本文以1999年至2006年間台灣改名公司為樣本(控制組)，並以與改名公司相同產業、相同規模之非改名公司作配對樣本(對照組)，透過兩者之比較以探討企業更名前後分析師行為之差異。本研究旨在檢驗改名事件日之前後60天(樣本期間為120天)，分析師之盈餘預測、盈餘成長率預測及盈餘預測離散性之差異，另外也會對改名前後之分析師人數變動作檢測。為了探討樣本期間拉長而樣本數增加是否會影響檢測之情形，額外於第五章之敏感性分析作改名前後90天(樣本期間為180天)，改名對於分析師行為影響之研究。另外，為比較不同類型的改名方式或條件不同的改名公司其改名事件對於分析師行為之影響，本文將改名的樣本公司依不同標準分成以下三類：第一種分類以新名稱是否有當紅產業字眼的變化作區分，第二種分類依新舊名稱之改變是否明顯且易於分辨而作大改名與小改名之區分，第三種分類方式則依新名稱是否與公司本業相符合作區分。 研究結果發現，不論樣本期間為120天或180天，實證結果皆顯示，相對於非改名公司，分析師會向上修正改名公司之盈餘預測及盈餘成長率預測，惟120天之結果較180天更為顯著，推測可能原因為樣本期間拉長後，干擾預測變動的因素相對增加而使改名之影響減低。樣本期間120天之實證結果也顯示，若新名稱有當紅產業字眼者，則對事件日後分析師盈餘預測及盈餘成長率預測也有正向關係；屬於大改名者則對事件日後分析師盈餘預測有正向關係 / This paper investigates the impact of corporate name changes on analysts’ behavior around the time of their announcement by analyzing listed Taiwanese companies that changed their name over the period January 1999 to December 2006. To make further investigations, we conduct separate analysis of firms having certain popular industry related new names versus non-popular industry related new names; of firms having ‘major’ versus ‘minor’ name changes; of firms having good versus poor connection between business and new names. Generally, we find some evidence of a significant positive association between the corporate name change event and the change of analysts’ behavior. The empirical results show that in contrast to non name change firms, analysts will revise up EPS and EPS growth forecast for name change firms. The results also suggest that analysts tend to revise up EPS and EPS growth forecast for firms having certain popular industry related new names. Furthermore, we also find a positive association between major name changes and analysts’ EPS forecast.

本論文分為兩部分，第一部份是探討全球航空產業的油料避險會不會對公司價值有所影響，以及油料避險的誘因。第二部份則是檢視全球航空公司的風險曝露會不會影響分析師的預測誤差，尤其是燃油價格變動的風險曝露。 / In the first essay, we examine whether jet fuel hedging increases the market value of airline companies around the world. Using a sample of 70 airline companies from 32 countries over the period 1995 to 2005, we find that jet fuel hedging is not significantly positively related to their firm value in the global airlines, but this positive relationship holds in the various sub-samples and is significant for US and non-alliance firms. Moreover, our results show that the risk-taking behavior of executives and the tendency to avoid financial distress are important determinants for the jet fuel hedging activities of non-US airline companies. Alleviating the problem of underinvestment is also an important factor to explain the jet fuel hedging activities of US and non-alliance firms. Our results add support to the growing body of literature which finds that hedging increases firm value for global airline companies. In the second essay, we examine the extent analysts revise their earnings forecasts in response to oil price, interest rate and foreign exchange rate shocks they have observed during the year, and whether these revisions contain additional information about how current and past price shocks affect reported earnings, using the sample of the global airline industry. Empirical results indicate that jet fuel hedging can increase analysts’ forecast revisions in the total sample, and in the sub-sample of the volatile fuel price period. These results can also be seen in US and non-US airlines, and airlines with both strong and weak governance. Overall, our results show that oil price shocks play an important role in investor and analyst information uncertainty with regard to the global airline industry. Consequently, corporate risk disclosures only provide limited information about firms’ financial risk exposures. Two essays are comprised in this dussertation to examine whether jet fuel hedging has effects on firm value and analysts’ forecast accuracy in the global airline industry. Using global data allows us to cmpare the differences of jet fuel hedging behavior and incentives for hedging across different sub-samples. Furthermore, we also examine how jet fuel hedging affects analysts’ forecast erros across different sub-samples and its implications for firm disclosures about their risk exposures in the financial reports. In the first essay, we examine whether jet fuel hedging increases the market value of airline companies around the world. Using a sample of 70 airline companies from 32 countries over the period 1995 to 2005, we find that jet fuel hedging is not significantly positively related to their firm value in the global airlines, but this positive relationship holds in the various sub-samples and is significant for US and non-alliance firms. Moreover, our results show that the risk-taking behavior of executives and the tendency to avoid financial distress are important determinants for the jet fuel hedging activities of non-US airline companies. Alleviating the problem of underinvestment is also an important factor to explain the jet fuel hedging activities of US and non-alliance firms. Our results add support to the growing body of literature which finds that hedging increases firm value for global airline companies. In the second essay, we examine the extent analysts revise their earnings forecasts in response to oil price, interest rate and foreign exchange rate shocks they have observed during the year, and whether these revisions contain additional information about how current and past price shocks affect reported earnings, using the sample of the global airline industry. Empirical results indicate that jet fuel hedging can increase analysts’ forecast revisions in the total sample, and in the sub-sample of the volatile fuel price period. These results can also be seen in US and non-US airlines, and airlines with both strong and weak governance. Overall, our results show that oil price shocks play an important role in investor and analyst information uncertainty with regard to the global airline industry. Consequently, corporate risk disclosures only provide limited information about firms’ financial risk exposures.

