAbbood

PurposeThis study investigates the association between managerial ability and earnings quality in firms listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange and how the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) influences the association.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of firms listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange over the period 2012–2018. Managerial ability is quantified using data envelopment analysis, and earnings quality is measured by earnings restatement, earnings persistence, accruals quality and earnings response coefficient. Panel regression analysis is used to examine the research hypotheses.FindingsThe findings indicate that managerial ability positively affects earnings quality of Iraqi firms and that ISIS weakens the relationship between managerial ability and earnings quality. These findings are robust to the alternative measures of managerial ability, as well as to various approaches used to address endogeneity including propensity-score matching and a difference-in-differences analysis.Originality/valueThis study provides insight into the impact of managerial ability on earnings quality in an under-studied emerging market. Furthermore, this study broadens the existing literature about the financial consequences of a modern terrorist group, ISIS.


Author(s):  
Xu_Dong Ji ◽  
Kamran Ahmed ◽  
Wei Lu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance and ownership structures on earnings quality in China both prior and subsequent to two important corporate reforms: the code of corporate governance (CCG) in 2002 and the split share structure reform (SSR) in 2005. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilises informativeness of earnings (earnings response coefficient), conditional accounting conservatism and managerial discretionary accruals to assess earnings quality using 12,267 firm-year observations over 11 years from 2000 to 2010. Further, two dummy variables for measuring the changes of CCG and SSR are employed to estimate the effects of CCG and SSR reforms on earnings quality via OLS regression. Findings – This study finds that the promulgation of the CCG in 2002 has had a positive impact, but the SSR reform in 2005 has had little effect on listed firms’ earnings quality in China. These results hold good after controlling for a number of ownership, governance and other variables and estimating models with multiple measures of earnings’ quality. Research limitations/implications – Future research could focus on how western style corporate governance mechanisms have been constrained by the old management systems and governmental dominated ownership structures in Chinese listed firms. The conclusion is that simply coping Western corporate governance model is not suitable for every country. Practical implications – The results will assist Chinese regulators in improving reporting quality, ownership structure and governance mechanisms in China. The results will help international investors better understand quality of financial information in China. Originality/value – This is the first to our knowledge that addresses the effects of major governance and ownership reforms together on accounting earnings quality and, thus, makes a significant contribution on understanding the effect of regulatory reforms on improving earnings quality. In doing so, it also indirectly assesses the effectiveness of western-style corporate governance mechanisms introduced in China.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Alipour ◽  
Mehrdad Ghanbari ◽  
Babak Jamshidinavid ◽  
Aliasghar Taherabadi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between corporate environmental disclosure quality (EDQ) and earnings quality (EQ). Design/methodology/approach The paper uses earnings persistence and accruals quality as a measures of EQ. The paper also uses panel data regression to examine the association between EDQ and EQ for a sample of 107 Iran non-financial firms. Two different theoretical frameworks are used to clarify whether and to what extent an association may exist as an explicit relationship between EDQ and EQ. Findings After controlling for several firm-specific characteristics, the results show that between 2011 and 2016, there has been a significant positive relationship between EDQ and EQ. Practical implications This study sheds light on the relevance of regulating corporate reporting within a setting where companies are already voluntarily reporting on environmental information. Findings have implications for policymakers who have mandated or considering mandating environmental reporting. To the policymakers, in particular, this study highlights the need for incorporating, within the listing rules, minimum requirements in relation to the nature and content of environmental reports. Social implications The findings have implications for stakeholders in terms of effective information quality. The findings are important as more environmentally responsible firms may provide higher quality, more reliable and more transparent information to meet the ethical expectations of stakeholders. Originality/value This is the first study in Iran that considered the impact of EDQ on EQ. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between EDQ and EQ by showing that the EDQ in Iran is associated with the EQ.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Gangi ◽  
Eugenio D'Angelo ◽  
Lucia Michela Daniele ◽  
Nicola Varrone

