Audit quality, political connections and information asymmetry: evidence from banks in gulf co-operation council countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-698
Author(s):  
Abiot Tessema
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Trading Volume ◽  
Audit Quality ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of audit quality on information asymmetry for a sample of leading listed local banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In addition, the paper examines whether a firm's political connections moderate the association between audit quality and information asymmetry.Design/methodology/approachThe author employs country fixed effects to examine the impact of audit quality on information asymmetry. The paper uses a sample of 49 leading listed local banks across the GCC and 236 bank-year observations, over the period of 2012–2016.FindingsUsing trading volume, trade value and stock return volatility as proxies for information asymmetry and audit quality through auditors' opinion and audit size, the paper documents that audit quality plays an important role in improving the quality of financial information reporting by providing greater independent assurance of the credibility of financial reports. The paper also documents that a firm's political connections have no effect on the association between audit quality and information asymmetry, indicating that the beneficial effects of audit quality are no greater for politically connected firms than for similar but politically unconnected firms.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study help policymakers, standard-setters and regulators to understand the potential adverse effect of political connections on the role of audit quality on information asymmetry. The study also provides important insights for audit regulators to better identify and understand the benefits of audit quality and to take policy matters that influence audit quality seriously.Originality/valueThe study increases our understanding of the impact of audit quality on the level of information asymmetry in different economic, legal and political institutions, regulatory and litigation incentives and social contexts compared to that of research conducted using data collected from developed and other emerging countries. This will help to widen our knowledge on the role of audit quality on information asymmetry across the globe.

scholarly journals Political connections, corporate governance, and tax aggressiveness in Malaysia

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Effiezal Aswadi Abdul Wahab ◽  
Akmalia M. Ariff ◽  
Marziana Madah Marzuki ◽  
Zuraidah Mohd Sanusi
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tax Aggressiveness ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between political connections and corporate tax aggressiveness in Malaysia. In addition, this paper investigates the relationship between corporate governance variables and corporate tax aggressiveness. Next, the study investigates the mitigating role of corporate governance in the relationship between political connections and corporate tax aggressiveness. Design/methodology/approach The sample of this study is based on 2,538 firm-year observations during the 2000-2009 periods. This study employs a panel least square regression with both period and industry fixed effects. The study retrieved the corporate governance variables from the downloaded annual reports, whilst the remaining data were collected from Compustat Global. Findings This study finds that politically connected firms are more tax aggressive than non-connected firms. Furthermore, the study finds that large board size decreases the likelihood of tax aggressiveness and a non-linear relationship exists between institutional ownership and tax aggressiveness suggesting increase in monitoring as the ownership increases. However, the study finds no evidence to suggest that corporate governance mitigates the influence of political connections in promoting tax aggressiveness behavior. The findings suggest that the impact of political connections could outweigh the benefits of changes in corporate governance in Malaysia. Research limitations/implications The data are not recent, but it reflects a rather longitudinal research period. Originality/value This paper extends the literature of tax research in Malaysia which is in its’ infancy stage. Furthermore, it investigates the role of political connections in tax-planning research.

Information asymmetry and equity issue decision of low-leverage firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1330-1346
Author(s):  
Bipin Sony ◽  
Saumitra Bhaduri
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Equity Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Equity Issues ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Tangible Assets ◽  
Credit History ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Role Of Information

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of information asymmetry in the equity issue decision of two categories of Indian firms with distinct levels of information asymmetry – levered firms and unlevered firms. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a novel empirical approach to compare these two categories of firms. Levered firms exposed to the debt markets are under the scrutiny of lenders, reducing their information asymmetry problems. On the other hand, unlevered firms, which are smaller firms with fewer tangible assets and no credit history suffers more information problems. The authors use a propensity score matching method to identify firms that share similar firm-specific characteristics in these groups and compare equity issues to analyze the impact of information asymmetry. Findings The results show that information asymmetry plays a key role in the equity issue decision of Indian firms. Additionally, the authors find that the trends and characteristics of low-leverage (LL) firms in India are comparable to the LL from developed economies, which is consistent with the findings that they face more information problems. Originality/value Unlike the conventional approach of using proxy variables to capture information asymmetry, this study uses a novel framework where the authors compare the equity issue decision of similar firms in two categories with different degrees of information asymmetry.

