This dissertation consists of three papers that examine how aspects of public policy may impact private sector corporate governance. The first two examine the relationship between personal-tax policy and corporate agency costs. The first paper is a theoretical analysis based on an agency model of managerial behavior. A unique element of this paper is that it assumes a discontinuous compensation function, which reflects the occurrence of performance thresholds associated with the dismissal incentive and many common bonus plans. The analysis results in three main findings. First, the relative magnitude of proportional taxation has an indeterminate effect on managerial performance. Second, an increase in tax progressivity is associated with reduced managerial performance and increased agency costs. Third, the inclusion of performance thresholds and compensation discontinuities can cause tax system changes to have surprisingly large impacts on managerial performance. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between personal-tax progressivity and corporate operating efficiency. The analysis is based on variations in across-state tax policy and utilizes a sample of US-based firms. Using matched-pair testing and regression analysis, evidence is found that is consistent with the hypothesis that increased personal-tax progressivity negatively impacts managerial performance. Together, the analysis contained in the first two papers suggests a need to further examine the relationship between personal taxation and corporate agency costs, an issue that is largely absent from the research literature. The third paper investigates whether variations in state corporate law affect firm value. Previous research in this area generally treats all states other than Delaware as having homogeneous corporate law. I relax this assumption and analyze a large panel sample of US firms. Evidence is found that Delaware firms are worth more, on average, than non-Delaware firms. However, this effect is not consistent across all non-Delaware jurisdictions. The valuation differences are correlated to differences in statutory law. Specifically, corporate law that provides greater entrenchment of management is associated with reduced firm value. The results indicate that corporate law does affect corporate governance. Furthermore, the findings are inconsistent with the “race to the bottom” theory of corporate law. / May 2006

Background and problem: This paper illuminates the problem with temptation of earnings management. However, there are particular disadvantages when companies use this technique because it creates an information asymmetry at the stock market. Problem of earnings management is although not a new phenomenon there issue is the quality of financial reporting. The development is concerning, since recently the performance of financial report has a negative trend, a trend that could harm the financial world. If a company does not provide meaningful information the fundamentals of capital market lose confidence. Purpose: This study has two purposes. The first purpose is to evaluate the ability of various discretionary accruals model at Stockholm Exchange Market. The second purpose is concerning a new model in purpose to understand and reveal earnings management. Boundaries: Data contains only business corporations at large cap and operate at the Stockholm Stock Exchange market. Furthermore is this research based on a time series data from year 2000 – 2009 and cross section data from year 2009. Method: The approach of the methodology are inspired of prior earnings management research, as Healy (1985), DeAngelo (1986) and Jones (1991) which have relied on discretionary accruals to detect earnings management. Conclusion: The result indicates that the Jones modified model is the most powerful models to explain earnings management, which also is consistent with prior studies. The result from the extended Jones modified model indicates no improvement, concerning on revealing earnings management. Further, the results confirm that the null hypothesis can be rejected at 1% significant level but the F-value fall drastically compare to Jones modified model. Suggestions for further research: One suggestion is that more research should be conducted in order to develop accounting policies aimed at limiting the application of earnings management. Alternatively, future research should base on data that measures the phenomenon of earnings management at a deeper level. Yet there are some obstacles to gather desire data and therefore it is not easily accessible. / Bakgrund och problem: Den här studien undersöker resultatstyrning, då det finns både fördelar och nackdelar med att tillämpa denna metod. Problemet med resultatstyrning är dock inte ett nytt fenomen, där tidigare studier visar att kvalitet på den finansiella rapporteringen kan ifrågasättas. Företagens årsredovisning skall speglar en rättvisande bild av verksamheten och således är utvecklingen oroväckande eftersom trovärdigheten för den finansiella rapporteringen har fått en negativ trend, en trend som kan skada den finansiella marknaden. Syfte: Den här studien utvärdera och jämföra hur befintliga disketionära modeller förhåller sig på Stockholmsbörsen. Dessutom utvecklas en förbättringsmodell. En model med förklaringsvariabler som ger ett nytt och/eller annorlunda perspektiv på fenomenet. Avgränsningar: Undersökningen omfattar endast företag som är registrerad på large cap och verkar på Stockholmsbörsen. Data som används i studien är dels en tidsserie data från år 2000-2009 och dels tvärsnittsdata från år 2009. Metod: Den här undersökningen tillämpar liknande metoder som tidigare studier, beträffande resultatstyrning såsom Healy (1985), DeAngelo (1986) och Jones (1991) där de definierar diskretionär avsättning som vinstmanipulering. Slutsats: Resultaten visar att Jones modified model förklara och upptäcker resultatstyrning på ett bättre sätt än de andra modellerna. Denna slutsats överrensstämmer med tidigare studier. Resultaten från den utökande Jones modified model visar inte några förbättringar. Dock förkastar den noll hypotesen på 1 % signifikansnivå men F-värdet sjunker kraftigt jämförelsevis mot Jones modified model. Förslag till vidare forskning: Ett förslag är att framtida forskning bör bedrivas i syfte för att utveckla redovisningsprinciper som begränsar resultatstyrning. Alternativt förslag är att samla in data som mäter resultatstyrning på en djupare nivå, dock är det problematiskt med dagens

