Earnings management and investor protection during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from G-12 countries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the inter-relations among the strength of investor protection institutions, earnings management (EM) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach As a proxy for EM, the authors use discretionary accruals measure, estimated using the modified Jones model (1991). As a proxy for the strength of investor protection institutions, the study uses the Investor Protection Index, extracted from the Global Competitiveness Reports. The sample consists of 5,519 firms listed in the Group of Twelve countries during 2015–2020. Findings The study shows that firms tend to engage less in EM during the pandemic period. The authors also find a significantly negative relation between the strength of investor protection institutions and EM practices, and interestingly, this negative relation was found to be more pronounced during the pandemic period. Research limitations/implications For investors and practitioners, the findings help get insights into the behavior of firms in response of the pandemic shock in countries with solid institutional and legal protection. For policymakers, the findings reaffirm the critical role that institutional incentives and reforms can play, in influencing firms to exert more efforts to promote their financial reporting quality. Originality/value To the best of our knowledge, the study is one of the first attempts to examine the link between EM practices and investor protection during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings extend both the literature on the role of institutional factors in promoting the earnings quality and the literature on COVID-19’s effect on firm performance and practices.

Audit Committee Competence and Earnings Management in Europe

This study analyses the association between the competence of audit committee members and earnings management in a sample of 142 non-financial firms from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom over the 2006–2013 period. We measure members’ competence through their dedication and expertise. We find that outside directorships have a dual effect, such that a balanced level of dedication to the audit committee (roughly two outside directorships) reduces earnings management. We examine four types of expertise: audit, non-audit accounting, non-accounting financial, and supervisory expertise. We find a negative relation between earnings management and the audit experience of committee members, and that the other types of expertise play no relevant role. We also find that the contribution of audit experts to curbing earnings management proves particularly important in smaller and less active committees, as well as in smaller and busier boards. Este estudio analiza la asociación entre la competencia de los miembros del Comité de Auditoría y la gestión de los beneficios en una muestra de 142 empresas no financieras de Francia, Alemania, Italia, España y el Reino Unido durante el período 2006-2013. Se mide la competencia de los miembros a través de su dedicación y experiencia. Se descubre que el cargo de consejero externo tiene un efecto doble, de modo que un nivel equilibrado de dedicación al comité de auditoría (aproximadamente dos cargos de consejero externo) reduce la gestión de beneficios. Se examinan igualmente cuatro tipos de experiencia: de auditoría, contable no relacionada con la auditoría, financiera no contable y de supervision, encontrándose una relación negativa entre la gestión de beneficios y la experiencia en auditoría de los miembros del comité, y que los otros tipos de experiencia no desempeñan ningún papel relevante. También se descubre que la contribución de los expertos en auditoría para limitar la gestión de beneficios resulta especialmente importante en los comités más pequeños y menos activos, así como en los consejos más pequeños y más ocupados.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Bond Price at Issuances: U.S. Evidence

Bondholders are arm’s-length lenders with limited insider information. In this paper, we explore whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities could work as an information channel for bondholders to better understand the riskiness of bond-issuing firms. We find a significant negative relation between CSR scores and corporate bond yield spread, especially for firms which invest heavily in diversity and community relations, suggesting that CSR firms are less risky. The result is robust to different model specifications and endogeneity issues. In addition, the negative relation between the CSR score and bond yield spread is significant only if a firm has a strong internal governance mechanism.

Relationships among higher secondary students' beliefs about mathematical ability, goals, learning strategies, and mathematics achievement, in the Maldives: A three-path mediational analysis

<p>Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test a three-path mediational model of mathematics achievement on the relationships among higher secondary students' beliefs about mathematical ability, achievement goals, learning strategies, and mathematics achievement. Participants were higher secondary students (n = 341) who were studying advanced level mathematics at the Centre for Higher Secondary Education, one of the largest school that provides higher secondary education in the Maldives. Questionnaires were used to collect self-report data. Students' final year mathematics results (i.e., standardised test results) were used as the achievement data. Incremental beliefs had a positive relation with mathematics achievement, mediated by mastery goals and deep-learning strategies. Incremental beliefs had a negative relation with mathematics achievement, mediated by performance-approach goals and surface-learning strategies. Entity beliefs had a negative relation with mathematics achievement, mediated through performance-avoidance goals and surface-learning strategies. Incremental beliefs also had an overall indirect positive relation, and entity beliefs had an overall indirect negative relation with the achievement. The results of the mediational model showed the best possible pathways that students could follow in the academic setting as far as performance and building capacity in mathematics were concerned. The results might be useful to teachers and educators with respect to making decisions aimed at creating a better learning environment for students and to improve the quality of mathematics education provided to higher secondary students in the Maldives.</p>

Relationships among higher secondary students' beliefs about mathematical ability, goals, learning strategies, and mathematics achievement, in the Maldives: A three-path mediational analysis

<p>Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test a three-path mediational model of mathematics achievement on the relationships among higher secondary students' beliefs about mathematical ability, achievement goals, learning strategies, and mathematics achievement. Participants were higher secondary students (n = 341) who were studying advanced level mathematics at the Centre for Higher Secondary Education, one of the largest school that provides higher secondary education in the Maldives. Questionnaires were used to collect self-report data. Students' final year mathematics results (i.e., standardised test results) were used as the achievement data. Incremental beliefs had a positive relation with mathematics achievement, mediated by mastery goals and deep-learning strategies. Incremental beliefs had a negative relation with mathematics achievement, mediated by performance-approach goals and surface-learning strategies. Entity beliefs had a negative relation with mathematics achievement, mediated through performance-avoidance goals and surface-learning strategies. Incremental beliefs also had an overall indirect positive relation, and entity beliefs had an overall indirect negative relation with the achievement. The results of the mediational model showed the best possible pathways that students could follow in the academic setting as far as performance and building capacity in mathematics were concerned. The results might be useful to teachers and educators with respect to making decisions aimed at creating a better learning environment for students and to improve the quality of mathematics education provided to higher secondary students in the Maldives.</p>