scholarly journals Leverage and firm investment: the role of information asymmetry and growth

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Danso ◽  
Theophilus Lartey ◽  
Samuel Fosu ◽  
Samuel Owusu-Agyei ◽  
Moshfique Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Firm Investment ◽  
Financial Leverage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Growth Firms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Role Of Information

PurposeThis paper aims to demonstrate how financial leverage impacts firm investment and the extent to which this relationship is conditional on the level of information asymmetry as well as growth.Design/methodology/approachThe paper relies on data from 2,403 Indian firms during the period 1995-2014, generating a total of 19,544 firm-year observations. Analysis is conducted by using various panel econometric techniques.FindingsDrawing insights from agency theories, the paper uncovers that financial leverage is negatively and significantly related to firm investment. It is also observed that the impact of financial leverage on firm investment is significant for high information asymmetric firms. Finally, the paper shows that the relationship between leverage and firm investment is significant for low-growth firms. However, no significant relationship is found between leverage and investment for high-growth firms.Originality/valueThis paper provides fresh evidence on the leverage–investment nexus and, to the authors’ knowledge, it the first paper to examine the extent to which this leverage–investment relationship is driven by the level of information asymmetry.

Employee mistreatment and information asymmetry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Omer Unsal
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Equity Risk ◽  
Panel Fixed Effects ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

PurposeIn this paper, the author utilizes a unique hand-collected dataset of workplace lawsuits, violations and allegations to test the relation between employee mistreatment and information asymmetry.Design/methodology/approachThe author tests the impact of employee treatment on firms' information environment by utilizing the S&P 1500 firms of 17,663 firm-year observations, which include 2,992 unique firms and 5,987 unique CEOs between 2000 and 2016. These methods include panel fixed effects, as well as alternative measures of information asymmetry, event study and matched samples for further robustness tests.FindingsThe author finds that employee disputes exacerbate the information flow between insiders and outsiders. Further, the author reports that case characteristics, such as case outcome and case duration, aggravate that problem. The author documents that the positive relationship between employee mistreatment and information asymmetry is stronger for small firms and firms with smaller market power, as well as firms with a high level of equity risk.Originality/valueThis study is the first to investigate how employee relations influence a firm's information asymmetry. The author aims to contribute to the literature by studying (1) the relation between information asymmetry and employee mistreatment, (2) how firm characteristics affect the path from employee disputes to information asymmetry and (3) the influence of various other types of evidence of employee mistreatment beyond litigation on the information environment.

Choice between rights issue and private placements of equity and the role of information asymmetry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bipin Sony ◽  
Saumitra Bhaduri
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Private Equity ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Private Placement ◽  
Private Placements ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Role Of Information

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to investigate the role of information asymmetry in the equity selling mechanisms chosen by the firms from an important emerging market, India. Specifically, the authors look into the choice between the two most popular mechanisms of equity issues – rights issue and private placement of equity.Design/methodology/approachThis study introduces three analyst specific variables as proxies of information asymmetry as the conventional proxies are fraught with several disadvantages. First, the paper tests the choice between rights issue and private placement using a binary logistic model. In the second approach the authors use rights issue and segregate the private placements into preferential allotments and qualified institutional placements and test the impact of information asymmetry using a multinomial logistic regression.FindingsThe outcome of this empirical exercise shows that only those firms facing lesser information problems choose rights issue of equity. Private placements are chosen by firms facing higher information problems to circumvent information costs. The results remain invariant even after segregating the qualified institutional placements from private equity placement as the firms with information disadvantage choose to place equity privately.Originality/valueIn contrast to the conventional studies that focus on the debt-equity framework, the authors argue that the impact of information asymmetry is applicable even at disaggregated levels of equity selling mechanism.