Banking as a financial institution and a business has gone beyond providing banking servicesand making profits for the proprietors to assume macro positions like involving in activitiesthat propel an entire economy. This has earned the interest of national governments and thesociety as well as the international community as a whole inciting a need for supervision inorder to ensure sustainability.Banks as corporate organizations with the above stipulated stake holders and management arein a constant tog of war with each stakeholder seeking to protect its own kind which hasdegenerated to a vice often known in corporate governance as agency cost or principal-agentconflict. In corporate governance there is a board of directors that is designed to align theshareholders interest and management interest in order to check this agency cost.In our thesis we have expatiated widely on the concept of corporate governance, board ofdirectors and its composition. We have isolated gender diversity, which is one of thecompositions of the board to find out how it contributes to control agency cost by establishingits effect on ROE, which is a firm performance indicator. We introduced control variables tocheck our results.We collected data from the annual reports of Nordea, Swedbank, Handelsbanken and SEB,which are the listed banks in the OMX NASDAQ exchange Stockholm for period 2001 to2010. The board characteristic we used is the proportion of females in the entire board and thefirm performance indicator we chose is ROE. We carried out a longitudinal study for thewhole industry and for individual firms in the industry over the ten-year period.We have variation in the results over the different firms and in the industry but there is nosignificant relationship. We concluded that the proportion of females in the board rooms doesnot necessarily affect firm performance as viewed with the use of ROE but other factorstogether with gender proportion exert a combined effect and these other factors are correlatedand therefore affect the performance of each other either positively or negatively. Thisscenario was therefore not realistic enough to establish a relationship between genderproportion and ROE.

The modern capital structure theory attempts to determine an optimal capital structure on the maximum shareholder¡¦s wealth. In practice, it is very difficult to find an optimal capital structure. Nevertheless, the dynamic capital structure model can simulate an optimal capital structure by Monte Carlo approach. Therefore, this study begin at the opinion of sales revenue and modifies the model of Goldstein, Ju and Leland(1998). Firstly, using the model to simulate the optimality of capital structures about traditional and high-tech industries of Taiwan. Secondly, the impacts of industry characteristic¡Bfirm size¡Bgrowth¡Bprofitability¡Boperating risk and dividend policy on the optimal capital structure are also analyzed. Meanwhile, to investigate the effect of implementation of the integration of individual and corporate taxes on the firm value¡Bdividend policy and capital structure. There are some conclusions in this study. The simulate results indicate that the leverage ratio of traditional industry is higher than that of high-tech industry. Firm size and growth are positively associated with debt ratio. The profitability and dividend yield are negatively associated with debt ratio. But operating risk and debt ratio have curve relation. The traditional industry trends to optimal static capital structure strategy. But high-tech industry is toward optimal upward dynamic capital structure strategy. The higher corporate tax rate, the higher firm value is. The shareholder¡¦s individual tax rate and the tax rate on the retained earnings with firm value are negatively relation. So the extent of how tax reform affects firm value depends on the shareholder¡¦s individual tax rate. According to the model, debt ratio should decrease. The empirical result for the high technology industry has satisfied the theoretical prediction. However, the increase of the debt ratios of firms in the traditional industry indicates that industry framework is changed for higher equity cost. Therefore, the resource of firm funds will be by debt policy. Dividend payment will increase after the implementation of the integration of individual and corporate taxes. The more dividend pay out, the lower firm value is. So it consists with tax-effect hypothesis. Finally, this study derives the valuation model of dynamic capital structure. The simulate results are consistent with research hypothesis. That can advise managers to revise capital structure and to make dividend policy.