本研究旨在探討管理當局自願性盈餘預測與權益資金成本之關聯性，檢視管理當局發布盈餘預測頻率之影響是否反應於權益資金成本上，並進一步檢視管理當局之聲譽是否為影響權益資金成本的因素之一。 在本研究的實證分析結果中，發現管理當局發布自願性盈餘預測之頻率與權益資金成本呈顯著負相關，表示管理當局發布盈餘預測的次數越多時，權益資金成本越低。 在管理當局聲譽對於權益資金成本的影響，本研究實證分析結果發現，管理當局之聲譽與權益資金成本亦呈顯著負相關，管理當局聲譽以管理當局預測誤差和分析師預測誤差來衡量，當管理當局的盈餘預測誤差小於分析師盈餘預測誤差時，投資人認為管理當局對盈餘的預測有效且值得信賴，此時管理當局聲譽提高，投資人認為取得有用的資訊，進而降低企業權益資金成本。 / The primary objective of this thesis is to explore whether the frequency of management forecasts is related to the cost of equity capital. In addition, I further examine whether the association is stronger when management has better reputation. Basing on a sample of S&P 500 listed firms during 2000-2009, I find that, consistent with my prediction, cost of firm’s equity capital decreases with the frequency of management earning forecasts after controlling for other determinants well-documented to be related to cost of equity capital. Second, I find that cost of equity capital is negatively related to the reputation of management; however, I do not find that the association between cost of equity capital and the frequency of management systematically vary with the reputation of management.

區域技術創新能力是展現區域將知識轉化為經濟的能力，是區域競爭力的重要內容。由於區域創新能力是造成中國各區域經濟發展差距的主要原因之一。本研究採用中國之上市公司為研究對象，探討公司創新活動的揭露與中國各省（自治區、直轄市）創新能力對分析師預測行為及分析師預測跟隨人數之影響。由三個面向檢視區域創新能力：研究與試驗發展全時人員當量增長率(REGTH)、政府研發投入占GDP比例(GIGDP)、每百萬人平均發明專利授權數(AVPAT)。研究結果發現創新活動揭露越多之公司，分析師之預測誤差程度越低、分析師之離散度越高且能吸引越多分析師對公司做預測。區域創新能力指標REGTH越高地區，分析師預測跟隨人數越少；區域創新能力指標GIGDP越高地區，分析師之預測誤差程度越低、分析師之離散度越低、分析師預測跟隨人數越少；區域創新能力指標AVPAT越高地區，分析師之預測誤差程度越低、分析師之離散度越低、分析師預測跟隨人數越多。 / Regional innovation capability is an important competitive ability to improve the economic development in China. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies, this study investigates the extent to which innovation disclosure at the company level and regional innovation capabilities affect analysts’ forecast characteristics in terms of forecast error, and forecast dispersion, and the number of analysts’ following. The indicators of regional innovation capabilities are the growth rate of R&D full-time equivalent personnel (REGTH), regional government's investment in R&D per GDP (GIGDP), and average of innovation patent authorized per millions of people in one region (AVPAT). The results indicate that firms with more innovation disclosures improve analysts’ forecast error, and regions with higher GIGDP and AVPAT also improve analysts’ forecast error. For firms with more innovation disclosures increase analysts’ forecast dispersion, and for regions with lower GIGDP and AVPAT increase analysts’ forecast dispersion. I also find firms with more innovation disclosures attract more analysts’ following, and regions with higher REGTH and GIGDP have less analysts’ following, while regions with higher AVPAT attract more analysts’ following.