The impact of corporate governance performance on the association between information asymmetry and opportunities' optimal levels: evidence from developed markets

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Poursoleyman ◽  
Samira Joudi ◽  
Gholamreza Mansourfar ◽  
Saeid Homayoun
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Investment Efficiency ◽  
Method Of Moment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bid Ask Spread ◽  
The Impact

PurposePrevious literature posits that corporate governance and information asymmetry are the main factors in making efficient investments. Meanwhile, a growing body of studies is of the opinion that corporate governance can also mitigate the problem of information asymmetry and consequently exerts significant impacts on the association between information asymmetry and investment efficiency. This study aims to analyze the impact of corporate governance and information asymmetry on investment efficiency. It also tests the moderating role of corporate governance in the relationship between information asymmetry and investment efficiency.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 4,082 firms domiciled in 20 developed countries over the years from 2003 to 2019, including 33,812 firm-year observations. The bid–ask spread is used as a proxy for information asymmetry. To measure corporate governance performance, a proxy provided by ASSET4 is employed, and to determine the optimal levels of investments, we relied on the growth opportunity. To estimate the models, ordinary least squares and generalized method of moment are used.FindingsThe results reveal that information asymmetry is inversely related to investment efficiency, and, corporate governance mitigates this negative association.Originality/valueThis paper sheds light on the role of corporate governance in firms as a lever for mitigating information asymmetry and tries out information asymmetry and agency theories in relation to the impact of information asymmetry on investment efficiency. It also confirms the theory stating that corporate governance can be considered as a determinant of investment efficiency.

China’s anti-corruption campaign, political connections and private firms’ debt financing

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 521-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiming Hu ◽  
Mingxia Xu
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Debt Financing ◽  
Resource Acquisition ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Private Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
National Congress ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Evidence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the deleveraging impact of the anti-corruption campaign since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on private firms with political connections, relative to those without political connections. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, taking the anti-corruption campaign employed from the end of 2012 as an exogenous shock, the authors design a quasi-experiment difference-in-difference approach to examine how the loss and failure of political connections impacts private firms’ debt financing. Findings The authors find that the loss and failure of political connections following the anti-corruption campaign since the 18th CPC National Congress causes the yearly new debt ratios of treatment firms with political connections to decrease, relative to those of control firms without political connections. This outcome is more pronounced for provinces with more cadres excluded in the anti-corruption campaign since the 18th CPC National Congress, which rendered politically connected firms susceptible to lose connections with central or provincial cadres. To explore the mechanism, the authors find that following the anti-corruption campaign since the 18th CPC National Congress, politically connected firms limit rent-seeking activities, whereas resource acquisition is weakened. The authors also find that the impact of the anti-corruption campaign since the 18th CPC National Congress on the debt financing of politically connected firms, relative to their counterparts, is more pronounced for groups with high levels of information asymmetry and for less explicit guarantee groups. Finally, politically connected firms are more likely to be dominated by internal funds in dealing with a loss of advantages in debt financing, compared with their counterparts without political connections. Research limitations/implications The findings in this study suggest that the loss or failure of previous political connections following Xi’s anti-corruption campaign make politically connected firms lose the advantages in debt financing through the rent-seeking, resource acquisition, information asymmetry, implicit guarantee channels, which provide new evidence for research on the impact of the anti-corruption campaign since the 18th CPC National Congress on private firms’ financing behaviors via the loss or failure of existing political connections. Practical implications The findings in the study will have some inspiration for policy makers and entrepreneur. Originality/value This study provides new evidence on the different impacts of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign on private firm’s debt financing between politically connected and unconnected firms.

