This research will contribute the literature of managerial ability and cost of capital. This study is the first to investigate the association between managerial ability and cost of capital to the best of our knowledge using Demerjian et al. (2012). Managerial ability is the measurement methodology which is the most commonly used method to evaluate the managerial ability in the literature. In a previous study, Mishra (2014) investigates the relation between CEO managerial ability and cost of capital by using Custodio’s (2013) CEO managerial ability methodology. This method only measures the ability of CEOs based on their experience. Those who have several experiences in different departments and other sectors are regarded as generalist CEOs, while some others who have one specific experience in a department and/or sector are regarded as specialist CEOs. Mishra shows a positive relation between generalist CEOs and cost of capital; it is regarded as the dark side of managerial ability. Mishra explains this relation by the risky behaviors of generalist CEOs. Mishra argues that generalist CEOs have lots of job opportunities. They also tend not to focus on the long-term financial soundness of the corporations—aiming to increase revenues sharply in short terms to improve their reputation. We extend Mishra’s analysis by employing firm fixed effect to its model. We find that the impact of general CEO managerial ability which is defined by Mishra (2014) as the dark side is not significant once the employ firm fixed effect is considered. This analysis assesses the effect of managerial ability on cost of capital by using Demerjian’s methodology. It was found that the impact of managerial ability on cost of capital shows a negative significant relation in line with expectations. More able managers lead to less cost of capital. This finding is in line with literature of the impact of managerial ability on company performance. We also employ firm fixed effects to our models and confirm the study’s findings. It is shown that the relation between institutional ownership and cost of capital is also significant. Further, there were many channels examined to identify possible causes of this negative relationship. It is expected that able managers disclose more information; they also help to reduce forecast error and eventually improve performance. The relationships between managerial ability and information disclosure, managerial ability and forecast error, as well as managerial ability and performance are significant. The channel effects are also explored by employing firm fixed effect, as mentioned previously. All the models present significant relationship.

This dissertation investigates the relation between firm disclosure, analyst forecast bias, and the cost of equity capital (COEC). Since analyst forecast bias is associated with both implied COEC estimates and disclosure, it is important to control for or remove it from COEC estimates when estimating the relation between disclosure and ex ante expected returns. I begin my analysis by predicting and removing systematic ex ante bias from analyst forecasts to produce de-biased analyst forecasts that better proxy for the market’s ex ante earnings expectations. I use these de-biased analyst forecasts to produce estimates of ex ante expected returns, both at the portfolio- and the firm-level. In addition, I develop a novel estimate of ex ante expected returns by applying Vuolteenaho’s (2002) return decomposition framework to ex post realized returns and accounting data. Finally, using several techniques to control for analyst forecast bias and self-selection bias, I find theoretically consistent evidence of a negative association between regular disclosure and ex ante expected returns. I predict and show that inferences can change when analyst forecast bias is controlled for.

This dissertation investigates the relation between firm disclosure, analyst forecast bias, and the cost of equity capital (COEC). Since analyst forecast bias is associated with both implied COEC estimates and disclosure, it is important to control for or remove it from COEC estimates when estimating the relation between disclosure and ex ante expected returns. I begin my analysis by predicting and removing systematic ex ante bias from analyst forecasts to produce de-biased analyst forecasts that better proxy for the market’s ex ante earnings expectations. I use these de-biased analyst forecasts to produce estimates of ex ante expected returns, both at the portfolio- and the firm-level. In addition, I develop a novel estimate of ex ante expected returns by applying Vuolteenaho’s (2002) return decomposition framework to ex post realized returns and accounting data. Finally, using several techniques to control for analyst forecast bias and self-selection bias, I find theoretically consistent evidence of a negative association between regular disclosure and ex ante expected returns. I predict and show that inferences can change when analyst forecast bias is controlled for.

