Strategic information transmission models, also called cheap talk models, have become increasingly popular in accounting, as they have successfully brought new insights to various accounting topics. This dissertation consists of two chapters, each analyzes a model of strategic information transmission between an expert and a decision maker. In the first chapter, I study how reputational concerns affect analysts' incentives to invest in information acquisition, and subsequently, their strategic communication with investors in form of "repeated cheap talk". In a setting where analysts' incentives may be misaligned with the investors in a particular fashion (i.e. biased towards issuing optimistic reports), an equilibrium exists in which only aligned analysts will acquire information. As a result, investors may favorably update their beliefs about the analysts' type (as being aligned) when the report is consistent with the realized state. Hence reputational concerns serve as a disciplining device to curb analysts' opportunistic behavior, consistent with economic intuition. This is in sharp contrast to earlier studies that have treated information as exogenous and identical, in which case reputational concerns may work against informative communication. The second chapter is based on joint work with Tim Baldenius and Nahum Melumad. In this work, we study the optimal board composition---of monitoring and advisory "types"---within a framework of strategic communication between the CEO and the board when the CEO is an empire builder. The board of directors performs the dual role of monitoring and advising the firm's management. At times, it makes certain key decisions itself. A major concern regarding the effectiveness of boards is CEO power, in particular as it relates to the board nomination process and CEO entrenchment. Monitoring types on the board aim to uncover information known to the CEO, whereas advisors aim to uncover incrementally decision-relevant information. Successful board monitoring allows for selective intervention even if authority is formally delegated to the CEO. Counter to conventional wisdom, we show that powerful CEOs, who influence the board nomination process, may in fact prefer more monitors on the board than do shareholders. Regulatory interventions (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) that attempt to strengthen the monitoring role of boards may thus be harmful in precisely those cases where agency problems are severe. Lastly, to prevent that CEOs entrench themselves by choosing "complex" projects, shareholders may want to commit to an advisor-heavy board.

This study provides evidence on a significant real consequence of an opaque financial reporting information environment: increased corporate tax avoidance. Using an international sample of firms, I find that firms with a more opaque information environment, as measured at both the firm and country level, exhibit higher levels of firm-specific tax avoidance. More importantly, additional tests using the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as an exogenous shock to the information environment while simultaneously controlling for tax regime changes around the date of IFRS adoption provide direct evidence on the direction of the association, namely that opacity causes tax avoidance. Similarly, the results from tests using the initial enforcement of insider trading laws provide additional support for a directional hypothesis. In support of the firm-level findings, I also find evidence in the aggregate that opacity is associated with countries collecting less corporate tax revenues as a percentage of gross domestic product. In whole, these findings suggest that tax avoidance is a significant real effect of opacity with implications for practitioners, regulators, researchers, and tax-enforcement agencies.

This dissertation delves into the relation between asset returns, risks, and cash flow expectations. The first chapter uses the model-implied patterns of cash flow expectations to differentiate among the three most prominent behavioral theories explaining stock return momentum and reversal. Using analyst earnings forecasts as a proxy for cash flow expectations, I trace the dynamics of the expectation errors for winner and loser stocks in a 24-month holding period, during which returns are characterized by a momentum phase followed by a reversal phase. The large positive cross-sectional difference in expectation errors between winner and loser stocks gradually shrinks to zero over the holding period. This pattern is most consistent with the underreaction hypothesis in Hong and Stein (1999), in which cash flow expectation errors can only explain momentum, and price extrapolation is needed to explain reversal. The second chapter examines carry trade returns formed from the G10 currencies. Performance attributes depend on the base currency. Spread-weighting and risk-rebalancing positions over time improve performance. Hedging with options reduces profitability. Equity, bond, FX, and volatility risks cannot explain profitability. Time-varying dollar exposure produces abnormal excess returns. Dollar-neutral carry trades exhibit insignificant abnormal returns, while the dollar exposure part of the carry trade earns significant alphas and little skewness. Downside equity market betas of carry trades are not significantly different from unconditional betas. Distributions of drawdowns and maximum losses from daily data indicate the importance of autocorrelation in determining the negative skewness of longer horizon returns. The third chapter investigates the question of whether sovereigns pay a premium on their own borrowing as a result of (implicitly or explicitly) guaranteeing sub-entities' debt has been explored only little. We use an event study approach with separate equations for two levels of government to test for a simultaneous increase in sovereign risk premia and decrease in sub-national risk premia--or a de facto transfer of risk from the latter to the former--on the day a sovereign bailout is announced. Using daily financial market data for Spain and its autonomous regions from January 2010 to June 2013, we find support for our risk transfer hypothesis. We estimate that the Spanish sovereign's spread may have increased by around 70 basis points as a result of the central government's support for fiscally distressed comunidades autónomas.

