Dividend policy, its determinants, and its impact on firm value are of significant academic interest, and many theories and explanations have been posited on the subject over the years, but there has not been a universal agreement. This thesis examines the links between dividend policy, various aspects of stock liquidity and price informativeness. We study a sample of UK firms over the period from 1996-2013. We show that, on average, stocks of dividend payers have significantly lower bid–ask spread and a lower illiquidity ratio than their counterparts of non-dividend payers. We also find that stocks of high-dividend payers are more liquid than those of firms that pay low or no dividends. These findings are consistent with the predictions of asymmetric information that posit that paying dividends reveals inside information to the market and hence decreases the level of asymmetric information, leading to higher stock liquidity. In the subsequent analysis, we suggest and examine a new channel through which dividend policy can impact firm value. Specifically, we show that dividend payers are less exposed to shocks in the aggregate market liquidity than non-dividend payers. Similarly, we find that the systematic liquidity risk is negatively associated with amount of dividends. Finally, in the context of signalling and agency costs models, we show that dividends are negatively related to stock price informativeness and that this relationship is stronger for firms with lower stock liquidity. The findings imply that dividend policy can both affect and be affected by stock markets. / University of Bradford

The bias implied by conservatism in accounting and its impact on information risk in equity markets is the subject of considerable debate. On one hand, opponents of conservatism believe that any kind of biased information is actually misinformation and thus increases uncertainty. Perhaps most prominent among opponents of conservatism is the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The FASB contends that accounting information should be neutral—free from bias; a bias in favor of reporting either good or bad news is inconsistent with representational faithfulness and neutrality. On the other hand, proponents of conservatism point to incentives of management to manipulate financial statements by exaggerating apparent good news and/or hiding apparent bad news. Proponents argue that the bias implied by conservatism is necessary to offset the asymmetric reporting incentives of the firm’s management, and in so doing, conservatism allegedly improves information quality and reduces information risk. Finally, results of at least one recent study do not favor either position, suggesting that conservatism has no effect on information quality in equity market. This study finds that the bias implied by conservatism (bias in favor of reporting bad news) increases information risk in equity markets and consequently the cost of equity capital. Findings further indicate that sufficiently aggressive bias also increases information risk. That is, the market’s most aggressive firms, those reporting with a bias opposite that implied by conservatism, can reduce information risk by moving toward more neutral, unbiased reporting. Furthermore, the general effects of biased reporting (increased information risk) are consistent across all levels of information asymmetry among equity investors. These findings are interpreted as supporting the position of the FASB that biased accounting information increases information risk.

No description available.

In this dissertation, I investigate the economic consequences of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 158 (SFAS 158). SFAS 158 requires firms to move pension funding status from the footnotes to the balance sheet. Moving pension funding status from a footnote to the balance sheet improves the transparency and understandability of pension accounting, however it at the same time increases the pension liability recognized and decreases the shareholder's equity reported for firms with underfunded pension plans. I investigate whether firms take actions to mitigate the impact of SFAS 158. I also examine whether the market perceptions of the risk and cost of capital differ because of SFAS 158. I first find that while firms reduce the non-pension debt to equity ratio to minimize the cost of SFAS 158, they did not use discretionary accruals to offset the impact of SFAS 158. One interpretation of these findings is that firms' potential responses to the rule depend on the costs and benefits associated with that discretionary