This dissertation consists of three papers that examine how aspects of public policy may impact private sector corporate governance. The first two examine the relationship between personal-tax policy and corporate agency costs. The first paper is a theoretical analysis based on an agency model of managerial behavior. A unique element of this paper is that it assumes a discontinuous compensation function, which reflects the occurrence of performance thresholds associated with the dismissal incentive and many common bonus plans. The analysis results in three main findings. First, the relative magnitude of proportional taxation has an indeterminate effect on managerial performance. Second, an increase in tax progressivity is associated with reduced managerial performance and increased agency costs. Third, the inclusion of performance thresholds and compensation discontinuities can cause tax system changes to have surprisingly large impacts on managerial performance. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between personal-tax progressivity and corporate operating efficiency. The analysis is based on variations in across-state tax policy and utilizes a sample of US-based firms. Using matched-pair testing and regression analysis, evidence is found that is consistent with the hypothesis that increased personal-tax progressivity negatively impacts managerial performance. Together, the analysis contained in the first two papers suggests a need to further examine the relationship between personal taxation and corporate agency costs, an issue that is largely absent from the research literature. The third paper investigates whether variations in state corporate law affect firm value. Previous research in this area generally treats all states other than Delaware as having homogeneous corporate law. I relax this assumption and analyze a large panel sample of US firms. Evidence is found that Delaware firms are worth more, on average, than non-Delaware firms. However, this effect is not consistent across all non-Delaware jurisdictions. The valuation differences are correlated to differences in statutory law. Specifically, corporate law that provides greater entrenchment of management is associated with reduced firm value. The results indicate that corporate law does affect corporate governance. Furthermore, the findings are inconsistent with the “race to the bottom” theory of corporate law.

This dissertation consists of three papers that examine how aspects of public policy may impact private sector corporate governance. The first two examine the relationship between personal-tax policy and corporate agency costs. The first paper is a theoretical analysis based on an agency model of managerial behavior. A unique element of this paper is that it assumes a discontinuous compensation function, which reflects the occurrence of performance thresholds associated with the dismissal incentive and many common bonus plans. The analysis results in three main findings. First, the relative magnitude of proportional taxation has an indeterminate effect on managerial performance. Second, an increase in tax progressivity is associated with reduced managerial performance and increased agency costs. Third, the inclusion of performance thresholds and compensation discontinuities can cause tax system changes to have surprisingly large impacts on managerial performance. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between personal-tax progressivity and corporate operating efficiency. The analysis is based on variations in across-state tax policy and utilizes a sample of US-based firms. Using matched-pair testing and regression analysis, evidence is found that is consistent with the hypothesis that increased personal-tax progressivity negatively impacts managerial performance. Together, the analysis contained in the first two papers suggests a need to further examine the relationship between personal taxation and corporate agency costs, an issue that is largely absent from the research literature. The third paper investigates whether variations in state corporate law affect firm value. Previous research in this area generally treats all states other than Delaware as having homogeneous corporate law. I relax this assumption and analyze a large panel sample of US firms. Evidence is found that Delaware firms are worth more, on average, than non-Delaware firms. However, this effect is not consistent across all non-Delaware jurisdictions. The valuation differences are correlated to differences in statutory law. Specifically, corporate law that provides greater entrenchment of management is associated with reduced firm value. The results indicate that corporate law does affect corporate governance. Furthermore, the findings are inconsistent with the “race to the bottom” theory of corporate law.