PurposeThis paper aims to provide new evidence on firm-specific determinants and effects of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSER) in the food industry.Design/methodology/approachThe current study is designed to empirically answer dual related research questions. First, we investigate the extent to which effective corporate governance (CG) mechanisms foster CSER. Second, we analyse the impact of CSER engagement on corporate financial performance (CFP). Consistent with the research design, to avoid sample selection bias, the authors employed Heckman two-step model (1979) to a worldwide sample of 324 food firms between 2011 and 2017.FindingsThe findings of the study reveal that effective board characteristics foster CSER engagement. Furthermore, CSER engagement is a positive predictor of improved profitability and also reduces the cost of debt (COD).Originality/valueThis article has elements of originality regarding the research questions, the context and the method. First, the authors demonstrate that CSER is a “missing link” between CG and CFP in the food industry. The authors’ contribution complements the debate on CSER and CFP through the stakeholder theory, the resource-based view and the innovation management perspective. They disentangle the effect of CG from the impact of social and environmental responsibility after correcting for endogeneity bias. The implications of the study contribute to a win-win scenario for companies investing in CG that result in higher CSER engagement, better profits and lower cost of capital.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moade Fawzi Shubita

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the practice of income smoothing in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) emerging markets; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar. Then, to examine the impact of income smoothing on the earnings quality to decide whether income smoothing can serve as either a tool to enhance earnings quality or a tool for opportunistic behavior. Audit quality and corporate governance as additional factors are considered in this study. Design/methodology/approach – The study methodology measures income smoothing behavior based on the coefficient of variation method. Earnings quality is measured as an outcome of the explained variations in stock returns by earnings based on the efficient market hypothesis. Audit quality is measured based on brand as higher quality assigned to auditor from any of the Big 4, while the corporate governance is addressed based on the extent of governmental ownership. The initial study sample comprises 55 companies over a ten year period, from 1999 to 2008; the final sample represents approximately 64 percent of the industrial sector that have public data during the study. Findings – The results suggest that income smoothing behavior in the GCC markets has many variations in practice. Income smoothing, on average, improves earnings quality in three countries out of four, but not significantly for the whole sample based on earnings level. The earnings changes model demonstrated a positive and significant impact of income smoothing on earnings quality. Audit quality and earnings quality have a positive relationship within the region, and companies dominated by the government perform well in accordance with the earnings-return model. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the industrial sector of the GCC. Practical implications – The study opens the door to future applications to other sectors within the GCC, same sectors and other sectors for Middle East countries and other emerging markets. Social implications – The study may foster a better understanding of accounting practices in the GCC and Middle East. The study reveals variations in different aspects among GCC countries, this matter should be considered in separate studies across different areas. Originality/value – The study makes an original contribution to being the first to explore this topic in the GCC. Additionally, this study shows that the GCC markets have different characteristics in the practice and impact of income smoothing on earnings’ quality. Further, audit quality and corporate governance was investigated for each country and for the region, in addition to the interaction between these factors with the income smoothing and earnings quality.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamanna Dalwai ◽  
Syeeda Shafiya Mohammadi ◽  
Gaitri Chugh ◽  
Mahdi Salehi

PurposeThis study examines the impact of intellectual capital efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms on the annual report readability of Oman's financial sector companies.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a sample of 150 firm-year observations of listed financial sector companies in the Muscat Securities Market, Oman, from 2014 to 2018. Flesch Reading ease and Flesch Kinkaid Index are used as proxies for annual report readability. As part of sensitivity analysis, the study also uses the natural logarithm of annual report pages as alternative readability measures. The investigation is conducted using random effects regression analysis and supported with system GMM estimation for robustness.FindingsThe findings of this study demonstrate a decrease in intellectual capital efficiency associated with better readability of annual reports for the financial sector firms. Alternatively, banks report a positive association of intellectual capital efficiency with the Flesch Reading ease score of the annual report. The structural capital and capital employed efficiency are also found to be negatively associated with annual report readability. Corporate governance mechanisms such as dispersed ownership and audit committee size also result in easy-to-read annual reports that support agency theory.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was conducted for financial firms of Oman, and thereby the findings can be generalized to the financial sector of countries with similar settings, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.Practical implicationsThe policy implications arising from this study suggest a strengthening of the intellectual capital efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms to improve the readability of the firms and thereby increase investor confidence.Originality/valueThis paper's uniqueness is in the model used to investigate the impact of intellectual capital efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms on the annual report readability of an emerging market.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuling Chiang ◽  
Gary Kleinman ◽  
Picheng Lee