behavior. While accrual manipulations do not affect either real operations or cash flows, aggressive accrual manipulations can increase the probability of a qualified opinion from auditors, and financial penalties from regulators (SEC litigation). In contrast, real activity manipulation is more opaque than accounting earnings management, making it more difficult to detect by shareholders, SEC regulators, or auditors. I then find that the market perceived risk proxied by total equity risk increased after SFAS 158. However, I fail to find that the increased total equity risk is generally priced by the equity capital markets. Further analysis indicates that bond spread yield decreases after SFAS 158 for firms with underfunded pension plans, suggesting different behavior of debt investors and equity investors. This finding might be explained by the rich information environment specific to the debt market. Compared with the equity market, the debt market includes mainly sophisticated investors. Sophisticated investors have access to more firm-specific information than other investors. Given their access to potentially more informative data, the debt market response to SFAS 158 is different from the equity market. This dissertation contributes to the debate regarding the effectiveness of the pension accounting reforms incorporated in SFAS 158, and is useful to legislators, regulators, and researchers in assessing the anticipated costs and benefits of SFAS 158. In addition, this study lends support to the stream of research which documents that managers take actions to achieve certain financial reporting goals in response to new accounting rules. This study also provides insight into how firms take real actions to minimize the cost of having an under-funded defined benefit pension plan. Understanding these relationships have implications for interpreting pension numbers reported in the financial statements and designing pension accounting rules that prevent or minimize the possibility that managers take advantage of the complexity and subjectivity associated with pension accounting to influence reported earnings. Finally, this study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the importance and necessity of considering investor sophistication in studies on recognition vs. disclosure. / Business Administration/Accounting

Aquesta tesis investiga les fonts de valor de la banca relacional per les empreses. Després d'un primer capítol introductori, el Capítol 2 revisa les contribucions més rellevants en la literatura de la banca relacional. El Capítol 3 adreça la pregunta si la banca relacional és compatible amb la competència bancària, usant dades d'una enquesta a petites empreses d'Estats Units. El resultat principal és que les tecnologies de banca relacional poden ser usades en les mercats bancaris més competitius sempre i quan les empreses es comprometin a demanar prestat de un sol banc. El Capítol 4 proposa una estratègia empírica per tal de discriminar entre les prediccions teòriques oposades de tenir una relació banc-empresa exclusiva: estimar l'efecte diferencial en el cost i la disponibilitat del crèdit segons el grau de competència bancària. El Capítol 5 estudia l'efecte de la banca relacional en la rendibilitat de l'empresa. Pels dos últims capítols s'utilitzen dades de panel de 70,000 petites i mitjanes empreses espanyoles (1993-2004). Els resultats són consistents amb la visió que els bancs s'apropien majoritàriament del valor generat en les relacions properes amb les empreses sempre i quan no s'enfrontin a la competència d'altres prestadors. / This thesis investigates the sources of the value of lending relationships to the borrowing firm. After a first introductory chapter, Chapter 2 reviews the most relevant contributions to the relationship lending literature. Chapter 3 addresses the question of whether relationship lending is compatible with banking competition, using a survey of small firms in the United States. The main result is that relationship lending technologies are used in the most competitive banking markets as long as firms commit to borrowing from a single lender. Chapter 4 proposes an empirical strategy to disentangle the opposite theoretical predictions of exclusive bank-firm relationships: estimate the differential effect on cost and availability of credit depending on banking market concentration. Chapter 5 studies the effect of relationship lending on firm performance. For the last two chapters we use a panel dataset of 70,000 small and medium Spanish firms (1993-2004). The results are consistent with the view that banks appropriate most of the value generated through close relationships with its borrowers as long as they do not face competition from other lenders.