The UK Companies Act 2006 has made it a legal requirement for companies, since October 2013, to disclose their 'Strategy' and 'Business Model' as part of their annual report. The Act, however, does not define what is meant by the two terms. This means that the content of the disclosure remains at the discretion of managers. Prior to this, the UK 2010 Corporate Governance Code required companies to disclose their Strategy and Business Model. The Code, however, is based on a 'comply or explain' approach. This study contributes to the understanding of the disclosure of Strategy and Business Model in the annual reports of UK listed companies before and after the introduction of the regulatory requirements. To achieve this, the thesis aims to investigate the extent of the disclosure of Strategy and Business Model, the impact of regulations and the determinants of such disclosures. The sample includes companies operating in three industry sectors: Banking; Food and Drug Retailers; and Gas, Water and Multi-utilities, over a period of 10 years, taking into consideration, the periods before and after the Corporate Governance and Companies Act requirements. To achieve the aims of the thesis, it has been necessary to adopt a pragmatic approach, which entails the use of results from a qualitative approach as inputs to a quantitative approach. Further, the study adopts a longitudinal approach and collects empirical data from annual reports and databases. This study also relies on agency and signalling theory to provide explanations on Strategy and Business Model disclosures in annual reports. The study finds that the mandatory requirement has had a statistically significant influence on the disclosure of both Strategy and Business Model. However, the practice of Business Model disclosure is not yet at the same level as Strategy. Lastly, the findings reveal that disclosure is mostly affected by market and corporate governance incentives.

This study aims to investigate narrative disclosures in corporate annual reports in developing economies, using Saudi Arabia as an example. The primary objective is to understand which institutional factors—including regulation and socio-political and religious contexts—influence narrative disclosures and which challenges are faced by preparers of narrative reports. The data were collected using two methods. First, 175 narrative sections from annual reports (from 2011–2015) of 35 Saudi listed companies were randomly selected and subjected to content analysis. Second, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 Saudi annual report preparers and regulators. New Institutional Sociology theory was used to as the theoretical framework of the study to interpret the findings. The findings suggest that corporate narrative disclosures in Saudi Arabia are heavily influenced by the Capital Market Authority as a regulatory body and via coercive isomorphism. Furthermore, the size and complexity of a firm; the desire to create a good company image; and the influence of report users, (foreign) investors and stakeholders, all positively shape narrative disclosures. Peer competitors in institutions and markets have an impact via mimetic isomorphism. Issues concerning the professionality of management and the company philosophy may increase the level of narrative report disclosures; whereas other issues, such as preparer awareness, top management control, negativity of society and characteristics of family institutions (control of decision making, conflict of interest, resistance to change and privacy breaching), negatively influence disclosure. Although the strongest forces are coercive and mimetic isomorphism, economic, political, social, cultural and educational factors influence companies via normative isomorphism, revealing that all three isomorphic forces collectively influence Saudi corporate disclosure practices. The study considers the implications of this research regarding the future of narrative disclosure in the Saudi context and discusses, for example, how to reduce the negative and enhance the positive institutional influences. Finally, suggestions for further research are offered.

After the recent housing bubble burst, foreclosures ran rampant across the United States. Focused concentrations occurred in Florida, California, Nevada, Utah, and other states. Despite government intervention through many foreclosure mitigation plans, the housing market is still incredibly volatile today. With many plans proving ineffective, the Obama Administration has its hopes set on the Making Home Affordable program (MHA), which is broken down into the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the Home Affordable Modification Program on overall and individual mortgage servicer levels by assessing changes in effectiveness of the overall program and evaluating each mortgage company’s effectiveness over time.

This research was focused on small manufacturing businesses and energy-efficiency programs on the federal, state, and local levels. Small manufacturing businesses have many types of energy-efficiency programs available to them from several different sources. Sources of information for these programs provide technical explanations that are difficult to understand. In addition, different qualifications are required for participation in different programs. The intention of this research was to form a manual for small manufacturing businesses that are energy-intensive. The purpose of the manual is to make the information about energy-efficiency programs more accessible and comprehendible for owners and managers of small manufacturing businesses.

The traditional accounting system in China was directly linked to the tax assessment. The close linkage between the two sets of reporting rules has substantially weakened, as China promulgated a series of accounting standards and regulations in the late 1990s. As a result, accounting for financial reporting purposes does not have to conform to accounting for tax reporting purposes. This divergence between the two measures of income will inevitably cause accounting book income to differ from taxable income. This is because the more the excess of book income over taxable income, the more the magnitude of tax audit adjustments. Mills (1998) suggests that book tax difference is an indicator of a firm’s tax noncompliance. This implies that additional tax-related costs may arise when accounting book income is higher than taxable income, and these costs may have an impact on the tradeoff between tax incentives and financial reporting incentives. Based on data from the Chinese stock market, this study tests empirically whether book tax differences due to the tradeoff between tax and non-tax cost results in tax audit adjustments. I hypothesize that the magnitude of tax noncompliance increases as book tax differences increase, and this relationship is stronger after the departure of financial reporting from tax rules in China. The results provide evidence in support of the hypothesis. This study extends prior research and contributes to the understanding of tax and non-tax tradeoffs in a different context. The results have rich implications for corporate managers and policymakers in other developing countries experiencing a similar transition from a tax-based accounting system to a system that gives corporate managers considerable discretion over the choice of accounting methods. One implication is that although book tax delinking may improve the usefulness of financial reports, it could weaken the perceived equity of the tax system and increase corporate tax avoidance behavior. Therefore, when setting accounting standards, policy makers should not only look at the impact of information relevance on the capital market, but also consider the consequence of these standards on government revenue.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Accounting" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Feb. 23, 2007.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Accounting" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Feb. 23, 2007.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.