Scholars and investors have studied the value premium for several decades. However, the debate over whether risk factors or biased market participants cause the value premium has never been settled. The risk explanation argues that value firms are fundamentally riskier than growth firms. At the same time, the behavioral explanation argues that biased market participants systematically misprice value and growth stocks. In this paper, I use the implied cost of equity capital to capture all risks that investors demand a premium and sort stocks into risk quantiles. The implied cost of equity capital is estimated using models proposed by Gebhardt et al., Claus and Thomas, Ohlson and Juettner-Nauroth, and Easton. I find that value stocks have higher implied cost of equity capital and lower forecasted earnings growth while growth stocks have lower implied cost of equity capital and higher forecasted earnings growth. More importantly, even within the same risk quantile, the value premium still exists. The results suggest that risk and behavioral factors simultaneously cause the value premium. Furthermore, by decomposing the holding period return, I find that adjustments in valuation ratios caused by negative earnings surprises for growth firms and positive earnings surprises for value firms at least partially lead to the value premium.

In this research, I classify all stocks into two groups: dividend and non-dividend payers and hypothesize that profitability premium may only exist among the firms with unforeseeable future cash flows, i.e., non-dividend payers. As expected, my empirical results support that profitability premium only exists among non-dividend payers but is very trivial among dividend payers. Dividends have a moderate effect on profitability premiums. To dig further into the source of profitability premium, I investigated risk and behavioral explanations from three perspectives: macroeconomics, industry, and total risks investors perceive for a firm. The evidence from empirical analysis supports that the profitability premium is mainly driven by the overpriced, unprofitable non-dividend payers, which, on average, have negative earnings announcement returns. In contrast, there is no significant positive or negative abnormal return from earnings announcements for portfolios sorted by profitability among dividend payers. Furthermore, the evidence from analyst forecast errors confirms that analysts are over-optimistic about unprofitable non-dividend-paying stocks and disagree more with their EPS forecast. Overall, the study finds that investors' expectation errors are the source of the profitability premium. It rejects the idea that risk is the profitability premium driver.

Yes / ICAS and The Scottish Accountancy Trust for Education and Research (SATER)

Yes / In this paper, we investigate whether intellectual capital (IC) and financial disclosures jointly affect the firm’s cost of equity capital. In contrast to prior research, we disaggregate disclosures into IC and financial disclosures and examine whether the two disclosure types are jointly related to the cost of equity capital. We also investigate whether IC and financial disclosures have an interaction effect on the cost of equity capital. Using data for a sample of 125 UK firms, we find a negative relationship between the cost of equity capital and IC disclosure. We find that the relationship between financial disclosure and the cost of equity capital is magnified when combined with IC disclosure. Additionally, we find that IC and financial disclosures interact in shaping their effects on the cost of equity capital. Further analyses suggest that the effect of financial disclosure on the cost of equity capital is augmented for firms characterised by a medium level of IC disclosure. These results provide important insights into the relationship between disclosures and cost of equity capital and have policy and practical implications.

Yes / This paper examines a new channel through which dividend policy can affect firm value. We find that firms that pay dividends exhibit lower systematic liquidity risk than those that do not. We also report a significant negative relationship between dividend payment and systematic liquidity risk. The liquidity improvement associated with dividend payments translates into an economically meaningful reduction in the cost of equity capital. Our results are robust to endogeneity concerns, to alternative measures of liquidity risk and dividend payouts, and to alternative model specifications. Further analysis suggests that the reduction in liquidity risk associated with dividend payouts is more pronounced for weakly governed firms and firms with opaque informational environment. Finally, we find that the recent financial crisis led to a greater increase in systematic liquidity risk for firms with no or low dividend payouts. Overall, our study implies that dividend policy can be used by corporate managers to shape liquidity risk and mitigate the adverse impact of economic downturns on the value of their firms.