本論文利用證券交易所提供的日內成交資料可以追蹤投資人的交易記錄，並研究1995-2003年208家初次發行上市公司(IPO)的新舊投資人基礎以及其變動對於資金成本的影響。研究結果發現，大部分IPO確實能增加投資人基礎，而且投資人偏好報酬率與報酬率波動較大的股票；另外，投資人基礎的變動可以解釋Merton(1987) investor recognition hypothesis，即投資人基礎增加可以降低資金成本。 由第二章的分析可知大部分IPO的確能吸引更多的投資人交易，平均而言，第二年新增14.2%的投資人交易，而且有43.8%的公司增加投資人交易；另外，61.5%的公司吸引更多的新投資人，只有39.4%的公司吸引更多的舊投資人。投資人增加的比率與持有期間超額報酬有關，這可以解釋為何上市公司以及交易所皆努力提升投資人基礎。另外，新投資人在市場較熱絡時增加較為顯著，而且較偏好報酬率波動較大的股票。 除了研究第二年投資人基礎增加的情形，本論文亦研究第一年的投資人在第二年的股票持有變化情形，如果投資人在第一年曾經持有該公司的股票，並於期末前賣掉，則第二年股票的持有期間超額報酬率愈高時，將吸引愈多的投資人繼續交易該股票；但是如果投資人在第一年期末持有該IPO股票，當股票的第二年持有期間超額報酬率愈高時，投資人會傾向賣掉手中持股。 第三章檢驗Merton (1987) ‘investor recognition hypothesis’，即公司增加愈多投資人基礎將降低因為資訊不完全所產生之資金成本，並增加公司的價值。相對於之前針對投資人基礎增加會降低資金成本的研究，本論文以交易該公司股票的投資人代表知道該股票的投資人基礎，此代理變數較先前研究更能代表“awareness of the firm”。利用市場模型，發現公司在第二年平均減少超額報酬率，若將樣本分成電子與非電子產業，仍然得到類似的結果。最後，本論文發現投資人變動的確能解釋異常報酬的變動，即符合Merton (1987) investor recognition hypothesis，此現象不論在產業分類或法人皆得到一致的結論。 / A unique dataset is analyzed in this study comprising of data obtained from the TSE transactions record database on trading activity for the 208 IPO firms. The investor’s identity can trace investor’s trading records. Thus, we can define new and old investors. Additionally, the identification of the type of investor (as either an individual or institutional investor) facilitates the examination of investor behavior for either type. From the analysis in the chapter 2, we can see that there is an increase over time in the number of investors which IPOs are able to attract. An increase of 14.2 percent is found in the mean number of investors per firm, while 43.8 percent of firms are found to experience increases in the overall number of investors from the first year to the second year after their initial listing. On average, the mean rate of increase for new investors is larger than that for old investors, with 61.5 percent of IPO firms experiencing increases in the total number of new investors, as compared to the 39.4 percent of firms which experience increases in old investors. The results reveal that the rate of increase in investors has a positive correlation with holding period excess returns (HPERs), which helps to explain why both firms and stock exchanges have such similar strong desires to see improvements in the overall number of investors. A significant increase in new investors is discernible in a ‘hot’ market, and in those firms with higher return volatility levels. Furthermore, all investors naturally prefer firms with higher returns. The analysis of the changes in the investor base suggests that if investors do not hold the stock in first year, then the higher the HPERs, the greater the overall increase in the total number of investors; however, where investors had previously held the relevant stocks, we find that they will tend to sell their winning stocks. Chapter 3 undertakes an examination of the Merton (1987) ‘investor recognition hypothesis’, in which he argues that an increase in the total number of investors with prior knowledge of a firm will ultimately lower the expected returns of investors by reducing the ‘shadow cost’ arising from the lack of knowledge on a particular security; the end result of this will invariably be an increase in the market value of the firm’s shares. In contrast to the prior studies, we employ the total number of traders to represent the awareness of any given firm among investors. We examine the reduction in the costs of equity capital associated with listing using the ‘market model’ to compute the abnormal returns, and find a decline in the average daily abnormal return in the second year. Similar patterns are discernible for firms in both the non-electronics and electronics industries. Finally, our test of the Merton (1987) investor recognition hypothesis is undertaken by regressing the firms’ average abnormal returns against the changes in the overall numbers of traders. The results confirm the association between investor recognition and the costs of capital.

Objective of the thesis is determination of Volkswagen Group's equity intrinsic value. Basic starting point of the analysis is seggregation of consolidated financial statements into financial and production division, which are valuated separately. The production division is valuated using both enterprise discounted cashflow and discounted economic profit analysis. Equity cashflow valuation is used to derive value of the financial division. Results of valuation implied by income approach are then compared with market multiples valuation.