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of non-staggered voting for members of the board of directors on earnings quality and the value relevance of earnings and book value. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a sample of Taiwanese firms whose board was elected as a whole every three years from 2003 to 2013. The authors used multiple regression analysis to test whether board of directors elections and corporate governance affected earnings quality and the value relevance of earnings and book value. Findings The authors found that elections led to lower earnings quality, but better corporate governance led to greater earnings quality. In the presence of board elections, earnings have reduced value relevance but book value had increased value relevance. Finally, given board elections, the relative value relevance of earnings and book value on stock price was not fully moderated by strong corporate governance. Research limitations/implications The results presented here indicate the importance of better corporate governance in diffusing suspicions of management occasioned by the use of discretionary accruals in years in which board elections take place. Better corporate governance regimes led to a more positive relationship of discretionary accruals to earnings persistence, even in the presence of directorial elections. Similarly, better corporate governance regimes led to a more positive relationship between earnings per share and stock prices. Limitations include the restriction of the testing locale to Taiwan. That said, many companies around the globe use non-staggered board elections. Accordingly, these results suggest issues of importance to corporate governance advocates beyond Taiwan as well. Originality/value This study deepens the field’s understanding of the impact of corporate governance arrangements and schedules for electing board of directors’ members on issues of interest to stockholders.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Cormier ◽  
Samira Demaria ◽  
Michel Magnan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether formally disclosing an earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) number reduces the information asymmetry between managers and investors beyond the release of GAAP earnings. The paper also assess if EBITDA disclosure enhances the value relevance and the predictive ability of earnings. Design/methodology/approach The authors explore the interface between GAAP and non-GAAP reporting as well as the impact of corporate governance on the quality of non-GAAP measures. Findings Results suggest that EBITDA reporting is associated with greater analyst following and with less information asymmetry. The authors also document that EBITDA reporting enhances the positive relationship between earnings and stock pricing as well as future cash flows. Moreover, it appears that corporate governance substitutes for EBITDA reporting for stock markets. Hence, EBITDA helps market participants to better assess earnings valuation when a firm’s governance is weak. Inversely, when governance is strong, releasing EBITDA information has a much smaller impact on the earnings-stock price relation. Originality/value The authors revisit the issue of how corporate governance relates with earnings quality by considering the potentially confounding effect of EBITDA reporting; it appears that such reporting substitutes for governance in moderating the relation between governance and earnings quality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Kaleemullah Abbasi ◽  
Bola Babajide ◽  
Kemi C. Yekini

Purpose This study aims to examine the extent to which board characteristics and ownership structure affect firm performance with specific focus on providing new empirical insights following the revised corporate governance (CG) code 2012. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a sample of non-financial firms listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX)-100 index for the years 2011-2014. Firm performance is measured by accounting-based performance indicators (ROA and ROE) and market-based performance indicators (Tobin’s Q and MTB). This study uses multivariate regression techniques including fixed effects model and two-stage least squares (2SLS). Findings The findings show that board diversity increases over the two periods (pre-2012 and post-2012), whereas there are cases that companies have not fully complied with the revised CG code 2012 in terms of board independence. In addition, the multiple regression results show that firm performance is negatively and significantly associated with institutional ownership. Nevertheless, the results show that board size, board independent, board diversity and board meetings do not have significant impact on firm performance. The findings are fairly consistent and robust across two periods (pre-2012 and post 2012) and a number of econometric models that sufficiently address the potential endogeneity problems. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study which investigates the impact of the compliance and implementation of 2012 CG code on firm performance in Pakistan. This study is different from the most prior studies in that they use independent non-executive directors rather than conventional non-executive directors to measure board independence.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-541
Author(s):  
Mauricio Melgarejo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore whether firms with good corporate governance practices in countries with high levels of political and economic uncertainty, such as Peru, present a higher quality of accounting information. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a multivariate regression analysis to investigate the impact of good corporate governance practices on the quality of accounting information for the firms listed in the Lima Stock Exchange (LSE). Findings Firms included in the Good Corporate Governance Index, in the LSE, present more value relevant, more persistent and more conservative accounting reports. These results hold after controlling for a self-selection bias. Originality/value It is the first paper to explore the impact of good corporate practices on earnings quality in Peru. Also, this study uses a two-state regression methodology to control for the self-selection bias in the sample.


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