IFRS standards are getting acceptance day by day rapidly in all over the world. It is because IFRSs are the global and common language, which are more transparent and comparable for the investors and users residing in different nations. IFRSs are mandatory for all companies listed in capital market within EU from the beginning of 2005. As a member state of EU, Swedish banks also adopted mandatory IFRS from 1 January 2005. However, the banks were already implementing IFRS to some extent as most of the standards in SGAAP (Swedish Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) were already directly translated from IAS. After mandatory period, the banks adopted all new, updated and revised standards in accordance with EU recommendations. Nevertheless, there are little or no material effects of adoption of IFRS standards except some particular standards. Such particular standards are: IFRS3, IAS39, IAS27, EU Occupational Pension Directive, IAS32, and Deferred Acquisition Cost. And the main differences between IFRS and SGAAP are IAS1, IFRS3, financial assets, financial instruments, intangible assets, hedge accounting and tax driven. But, the Swedish GAAP no longer exists now for the companies listed in capital market as mandatory IFRS is into force. Furthermore, I examined transparency & accounting quality, information environment, and cost of equity capital of four sample banks after mandatory IFRS adoption. But, I find the level of transparency and financial reporting quality has not been increased over the years. Regarding accounting quality, I also examined earning management, loss recognition, and value relevance. I find little evidence of less earning management, and find unclear evidence regarding loss recognition and value relevance. In other word, I find little evidence of increased accounting quality, although Sweden is a country with strong regulatory enforcements. Moreover, I also find little evidence of improved information environment but find information cost increased; although I find lower information risks after mandatory IFRS adoption. I, however, find lower cost of equity capital after mandatory IFRS adoption because for banks it will be easy to reach wider investors communities residing in different nations. Nevertheless, the evident advantage of IFRS is that the capital market can use information based on common rules.

This thesis seeks to address three important issues relating to the efficient functioning of the Istanbul Stock Exchange. In particular the thesis seeks to answer the following questions 1. What makes markets informationally efficient or inefficient? 2. Has increased stock market volatility had an impact on the equity risk premium and the cost of equity capital to firms? and 3. How is it possible to reconcile the view that markets are weak form efficient and technical analysis is a pervasive activity in such markets? Unlike previous studies, this thesis seeks to examine the issue of efficiency when institutional features specific to the market under investigation are taken into account. Specifically, the thesis adopts a testing methodology which enables us to recognize possible non-linear behaviour, thin trading and institutional changes in testing market efficiency. The results from this investigation show that informationally efficient markets are brought about by improving liquidity, ensuring that investors have access to high quality and reliable information and minimising the institutional restrictions on trading. In addition, the results suggest that emerging markets may initially be characterised as inefficient but over time, with the right regulatory framework, will develop into efficient and effective markets. The second important issue to be examined in this thesis concerns the impact of regulatory changes on market volatility and the cost of equity capital to firms. It is not sufficient to simply examine whether volatility has increased following a fmancial market innovation such as changes in regulation. Rather, it is necessary to investigate why volatility has changed, if it has changed, and the impact of such a change on the equity risk premium and the cost of equity capital to firms. Only then can inferences be drawn about the desirability or otherwise of innovations which bring about increases in volatility. Surprisingly, these issues have not been addressed in the literature. The evidence presented here suggests that the innovations which have taken place in the ISE have increased volatility, but also improved the pricing efficiency of the market and reduced the cost of equity capital to firms. Finally, the thesis tries to identify the conditions under which weak-form efficiency is consistent with technical analysis. It is shown that this paradox can be explained if adjustments to information are not immediate, such that market statistics, in particular statistics on trading volume contain information not impounded in current prices. In this context technical analysis on volume can be viewed as part of the process by which traders learn about fundamentals. Therefore, the thesis investigates the issue whether studying the joint dynamics of stock prices and trading volume can be used to predict weakly efficient stock prices. In summary, the findings of this thesis will be of interest to international investors, stock market regulators, firms raising funds from stock markets and participants in emerging capital markets in general. The implication of the results presented here is that informational efficient emerging markets are brought about by improving liquidity, ensuring that investors have access to high quality and reliable information and minimising the institutional restrictions on trading. In addition, the evolution in the regulatory framework of, and knowledge and awareness of investors in, emerging markets may mean that they will initially be characterised by inefficiency, but over time will develop into informational efficient and effectively functioning markets which allocate resources efficiently. In addition, the results of this thesis have important implications, for emerging markets in general, in identifying the regulatory framework that will achieve efficient pricing and a reduction in the cost of equity capital to firms operating in the economy.