Esta dissertação investiga o papel dos incentivos individuais das companhias no compromisso com o atendimento das práticas de convergência ao IFRS, e o impacto da adoção destas práticas no custo de capital e liquidez de mercado no Brasil, um país emergente caracterizado por distinto ambiente institucional e elevadas oportunidades de crescimento. Este trabalho estende o estudo de Daske et al. (2008) ao considerar a observação de Ball (2006), de que a adoção de um padrão contábil superior não necessariamente se traduz em melhor qualidade de divulgação, uma vez que a qualidade dos relatórios contábeis pode ser fortemente moldada não pelas normas contábeis somente, mas também pelos incentivos e pela intensidade das forças políticas/econômicas presentes. Utilizando uma amostra de 148 companhias listadas na Bolsa Valores de São Paulo, o estudo emprega duas medidas para a caracterização da convergência baseadas no (i) Índice de Atendimento às Práticas de Convergência Internacional (IAPC) e na (ii) variação do volume de informação divulgada nos demonstrativos financeiros completos. Estimativas do custo de capital próprio são obtidas a partir de quatro modelos sugeridos pela literatura - Claus e Thomas (2001), Gebhardt et al. (2001), Easton (2004) e Ohlson e Juettner-Nauroth (2005). Para a liquidez de mercado, utilizam-se proxies para o bid-ask spread, turnover da ação e impacto no preço. Os incentivos econômicos estudados são: (i) tamanho; (ii) exposição ao mercado internacional; (iii) necessidade de financiamento externo; (iv) expectativa de oportunidades de crescimento; (v) desempenho; (vi) estrutura de propriedade e controle corporativo e (vii) empresa de auditoria externa. A metodologia da dissertação é subdivida nas seguintes análises: os determinantes do grau de atendimento às práticas de convergência; a heterogeneidade dos efeitos da convergência no mercado de capitais e a análise intertemporal dos efeitos da convergência no mercado de capitais. Em todas as abordagens, concentram-se nos papéis dos incentivos econômicos na análise. Inicialmente, a avaliação preliminar das proxies do estudo permitiu a validação empírica das estimativas do custo de capital próprio e das medidas de liquidez de mercado. Os resultados indicam que os incentivos são importantes determinantes do comportamento das empresas frente ao atendimento das práticas de convergência. Os resultados sugerem que empresas (i) maiores, (ii) menos alavancadas, (iii) com maiores oportunidades de crescimento, (iv) maior rentabilidade, (v) estrutura de propriedade e controle mais difusa e (vi) auditadas por companhias Big Four estão mais propensas a adotar as práticas de convergência de maneira que perfaçam mudanças materiais em suas políticas contábeis. A análise das consequências econômicas evidencia que, mesmo controlando para os incentivos subjacentes, o custo de capital e a liquidez de mercado (com exceção do Impacto no Preço) parecem estar relacionados ao compromisso das empresas com o atendimento das práticas de convergência ao IFRS. Assim, apesar das características emergentes da economia brasileira, os resultados apresentam indícios de que a adoção do modelo contábil internacional pode implicar em melhora no ambiente informacional das empresas independentemente dos efeitos individuais dos incentivos. No entanto, as evidências sugerem que a mensuração desta relação deve ser condicionada à análise dos incentivos subjacentes das empresas, pois eles parecem exercer efeitos interativos no custo de capital próprio e na liquidez de mercado. Por último, a análise intertemporal apresenta apenas fracos indícios de que o IAPC influencia a variação do custo de capital entre os períodos de 2006 a 2009. Nesta análise, os incentivos parecem dominar o efeito individual da norma contábil. Ao contrário, na análise da liquidez de mercado, o efeito individual da norma contábil parece sobrepor o efeito dos incentivos. / The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate whether underlying firm-level incentives influence firms\' compliance with IFRS convergence practices and whether this adoption impact firms\' cost of equity capital and market liquidity in Brazil, a setting with a very distinct institutional environment and high growth opportunities. The study extends the work of Daske et al. (2008) considering Ball\'s (2006) observation that superior accounting standards do not necessarily translate into higher quality reporting, since reporting quality may be largely shaped not by accounting standards alone, but also by firm-level economic incentives and economic/political forces. Using a sample of 148 firms with shares traded in the São Paulo Stock Exchange, the study employs two measures of accounting convergence based on (i) compliance to a 58-item index (IAPC), called the International Accounting Standards Convergence Index and (ii) quantity increase in annual reports disclosure. An implied measure of cost of capital is calculated from four models (Claus and Thomas, 2001; Gebhardt et al., 2001; Easton, 2004; Ohlson and Juettner-Nauroth, 2005). Market liquidity is measured by the bid-ask spread, price impact and share turnover. Firm-level economic incentives consider size, exposure to international markets, financing