本文以三篇論文討論三個與財務報表向下重編盈餘公司有關的議題：（1）宣告財務報表重編後的長期股票績效；（2）重編公司內部人交易行為；（3）重編公司如何操弄盈餘以及操弄動機為何？ 本文樣本是從1984年1月至2000年12月，557家因為財務報表違法、舞弊或錯誤而宣告需要重編以前財務報表的公司。 第一篇論文討論公司宣告重編後三年長期股票績效。在不同配對組合下，實證結果顯示，三年長期持有異常報酬（buy-and-hold abnormal return）達-34％。文中也討論公司宣告重編時以及後續分析師預測行為。結果發現，分析師對於重編資訊有反應不足的現象，而且三年的盈餘預測修正與長期異常報酬有顯著正相關。 第二篇論文探討盈餘品質與內部人交易行為。本文假設內部人擁有重編公司盈餘品質不良的私有資訊，內部人會利用此私有資訊從事異常交易。實證結果顯示，內部人早在重編前兩年就已經開始異常出售持股，但是為了避免被發現，愈接近重編期間則交易量愈少，而且內部人異常交易與重編金額成正相關。 第三篇論文採取應計項目分項的方法（disaggregate approach）探討重編項目與特定應計項目的關連性以及重編公司違反一般公認會計原則的動機。實證結果顯示，特定重編項目公司的總應計項目比特定應計項目更顯著。很可能是管理當局為了避免操弄特定項目以致於被發現，所以操弄各種應計項目以達到總金額的目標。尤其在不同盈餘管理動機的成本效益的考量下，如果操弄主要應計項目的效益大於成本，管理當局還是會操弄特定應計項目以達到操弄的目的。因此，應計項目分項的方法可以作為進一步探討盈餘管理的方法。 / This dissertation examines three different aspects of downward earnings restatements in three essays: (1) the long-run stock performance of restatement firms following the announcements of restatements; (2) insider trading activities of earnings restatement firms; and (3) how earnings manipulations of restatement firms are effected and what are the incentives for earnings manipulations? Using extensive keyword (i.e., “restatements,” “restate,” “restated,” “restates,” and “restating”) searches over the period from January 1, 1984 through December 31, 2000, 557 firms are identified as having restated their previously published or filed financial statements due to accounting irregularities, fraud, or errors. The first essay examines the post earnings restatement announcement of long-term stock performance. Using various benchmark portfolio formulation strategies, I document an average buy-and-hold abnormal return of -34% over the 36-month horizon. I then investigate analysts’ forecast behavior around and after the restatement announcements. I find that market underreactions are associated with a sluggish forecast revisions by financial analysts. This study sheds light on how restatement information is transmitted to the capital markets and provides evidence that the market under reacts to externally initiated corporate events. The second essay examines the relationship between earnings quality and insider trading. Using downward earnings restatement firms to identify low-quality earnings, I find that insiders outsell non-earnings restatement firms of their holdings over the period from two years before to one year before the beginning of the restatement period. In addition, the amounts of restatement are positively associated with the excess insider selling. I also provide evidence that excess insider selling predicts excessive earnings manipulations that eventually lead to GAAP violation. In the third essay, I take advantage of the disclosed manipulation of items and approach the earnings manipulation issue by a disaggregate approach. Given that management considers cost/benefits of specific accruals to be manipulated, I examine whether management chooses different items to manipulate under different goals. Overall, the empirical results support the equity offering hypothesis and weakly support the meeting earnings threshold hypothesis. However, the results fail to support the avoidance of debt covenant violation hypothesis, indicating that manipulation under certain monitoring conditions can be conducted in a very subtle manner.