Huruvida ett företag gynnas av att börsnotera sig är många gånger en fråga som är svår att svara på. Det finns fördelar såväl som nackdelar med att gå från att vara ett privatägt till ett publikt bolag noterat på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Företagets bransch, finansiella ställning, framtida mål och övriga förutsättningar har alla en inverkan på ett eventuellt beslut att genomföra en börsnotering. Det finns studier som framhäver fördelarna med att vara börsnoterad. Främsta motivet är ofta att få förbättrad tillgång till kapital - både i form av bättre tillgång till krediter och lån, men också en utökad möjlighet för företaget att även efter noteringen resa nytt kapital via till exempel nyemissioner. Samtidigt så säger Pecking order theory (Majluf & Myers, 1984) att ett företag endast som sista utväg bör sälja av aktier för att finansiera verksamheten. Pecking order theory anser att en börsnotering är ett sub-optimalt val om syftet med noteringen är att lösa företagets finansiering. Agency cost theory (Fama & Jensen, 1983, s. 304-307) är en annan teori som antyder att effektiviteten i styrningen av ett företag kan minska efter en börsnotering. Detta beror på att styrningen och ägandet blir mer separerad och att ledningen efter en börsnotering därför ofta har mindre incitament att agera i aktieägarnas bästa intresse. Studien har utgått från studier som visar på fördelar/nackdelar och motiv med börsnoteringar samt Pecking order theory och Agency cost theory som båda antyder att en börsnotering inte är ett bra val utan istället riskerar att försämra företagets finansiella prestation. Syftet med studien är att granska den effekt en börsnotering har på den finansiella prestationen för företag på den svenska aktiemarknaden. I den aktuella studien förklaras den finansiella prestationen av fyra nyckeltal, där dessa är omsättningstillväxt, vinsttillväxt, avkastning på eget kapital och avkastning på totalt kapital. En granskning av 103 bolag som noterades på den svenska aktiemarknaden under perioden 2008 till 2013 genomfördes. Sammanställning av finansiella data från företagen i kombination med uträkning av finansiella nyckeltal samt användande av statistiska tester gjorde att studiens syfte kunde uppfyllas. Resultatet visade att omsättningstillväxt, med en signifikansnivå på 5 %, uppvisade en svagare utveckling efter en börsnotering jämfört med innan. Enbart 6 av de 24 statistiska testerna som genomförts blev signifikanta, vilket medförde att det inte gick att fastställa att en börsnotering leder till en förändring av ett företags finansiella prestation. De icke- signifikanta testerna indikerade dock även dem att den finansiella prestationen blev sämre efter noteringen, då en majoritet av företagen i urvalet uppvisade sämre värden på de finansiella nyckeltalen efter börsnoteringen. Dock kan inga slutsatser angående målpopulationen som helhet dras från de testerna.

The recent financial crisis has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of corporate governance (CG) in monitoring management and protecting investors’ interests. There is concern that ‘poor’ CG was, to a certain extent, a major cause of the current financial crisis. This thesis, therefore, investigates the crucial policy question of whether the quality of CG has any effect on financial performance, information asymmetry and on block shareholders’ investment decisions. This is achieved and presented in the form of three essays on CG practices in UK with a particular focus on the periods before and during the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The first essay aims to investigate the impact of firm-level CG on block shareholders’ investment decisions for a large sample of UK non-financial firms over the period 2005 to 2009. Using a panel data analysis, the results revealed the importance of CG for block shareholders’ investment decisions. Furthermore, the study results indicated that only institutional block shareholders consider CG to be important criteria for their investment decisions. Moreover, when the effect of CG on block shareholdings in both periods before and during crisis was examined, a significant difference in results appeared: an insignificant positive relationship in the pre-crisis period turned out to be significant during crisis. The result thus indicates that block shareholders viewed CG as particularly important during the crisis period. The second essay aims to examine the effect of CG on firm performance before and during the financial crisis. It also investigates the mediating effect of agency costs on the association between CG and firm performance. The results revealed that CG affects firm performance only in the period before the crisis, but no significant effect was found during the crisis period. Moreover, agency cost was proved to fully mediate the relationship between CG and performance in the pre-crisis period. The results point to an important issue, which is the need to re-evaluate CG not only in stable periods but also during turbulent times, and to evaluate its ability to perform effectively in such different conditions. The third essay investigates the effect of both CG and block ownership on information asymmetry. Further, the effects of CG in lessening the positive association between block ownership and information asymmetry is considered. The results revealed that CG affects information asymmetry only in the pre-crisis. In addition, block ownership was shown to have a significant and positive effect on information asymmetry during crisis periods suggesting that block shareholders benefit from their information advantage during crisis period which in turn worsens the information asymmetry problem. This suggests that block shareholders engage more in their private benefits rather than in efficient monitoring. The results also proved that CG is insignificant during turbulent period in lessening the negative effect of block ownership.