needs, growth opportunities, profitability, ownership structure and corporate control and auditing firm. The methodology is divided in the following analysis: the determinants of the levels of compliance with the IFRS convergence practices, the heterogeneity of IFRS convergence effects on the capital markets and the intertemporal analysis of the IFRS convergence effects on the capital markets. In all approaches, the analyses focus on the roles of economic incentives. Initially, the preliminary assessment of the proxies allowed the empirical validation of the estimates of cost of capital and measurements of market liquidity. The results indicate that firm-level incentives are important determinants in the attitude of companies towards the adoption of IFRS convergence practices. The results suggest that firms that (i) are larger, (ii) are less leveraged, (iii) have greater opportunities for growth, (iv) have greater profitability, (iv) diffuse ownership and control structure and (v) are audited by the Big Four are more likely to adopt IFRS practices by implementing material changes in their accounting policies. The analysis of economic consequence shows that cost of capital and market liquidity (except the impact on price) seem to be related to the companies commitment to the adoption of IFRS convergence practices, even controlling underlying incentives. Thus, despite the emerging characteristics of the Brazilian economy, the results shows signs that the adoption of a superior accounting model can imply improvements to the information environment of companies, regardless of their firm-level incentives, resulting in positive impacts on capital markets. However, evidence suggests that measurement of this relation should be conditional on the analysis of firm-level incentives, since they seem to directly determine the disclosure of corporate financial information and exert interactive effects on the cost of capital and market liquidity. Finally, the intertemporal analysis provides only weak evidence that the IAPC influences the changes in cost of capital from 2006 to 2009. In this analysis, the incentives seem dominate the individual effect of accounting standards. Instead, the analyses of market liquidity shows that individual accounting standards seem dominate the effect of the incentives.

O objetivo do trabalho é investigar a relação entre o disclosure voluntário socioambiental e o custo de capital próprio de companhias abertas no Brasil. Com base na Teoria da Divulgação Voluntária, espera-se uma relação negativa entre o disclosure socioambiental e o custo de capital próprio. Para tanto, selecionou-se as 91 empresas que compõem o Índice Brasil (IBrX), consideradas como as mais negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BOVESPA). A pesquisa é composta por dois períodos de análise. O primeiro compreende os anos de 2001 a 2010 e foi utilizado na análise para verificar a relação entre a publicação do Relatório de Sustentabilidade e o custo de capital próprio, enquanto o segundo período, de 2008 a 2010, se constitui na base de análise para examinar a relação entre o disclosure socioambiental e o custo de capital próprio. A métrica de disclosure voluntário socioambiental foi elaborada a partir de 20 pesquisas, na qual resultou em 80 subcategorias, sendo 40 referentes à divulgação social e 40 relacionadas ao meio ambiente. Por meio da análise de conteúdo de 272 Demonstrações Financeiras e de 178 Relatórios de Sustentabilidade, mensurou-se o nível de disclosure socioambiental das empresas. O custo de capital próprio foi estimado por uma abordagem ex ante mediante a utilização dos modelos de Claus e Thomas (2001), Ohlson e Juettner-Nauroth (2005) e Easton (2004), sendo utilizada nos modelos a média das três estimativas. No período de 2001 a 2010, considerando as 91 empresas analisadas na pesquisa, foram publicados 420 Relatórios de Sustentabilidade, sendo que 45% seguiram as orientações da GRI para sua elaboração. Os resultados obtidos com a regressão em painel logística mostraram que o início da publicação do Relatório de Sustentabilidade está relacionado com um alto custo de capital próprio do ano anterior. Constatou-se a partir da análise de dados em painel que o custo de capital próprio diminui após a divulgação do Relatório de Sustentabilidade elaborado de acordo com as diretrizes GRI. Apesar de o nível de disclosure voluntário socioambiental não possuir relação negativa com o custo de capital próprio, verificou-se que o conteúdo da evidenciação pode influenciar de maneira distinta o custo de capital próprio, uma vez que se constatou uma relação positiva entre o disclosure socioambiental desfavorável e o custo de capital próprio. Os resultados alcançados, no geral, indicam que o disclosure socioambiental impacta de maneira marginal o custo de capital próprio das empresas brasileiras, uma vez que sua influência pode ser verificada apenas com a divulgação do Relatório de Sustentabilidade elaborado de acordo com as diretrizes GRI e com o disclosure socioambiental desfavorável. / The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between voluntary social and environmental disclosure and cost of equity capital of Brazilian public companies. Based on the