CEO duality, earnings quality and board independence

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Alves
Keyword(s):  
Agency Theory ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Earnings Quality ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Board Independence ◽  
Ceo Duality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This study draws on agency, theory to evaluate the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) duality and earnings quality, proxied by discretionary accruals. Additionally, this study aims to examine whether board independence moderates the relationship between CEO duality and earnings quality. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a fixed-effects regression model to examine the effect of CEO duality on earnings quality and to test whether board independence moderates that relationship for a sample of non-financial listed Portuguese firms-year from 2002 to 2016. Findings Consistent with agency theory, this study suggests that CEO duality decreases earnings quality. Further, the results also suggest that the earnings quality reduction associated with CEO duality is attenuated when the board of directors has a higher proportion of independent directors. Practical implications The findings based on this study provide useful information to investors and regulators in evaluating the impact of CEO duality on earnings quality and the effect of board independence on the role of CEO duality, especially under concentrated ownership. Originality/value To the knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the role of board independence on the association between CEO duality and earnings quality. In addition, this paper is the first empirical study to investigate the direct and indirect effect of CEO duality on earnings quality in Portugal.

scholarly journals Political connections and banking performance: the moderating effect of gender diversity

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1001-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina Proença ◽  
Mário Augusto ◽  
José Murteira
Keyword(s):  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Board Gender Diversity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose This study aims to investigate the role of board gender diversity in explaining the effects of board members’ political connections on banking performance in the Eurozone. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses panel data on 83 banks supervised by the European Central Bank (ECB) for the period 2013–2017, using a generalized moment method-type estimation methodology. Findings Results suggest that when gender diversity is high, there is a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between political connections and banking performance. Empirical evidence also indicates that differentiating characteristics of women, such as greater ethical concern and risk aversion, help mitigate the negative effects of political connections on banking performance, safeguarding the institutions’ interests from the adverse effects of personal agendas. In addition, these results also suggest that a minimum of 14% of gender diversity can contribute to greater social justice and beneficial structural change. Research limitations/implications The period studied may not yet fully reflect the impact of the assessment of the board members’ suitability. Practical implications The paper contributes to the growing literature on political connections and gender diversity, providing greater insight into their role as determinants of banking performance. The study also suggests the benefits and possible limitations of the regulator’s two impositions – gender diversity quotas and members’ repute (members’ political connections). Originality/value The effect of gender diversity on the impact of board members’ political connections on banking performance has not been studied, as these relationships have not been analysed separately for banks directly supervised by the ECB.

The impact of Islamic accounting standards on information asymmetry

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abiot Mindaye Tessema ◽  
Samy Garas ◽  
Kienpin Tee
Keyword(s):  
Information Asymmetry ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Ordinary Least Square ◽  
Ordinary Least Square Regression ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether disclosure as required by Islamic Financial Service Board Standard No. 4 (IFSB-4) influences information asymmetry among investors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries. In addition, the paper investigates whether the influence of IFSB-4 on information asymmetry varies between Islamic and conventional financial institutions. Design/methodology/approach The paper tests the hypotheses using a sample of firms listed in the GCC over a period of 2000-2013. Ordinary least square regression and fixed-effects estimation techniques are applied to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings reveal that information asymmetry among investors is lower after the implementation of IFSB-4 than before, indicating that the standard has increased transparency. The results also reveal that information asymmetry after the implementation of IFSB-4 is lower for Islamic than for conventional financial institutions. This suggests that IFAB-4 promotes more transparency for Islamic than conventional institutions. Research limitations/implications Owing to data availability, we were unable to use other proxies of information asymmetry, e.g. bid-ask spreads, and the level of disclosure, e.g. self-constructed disclosure index. Practical implications The paper concludes that disclosures under IFAB-4 reduce information asymmetry among investors. In this context, this study increases the awareness of standard setters academics investors regulators and many other stakeholders about the economic consequences of disclosure standards in the region. Originality/value This study takes a first step to fill evident gaps in the literature by investigating the influences of disclosure standard on information asymmetry in a unique setting that is often ignored by accounting researchers, which helps to widen our knowledge on accounting practices across the globe.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document