傳統探討分析師推薦資訊價值的研究多採用累積超額報酬的方式，近年來研究顯示個別投資人的績效顯著低於機構投資人，因此是否分析師推薦能夠幫助提升個別投資人的福利。本論文的第一個貢獻在檢定是否個別投資人能夠獲取分析師推薦的資訊價值，為區分推薦資訊分別對於個別與機構投資人的價值為何，本研究採用的每種投資人實際的交易利潤作為衡量指標。 研究結果顯示所有投資人都可以透過買入推薦獲取顯著的正報酬，但在賣出推薦上，僅外資與共同基金仍能維持獲取正的報酬。同時發現在推 薦事件期間，專業機構投資人的利潤顯著高於一般散戶的獲利。 進一步，本論文的第二的主題在探討此推薦的資訊價值對於不同投資人的差異，是否肇因於推薦券商所提供的私有資訊，因此進一步將各類投資人分成推薦券商的客戶與非客戶。結果顯示國內機構投資人的利潤在客戶的身上顯著高於非客戶的獲利，顯示推薦券商在對外公佈推薦資訊前的確提供私有資訊給其國內機構客戶，但此現象在賣出推薦並不存在。 第三，本論文進一步分析是否拿到推薦券商所提供私有資訊的客戶也是推薦券商的經紀業務收益的主要貢獻者。在比較推薦券商與非推薦券商在被推薦股票上的相對交易量(金額)中，發現推薦券商的確因為買入推薦股票而增加經紀業務量，但很驚訝的發現貢獻最多交易量的是個別投資人，而非拿到最多好處的機構投資人。 最後，本研究透過迴歸分析探討不同投資人的交易利潤與推薦券商所獲得的經紀業務量的關係。在控制推薦類型、推薦評等與被推薦股票之股票特性後，發現投資人的交易利潤與推薦券商的經紀業務收益成正相關，再次顯示券商推薦與其各項業務收益間的關係。 / Traditionally, information value of analysts’ recommendations has been well-recognized by cumulative abnormal returns. Recent studies show that individuals are underperformed, and therefore, it is a critical issue on if analysts’ recommendations are helpful to individuals’ welfares. The first contribution of this dissertation to the literature is to examine whether individual investors are capable of capturing the information value. To classify the information value of recommendations for individuals and institutions, respectively, I, thus, use a direct measure to calculate the actual trading profits of types of traders. To our best knowledge, this is the first paper that demonstrates the information value for types of investors. Our results indicate that, all investors get positive and significant profits in brokerages’ buy recommendations, no matter what types of investors are measured. As to sell recommendations, only foreign investors and mutual funds have positive returns. We also find that professional institutions earn more profits than retail investors during the recommendation event periods. Further, the second objective of this dissertation is to test whether the information values are caused by private information from brokerages’ houses, we separate the profits of types of investors into customers and non-customers based. The findings are that only domestic institutional customers of recommending brokerages are more beneficial than those of non-recommending brokerages in buy recommendations, which implies that brokerage houses may reveal private information to their own institutional customers before buy recommendations make public. This does not hold for sell recommendations. Third, we are interested in analyzing whether the private information that recommending brokerages provide to their own customers may, indeed, contribute to brokerages’ commission revenues. By comparing the trading volume of recommending brokerages and non-recommending brokerage for the covered stocks, we find that the volumes of covered stocks issued in the recommending brokerages are increased for buy recommendations. Particularly, we find that the main contribution of trading volume is from individuals. Furthermore, we run regressions to study the relationship between trading profits of types of investors and trading volume of recommending brokerages. After controlling recommendation types, consensus rating of recommendations, and stock characteristics, our results indicate that trading profits of all types of investors are positively related to commission revenues of brokerages. This may justify the importance of brokerage recommendations on their business relationships.

會計盈餘是企業向投資人傳達營運績效的指標，又投資人視公司達成分析師預測門檻與否為企業前景的重要訊號。當公司宣告策略聯盟決策時，資本市場給予正面評價，不過策略聯盟協議可能使管理當局存在機會主義與盈餘管理活動，過去文獻發現，有策略聯盟的公司，其盈餘品質較低。本文探究企業執行策略聯盟對於跨越盈餘門檻的關聯性，觀察策略聯盟事件是否為管理當局進行盈餘管理或是預期管理的工具，以迎合或擊敗分析師之盈餘預測門檻。本文實證發現策略聯盟與否及策略聯盟多寡與分析師預測門檻具有顯著正相關，而執行策略聯盟之公司從事向下引導分析師預測的機率較低，此外，實證結果亦發現，策略聯盟會降低公司管理當局採取向上調整裁決性應計數的可能性。綜上研究顯示，有策略聯盟之企業達成分析師預測門檻的機會較高，然而，其管理當局較不會選擇應計項目盈餘管理或預期管理方式來迎合或擊敗分析師之盈餘預測門檻。