Theory of Voluntary Disclosure, one expects a negative link between corporate social and environment voluntary disclosure and the cost of equity capital. To this end, we selected the 91 companies in the Brazil Index (IBrX), regarded as the most traded on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA). The time sample consists of two periods. The first covers the years 2001 to 2010 and was considered to verify the relationship between the publication of the Sustainability Report and the cost of capital, while in the second period, from 2008 to 2010, is the basis of analysis to examine the relationship between environmental disclosure and cost of equity capital is examined. The metric of environmental voluntary disclosure was formulated based on 20 previous researches, and resulted in 80 subcategories, of which 40 related to social disclosure and 40 related to the environment. By applying content analysis on 272 Financial Statements and 178 Sustainability Reports, the level of the companies\' social and environmental disclosure was measured. The cost of equity capital was estimated by ex ante approaches, using the existing models of Claus and Thomas (2001), Ohlson Juettner-Nauroth (2005) and Easton (2004). After these estimations, the average of the three estimates was used. From 2001 to 2010, considering the 91 companies analyzed in the study, 420 Sustainability Reports were published, and 45% of them applied the guidelines and standards of the GRI. Results obtained with the logistic panel regression showed that the beginning of the publication of the Sustainability Report is related to a high cost of equity capital in the previous year. It was found from the analysis of panel data that the cost of equity capital decreases after disclosing Sustainability Report prepared in accordance with the GRI guidelines. Although the level of voluntary environmental disclosure does not have a negative relationship with the cost of equity capital, it was found that the contents of the disclosure may influence differently the cost of capital, since it was found a positive relationship between unfavorable social and environmental disclosure and cost of equity capital. The results indicate that the impact of social and environmental disclosure on the cost of capital of Brazilian companies is marginal, because their influence can only be verified on the publication of the Sustainability Report prepared in accordance with the GRI guidelines and the unfavorable social and environmental disclosure.

Existem fortes evidências de que a importância dos intangíveis tem crescido. Na medida em que a importância dos intangíveis aumenta, torna-se crítico gerenciá-los para que o valor da empresa seja maximizado. A gestão dos intangíveis depende da valoração adequada desses ativos. O conceito de EVA e MVA, de Stewart III, parece ser apropriado para avaliar os intangíveis. Um importante componente do modelo do EVA é o custo de capital, ou custo médio ponderado de capital (WACC), utilizado para (1) remunerar o capital tangível e (2) descontar os EVA's a valor presente. No modelo de Stewart, o taxa de desconto parece ser igual nas duas situações. Entretanto, existem razões para crer que as taxas devam ser diferentes. Evidências teóricas e empíricas sugerem que (1) o risco dos intangíveis é maior que dos tangíveis e (2) os ativos intangíveis tendem a ser financiados por recursos próprios. Se essas suposições forem verdadeiras, o custo de capital dos intangíveis deveria ser maior que dos tangíveis. Essa tese examina empresas brasileiras e norte-americanas para responder a seguinte questão: Quais as diferenças de estrutura de capital e de risco entre as empresas tangível e intangível-intensivas? Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que a estrutura de capital parece ser o fator mais importante na diferenciação entre os dois tipos de empresas. / There are strong evidences that the importance of intangible assets are growing. As the importance of intangibles increases, it is critical to manage them in order to accomplish the most important financial goal: the maximization of wealth. Properly management of intangibles depends on its accurate valuation. Stewart’s EVA and MVA seems to be one of the appropriate techniques to value intangibles. An important component in the EVA model is the cost of capital, or the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), which is applied (1) to charge the tangible capital and (2) to discount the projected EVA's. In Stewart's model the rates seems to be equal. However, there are reasons to believe that these rates must be different. Theoretical and empirical evidences suggest that (1) the risk of intangibles are greater than the tangibles assets and (2) intangibles assets tend to be equity financed. If these assumptions are true, then the cost of capital of intangibles should be greater than the cost of tangibles. This thesis examines Brazilian and American companies in order to answer the following question: What are the differences between intangible and tangible-intensive companies regarding to their capital structure and risk? Results show that capital structure seems to be the most important factor in discriminating these two kind of companies.