What drives DS30 Index amid bourse lockdown decision? An emerging economy perspective

This study measures the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on the stock market of Bangladesh amid bourse lockdowns. The top 30 blue-chip companies listed in the DS30 Index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange are used as the sample for this study. Panel data regression analysis has been used after performing several diagnostics tests to assess the impact for January to December during the year 2020. The regression model used in the study considers three key aspects, namely COVID-19, firm-specific factors, and macroeconomic variables amid the bourse lockdown. This study finds that daily trend in affected cases, death cases and investors' attention significantly affect the stock market but does not show any negative relation to conclude. The Government imposed lockdown shows a negative relation with the stock market significantly. Firm-specific variables like daily market capitalization and book to market ratio show a significant negative relationship with the stock market. On the other hand, macroeconomic factors have a significantly positive impact on the stock market amid bourse lockdowns. This study assesses the performance of the Bangladesh stock market by use of DS30 Index listed firms during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to the Government imposed bourse lockdown. This study provides unique insights into how the Bangladesh stock market reacted during the pandemic, along with a rare bourse lockdown decision.

Influence or Preference? A New Look at Institutional Ownership and Earnings Management

Prior literature finds that earnings management is negatively correlated with institutional ownership. The question is whether institutional investors drive down earnings management of the firms they invest in, or they choose firms with lower earnings management. In this paper, we use the instrument variable design of the Russell 1000 and 2000 indices reconstruction to obtain an exogenous variation in institutional ownership. We find that institutional investors do not drive down earnings management. Instead, institutions choose firms with lower earnings management when they make investment decisions. To further support the preference hypothesis, we add measures of institution preference in the panel regression and find that the negative relation between institutional ownership and earnings management disappears.

Interplay between adipose tissue secreted proteins, eating behavior and obesity

Purpose Adipokines may play an important role in the complex etiology of human obesity and its metabolic complications. Here, we analyzed the relationship between 15 adipokines, eating behavior and body-mass index (BMI). Methods The study included 557 participants of the Sorbs (62.1% women, 37.9% men) and 3101 participants of the population-based LIFE-Adult cohorts (53.4% women, 46.4% men) who completed the German version of the Three-Factor-Eating Questionnaire to assess the eating behavior types cognitive restraint, disinhibition and hunger. Serum levels of 15 adipokines, including adiponectin, adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein (AFABP), angiopoietin-related growth factor (AGF), chemerin, fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-19, FGF-21, FGF-23, insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, interleukin (IL) 10, irisin, progranulin, vaspin, pro-neurotensin (pro-NT), pro-enkephalin (PENK) and leptin were measured. Based on significant correlations between several adipokines with different eating behavior items and BMI, we conducted mediation analyses, considering the eating behavior items as potential mediation variable towards BMI. Results Here, we found that the positive association between chemerin, AFABP or leptin and BMI in Sorbian women was mediated by higher restraint or disinhibited eating, respectively. Additionally, in Sorbian women, the negative relation between IGF-1 and BMI was mediated by higher disinhibition and the positive link between AGF and BMI by lower disinhibition. In Sorbian men, the negative relationship between PENK and BMI was mediated by lower disinhibition and hunger, whereas the negative relation between IGF-1 and BMI was mediated by higher hunger. In the LIFE-Adult women´s cohort, associations between chemerin and BMI were mediated by decreased hunger or disinhibition, respectively, whereas relations between PENK and BMI were fully mediated by decreased disinhibition. Conclusion Our study suggests that adipokines such as PENK, IGF-1, chemerin, AGF, AFABP and leptin might affect the development of obesity by directly modifying individual eating behavior. Given the observational nature of the study, future experimental or mechanistic work is warranted.

Modelling Chablis vintage quality in response to inter-annual variation in weather

The weather during grape production affects wine quality. Changes in the weather in the Chablis region of France and in the quality of Chablis wines (vintage scores) from 1963 to 2018 were analysed. Chablis wine quality improved over this period, with no poor vintages after 1991. Summer temperature and sunshine duration both increased progressively between 1963 to 2018 with fewer frost days but no linear change detected in precipitation. Chablis vintage score was modelled as a function of mean temperature from April to September (curvilinear relation, maximum score at 16–17 °C), mean minimum temperature in September (an index of cool nights; negative relation), and total rainfall from June to September (negative relation). This simple three-factor model distinguished between poor and higher-quality Chablis vintages well, but less so between good and excellent vintages. Application of the model to different climate change scenarios (assuming current viticultural and oenological practices) suggests that vintage scores will decline (slightly to substantially, dependent upon emissions scenario) by the 2041 to 2070 period. This reduction in quality would, however, be minimised if the warming of cool nights is less than currently forecast. The Chablis vintage score model may help identify sites with suitable climates for premium white wine from Chardonnay grapevines in emerging cool climate viticulture regions as well as aiding Chablis producers mitigate the effects of climate change.

The Dark Side of Mandatory IFRS Adoption: Does IFRS Adoption Deteriorate Accrual Reliability?

We examine a potential informational cost of adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that mandatory IFRS adoption leads to a significant decrease in accrual reliability. We also find that this negative relation between IFRS adoption and accrual reliability is more pronounced for firms (a) holding more financial instruments and (b) domiciled in jurisdictions with weak institutional features. The above findings are robust to alternative sampling and an extended sample period. Further analysis shows that reduced accrual reliability reflects a trade-off with increased value relevance and that outside investors fail to understand the IFRS-induced reductions in accrual reliability.