本研究檢測審計品質與經理人能力對於分析師盈餘預測行為之相對有用性。根據Compustat 及 I/B/E/S所蒐集之1996至2011年資料，本研究發現，相對於非四大會計師事務所或非產業專家，當公司被四大會計師事務所或產業專家查核時，分析師預測之準確度較高，且離散度較小。此外，本研究發現當公司經理人能力較高時，分析師預測之準確度亦愈高，而離散度亦愈小。最後，為探討沙賓法案對分析師預測行為之影響，本研究將樣本區分為沙賓法案前及沙賓法案後兩組。實證結果顯示，相對於沙賓法案前，在沙賓法案後，分析師較重視審計品質與經理人能力。整體而言，審計品質與經理人能力皆會為分析師的盈餘預測帶來正面影響，而經理人能力之影響較為顯著。 / This study examines the relative usefulness of audit quality and managerial ability on financial analysts’ earnings forecast behavior. Based on data collected from Compustat and I/B/E/S from 1996 to 2011, the empirical results show that analysts' earnings forecast accuracy is higher and dispersion is smaller when firms are audited by a Big 4 auditor or an industry specialist. Similarly, analysts' earnings forecast accuracy is also higher and dispersion is also smaller when firms employ more capable managers. To investigate whether SOX affects analysts’ behavior, sample is divided into pre-SOX and post-SOX groups. The regression results from both groups show that analysts take audit quality and managerial ability into their earnings forecasts after SOX. Overall, the results suggest that both audit quality and managerial ability are associated with analysts’ earnings forecast properties. Importantly, the effect of managerial ability appears to be larger than the effect of audit quality.

本研究之目的在探討，上期對本期所做之盈餘預測與本期實際盈餘間誤差所產生之未預期盈餘，對於管理階層在本期預測下期盈餘以及財務分析師針對該預測所作之預測修正，即對於該兩者的攸關性是否會隨著34號公報之實施而提高，也就是說，在34號公報實施之後，未預期盈餘對於管理當局盈餘預測以及分析師預測修正之影響，是否會更加顯著相關。 實證結果顯示，不論34號公報適用前後，管理當局盈餘預測與未預期盈餘之間皆具有攸關性，但在34號公報適用之後，兩者之間的顯著性並未增強；而另一方面，在34號公報適用前後，財務分析師盈餘預測修正與未預期盈餘之間皆具有攸關性，且在34號公報適用之後，兩者之間的顯著性有增強。 / This thesis examines whether the issuance of SFAS No.34 can heighten the association between the unexpected earnings for current period and the management earnings forecast for the next period. This research also examines if the issuance of SFAS No.34 will heighten the relationship between the unexpected earnings for current period and the analysts’ revision of the management earnings forecast for the next period. The unexpected earnings mean the difference between the earnings forecast for current period and the actual earnings in current period This thesis finds that there is a negative association between management earnings forecast and the error of the expected earnings whether SFAS No.34 has been issued or not, but the issuance of SFAS No.34 doesn’t heighten the association between the management earnings forecast and the error of the expected earnings. Besides, the result of the research shows that there is a positive relationship between the analyst’s revision of the management earnings forecast and the error of the expected earnings. Furthermore, the relationship is heightened by the issuance of SFAS No.34.

本研究以研究發展費用作為專利的投入變數，以專利數作為專利的產出數量變數，以平均專利範圍及平均專利發明人數作為專利的產出品質變數，使用長期間與大範圍的台灣樣本來探討專利資訊與企業財務績效之關連性，並透過專利資訊的使用者-分析師的觀點來判別哪些專利資訊是資訊使用者眼中的攸關資訊。研究結果發現大量的專利並不會對企業未來盈餘有明顯助益，擁有高品質的專利才是對企業未來盈餘有所助益的關鍵因素，研究結果亦發現分析師在進行盈餘預測時，並未適當的利用專利產出品質與專利產出數量資訊，且這些未經適當利用的專利資訊會增加盈餘預測誤差。故本研究建議資訊揭露相關準則及法規可針對專利資訊給予更完整、更透明的揭露。 / Patent’s value is hard to accurately identify under current generally accepted accounting principles. This paper uses firms in the Taiwan Stock Exchange to investigate the association of firm’s patents, future financial performance and the information used in analysts’ earnings forecasts. The patents were measured by the proxies of R&D expenditures, granted patents, patent claims and the number of patent inventors. The evidences show that possessing a large number of patents does not help future financial performance, but granting high quality patents does. The evidences also show that analysts do not appropriately use the information provided by patents, and this truly causes analysts’ forecast errors. Therefore, I suggest giving patents clearer and more complete disclosure, so that investors can obtain more value-relevant information.