過去的實證研究指出，在討論當期的會計盈餘穩健性時，研究者必須要控制期初會計盈餘穩健性的水準。具體而言，期初會計盈餘穩健性與本期會計盈餘穩健性的負向關係，會稀釋我們對當期會計盈餘穩健性的解釋效果。基於這個理由，本研究以期初市價對淨值比做為期初會計盈餘穩健性的代理變數，去檢視我國1999年至2004年會計盈餘的穩健性以及探討盈餘穩健性與外資法人持股比例之關聯性。穩健原則之定義，係以 Basu(1997)模型做為衡量穩健性的指標。研究結果發現，我國企業近年來之會計盈餘存在穩健原則之特性，而期初市價對淨值比與盈餘穩健程度之間呈現顯著之負向相關。至於針對外資持股與盈餘穩健性之關聯性的分析，在控制期初市價對淨值比的影響之後，本研究未能找到外資持股比例之高低對盈餘穩健程度有顯著影響之證據。然而，在期初市價對淨值比最高的組別中，盈餘穩健程度與次期外資持股比例之間存在正向之關係。這個現象意味著對於期初盈餘穩健性很高的公司而言，其在當期之盈餘若相對較穩健，則次期之外資持股比例將會較高。但是，在本研究改以工具變數衡量外資持股比例之後，不論是當期或次期的外資持股比例，其與盈餘穩健程度之間則均未存在顯著之關聯性。彙總而言，利用1999年至2004年的資料，本研究發現，期初會計盈餘穩健性與本期會計盈餘穩健性有顯著的負向關係；無論有無控制期初會計盈餘穩健性，我國的會計盈餘均具有穩健性的特性；未能得到非常充份的證據去宣稱外資對於我國會計盈餘穩健性有系統性的影響。 / Prior empirical studies indicate that researchers have to control for the level of beginning-of-period earnings conservatism when discussing earnings conservatism in the current period. The negative association between beginning-of-period earnings conservatism and earnings conservatism in the current period will dilute the effect of our explanation of earnings conservatism in the current period. Using beginning-of-period price-to-book ratios to proxy for beginning-of-period earnings conservatism, this study examines earnings conservatism in Taiwan during the period from 1999 to 2004, and discusses the relationship between earnings conservatism and shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors. The definition of earnings conservatism is based on Basu(1997). The empirical results show that earnings in Taiwan demonstrate the characteristic of earnings conservatism in recent years, and that beginning-of-period price-to-book ratios are negatively associated with the level of earnings conservatism. As for the analysis of the link between shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors and earnings conservatism, this study fails to find the evidence that shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors have significant impacts on earnings conservatism after controlling for the level of beginning-of-period price-to-book ratios. However, in the portfolio of the highest beginning-of-period price-to-book ratios, there is a positive relationship between earnings conservatism and shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors in the next period. This result means that firms with the highest level of beginning-of-period earnings conservatism will have higher shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors in the next period if their earnings in the current period are relatively more conservative. However, when this study uses the instrumental variable to measure shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors, shareholding ratios of foreign institutional investors, whether in the current or next period, do not have a significant relationship with the level of earnings conservatism. In summary, using data from 1999 to 2004, this study finds that there is significantly negative association between beginning-of-period earnings conservatism and earnings conservatism in the current period, and that earnings in Taiwan demonstrate the characteristic of earnings conservatism whether controlling for the level of beginning-of-period earnings conservatism or not, but this study fails to obtain sufficient evidence to assert that foreign investment has systematic effects on earnings conservatism in Taiwan.

本文內容主要可分為三大部分，第一部份是「本國銀行業逐年的競爭程度及其變化之分析」，主要是以Panzer-Rosse模型評估銀行業的競爭程度，實證結果顯示1996至2000年每年的金融市場處於壟斷性競爭或完全競爭，在考慮銀行業務差距頗大及極端值存在的可能之下，2001和2002年的銀行業為壟斷性競爭。相較於1996至2000年，2001至2002年銀行業的競爭程度有降低的現象。 第二部分是「銀行業的競爭程度與利息收入佔總資產比率之關聯性分析」，本文延伸Panzer-Rosse模型，以分量迴歸法取代傳統最小平方法，發現排除規模效果的影響下，位於利息收入的條件分配愈左端（即利息收入佔總資產比率較低）的銀行，其所處之金融環境競爭程度愈高。此外，亞洲金融危機受創最嚴重的五個東南亞國家，自金融風暴發生至2004年，位於經資產標準化的利息收入分配左端、或右端、或中間的銀行在各個國家雖遭遇不同的競爭環境變化，不過，平均而言，所有銀行面臨的競爭程度皆獲得改善。 第三部分是「以分量迴歸法分析會計盈餘的時效性與穩健性」，實證結果顯示會計盈餘對好消息認列的時效性和對壞消息認列的穩健性會受企業當期的盈餘水準所影響。若企業當期的盈餘水準愈差，則會降低其盈餘的時效性，但是會提高其盈餘的穩健性。相反地，若當期的盈餘水準愈高，則會提高其盈餘的時效性，但是會降低其盈餘的穩健性。 / There are three issues in this dissertation. The first one is to analyze the yearly degree of competition and its variation in Taiwan’s banking industry with the Panzer-Rosse model. We find that the markets over the period 1996-2000 were characterized with monopolistic competition or perfect competition, while the system was characterized by monopolistic competition in 2001 and 2002 after we take into consideration the possibility of outliers. Furthermore, the results also suggest that the competition has declined in Taiwan’s banking industry. The second topic is to investigate the relationship between banking competition and the ratio of banks’ interest revenues to total assets. The results show that while the ratio of bank’s interest revenues to total assets is lower, the bank faces a more competitive market. Moreover, competitive pressures have been improved for banks with different levels of interest revenues over total assets in East Asia after the financial crisis occurred in 1997. About the final issue, we try to find whether firms’ contemporaneous earnings affect the timeliness and conservatism of accounting earnings and their relationship. Our results show that the degree of timeliness and conservatism of accounting earnings are relevant to the level of earnings. Specifically, firms with poor earnings will decrease their earnings in recognizing good news but increase the level of conservative accounting. On the other hand, the level of conservative accounting is a decreasing function of earnings while the timeliness in recognizing good is increasing in earnings.