本研究將我國獨立專家可能發揮之功能分為能夠認證交易係公平且無弊端之「消極認證功能」及能積極預測綜效並為市場排除不具綜效交易之「積極認證功能」，並藉由分析代理成本與獨立專家選擇之關聯性，以及獨立專家自我選擇與併購後綜效之關聯性，實證探討我國獨立專家制度之運作概況及其功能。 研究結果發現，衡量代理成本之公司及交易特性變數中，負債比率較高、外部大股東持股比率較低、機構投資人持股比率較低、併購溢價較高、主併與被併公司相對規模較接近時，公司聘僱高聲譽獨立專家的可能性較高，支持我國獨立專家可能具有降低代理成本之消極認證功能之論點。積極認證功能方面，本研究發現，以併購金額市佔率衡量獨立專家聲譽時，高聲譽獨立專家簽發評價報告之併購案，併購後市場佔有率成長幅度較高，支持我國獨立專家可能具有積極認證功能之論點，但僅限於市場綜效部分。 / This study tests whether the negative certification function and positive certification function are important service performed by independent experts in the M&A transaction. It conducts an empirical investigation of the choice of independent experts and the synergy in the M&A transaction. The result demonstrates that when the debt ratio is high, the percentage of stock owned by institutional owners and external shareholders is low, the premium is high, and the size of acquirer and target is similar, acquirer tends to hire a more prestigious independent expert. It confirms that the negative certification function exists. In addition, we find that when the reputation (measured by market share) of independent experts is high, the market synergy in the M&A may be higher than others. It is because of that the independent experts tend to protect their reputation by choosing their clients rigorously. Therefore, the positive certification function is also confirmed.

Denna studie behandlar nedskrivning av goodwill i svenska börsnoterade företag, och beaktar fyra möjliga förklaringar till detta. Relevant regelverk för den finansiella rapporteringen är IFRS. Genom en kvantitativ metod och ett deduktivt angreppssätt uppmärksammar vi problematiken kring att forskningen genererat olika förklaringar till att en nedskrivning äger rum.   Studien omfattar 1260 observationer i form av räkenskapsår, som sträcker sig mellan åren 2006 till 2013. Vårt empiriska material är inhämtat via databaser och omfattar finansiell information för vart och ett av företagen, fördelat på de olika åren. Nedskrivningskostnaden för goodwill är manuellt insamlat från de företag där goodwill som tillgångspost minskat från år t-1 till år t.   Från vårt teoretiska ramverk deduceras hypoteser som tillhandahåller eventuella orsaker till varför en nedskrivning kan ha ägt rum. Studien undersöker inledningsvis om en nedskrivning kan härledas till rådande företagsekonomiska förhållanden, där vedertagna undersökningsmått baserat på nyckeltal beräknade från årsredovisningar används. Vidare undersöks om nedskrivning av goodwill kan kopplas till resultatmanipulerande åtgärder genom stålbad eller vinstutjämning. Dessa kompententer i studien undersöks utifrån befintlig metodik tillhandahållen genom likartad forskning, men som utförts på andra geografiska marknader. Slutligen testas även, baserat på en egenhändigt framtagen operationalisering, finanskrisens inverkan på nedskrivning av goodwill.   Vår studies statistiska moment innehåller binära regressionsanalyser som med ett antal förklarande variabler prövar vad som kan förklara om en nedskrivning äger rum eller inte, samt en multipel regression som söker determinanter för nedskrivningens storlek.   Studiens resultat påvisar ett signifikant negativt samband mellan nedskrivning av goodwill och räntabilitet på totala tillgångar, vilket implicerar att bolag med sämre avkastning mer sannolikt kan komma att utföra en nedskrivning av goodwill. Även bolag med en hög andel goodwill i förhållande till totala tillgångar kan förväntas genomföra en nedskrivning, vilket visas genom ett signifikant positivt samband mellan beroende och förklarande variabel. Samma parameter, andel goodwill, kan även förklara storleken på en nedskrivning.   Vidare kan studien, genom statistisk signifikans, visa att nedskrivning av goodwill sker i samband med den resultatmanipulerande åtgärden stålbad, vilket innebär att bolag med ett redan dåligt resultat försämrar det ytterligare genom en nedskrivning. Att stålbadets motsats, vinstutjämning, förekommer som resultatmanipulerande åtgärd kan inte påvisas. Finanskrisens eventuella inverkan på vår beroende variabel kan inte styrkas.     Sammantaget visar studien att bolag med svag avkastningseffekt tenderar att oftare skriva ned goodwill än andra bolag, vilket eventuellt kan indikera att de följer de rekommendationer som standarden, IFRS, förespråkar. Indikationer på att resultatmanipulering genom stålbad förekommer på stockholmsbörsen kan också identifieras.