Baker and Wurgler (2002) proposed market timing theory and indicated the observed capital structures are the outcomes that managers timed the equity market and took advantages of timing when information asymmetry is low and stock price is high. But many scholars argue that Baker and Wurgler¡¦s timing proxy is noisy, this study attempts to use the concept of Huang and Ritter (2009) to test market timing effect on capital structure more directly by cost of equity. The cost of equity in this study is estimated by Fama and French three factors model with five-year rolling regression which is different from Huang and Ritter (2009). The empirical results show that publicly traded firms in Taiwan Stock Exchange from 1996 to 2007 tend to issue debt when the cost of equity is high and issue equity when the cost of equity is low which means the timing of financing behavior exists but it has no long-lasting effect on capital structure. Indicating that the observed capital structures of publicly traded firms in Taiwan Stock Exchange aren¡¦t the outcomes that managers timed the equity market which is not identical to the perspectives of Baker and Wurgler (2002) and the speed of adjustment of capital structure of publicly traded firms in Taiwan Stock Exchange is very fast.

This dissertation examines the effect of income smoothing on information uncertainty, stock returns, and cost of equity. Following existing literature, I construct two income smoothing measures - capturing income smoothing through both total accruals and discretionary accruals. I show that income smoothing tends to reduce firms' information uncertainty, as measured by stock return volatility, analyst forecast dispersion, and analyst forecast error. Further, I provide evidence that market prices income smoothing and rewards income smoothing firms with a premium. Controlling for unexpected earnings shocks and other firm characteristics, income smoothing firms have significantly higher abnormal returns around earnings announcement. Finally, I show that income smoothing, particularly through discretionary accruals, reduces firms' implied cost of equity.

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.

The thesis deals with evaluation of company efficiency by economic value added method. An analysis of company efficiency is carried out through the use of EVA and partial indicators, that were obtained via its decomposition. Consequently, the results of this analysis are interpreted. Based on these results, special arrangements to improve the current situation of the company are suggested.

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.

[pt] A Oferta Publica Inicial de Ações (IPO) tem sido objeto de estudo em diversos países, em função da importância destas operações, principalmente em mercados desenvolvidos. Especialmente no Brasil, este ainda é um assunto relativamente novo, com crescimento no volume de operações nos últimos anos. Este trabalho busca avaliar as operações através da metodologia de Múltiplos, verificando se as empresas foram superavaliadas, ou tiveram seu valor subestimado. Em seguida, foi estimado o custo de capital próprio das empresas, com base nas informações disponíveis no momento da operação e comparado ao retorno observado após o lançamento. Da mesma forma, foi estimado o beta, com base na média de cada setor e comparado ao realizado nos meses seguintes, buscando testar a assertividade das estimativas utilizadas para o cálculo do Custo de Capital. O presente trabalho teve como ponto de partida o estudo realizado por Felipe Casotti (2007), analisando as operações entre 2004 e 2006, tendo agora uma amostra maior e um histórico mais longo de dados, possibilitando análises mais robustas e resultados mais conclusivos. É possível constatar que as precificações das emissões não foram superestimadas, pois apesar das altas valorizações no curto prazo, os retornos de longo prazo ficaram abaixo do médio do mercado e em linha com o Custo de Capital estimado. / [en] Initial Public Offerings (IPO) have been the subject of studies in many countries due to its importance, mainly in developed markets. Especially in Brazil, it is still a new topic, as the number of operations has grown over the last years. This research intends to evaluate these operations, using the Relative Valuation Methodology, to verify if the companies were overpriced or underpriced. Following that, the Cost of Equity for these companies was estimated, based on the information available at the time of the offer and then compared to the return observed after the shares issue. Besides that, the beta was estimated based on the average for each industry, and then compared to the actual observed on the following months, aiming at testing the accuracy of the estimate used in the Cost of Capital calculation. This research was based on a previous study, undertaken by Felipe Casotti (2007), which analyzed the operations between 2004 and 2006, with the added benefit of now having a larger sample and a longer record of actual data, enabling more robust analyses and more conclusive results. It is possible to observe that the price of IPOs were not overestimated, as despite the high upsides in the short term, the returns in the long run performed below market average and were very close to the estimated Cost of Capital.

[pt] A precificação das ações emitidas em ofertas públicas iniciais tem sido alvo de estudos em diversos países. Abordando o conceito de avaliação por múltiplos, este trabalho busca verificar se as ações das empresas estavam sub-avaliadas ou super-avaliadas no momento das suas Ofertas Públicas Iniciais (Initial Public Offerings). Posteriormente, são determinados os custos de capital próprio adotados na emissão, verificando-se a diferença entre betas utilizados no modelo CAPM, no momento da IPO, e os betas dos 12 meses após a oferta inicial. Para tal, foi utilizada uma amostra composta por empresas que abriram capital entre 2004 e 2006. Observou-se que as ações não foram sub- avaliadas, mesmo após serem observados elevados retornos iniciais. No entanto, não há evidências estatísticas de que foram super-avaliadas. Por fim, verificou-se que os betas de 12 meses são significativamente maiores do que os betas utilizados no momento da precificação. Como esperado, o modelo CAPM determinou retornos abaixo dos retornos ocorridos após a emissão. / [en] The pricing of assets issued in initial public offerings has been the subject of many studies in several countries. Using the concept of relative valuation, this study intends to verify if the shares of selected companies were undervalued or not at the time of their IPOs (Initial Public Offering). Later, the cost of equity is determined and betas used in the CAPM model, at the time of the IPO, and the betas verified 12 months after the initial issue are compared. The sample is composed of companies with IPOs during the period 2004-2006. The results show that the shares were undervalued, although high initial returns were observed. However, there is no statistical evidence that they are overvalued. Finally, it was found that the betas after 12 months are significantly higher than the ones used at the time of the pricing. As expected, the CAPM model determined returns below the returns that occurred.

Um dos reflexos esperados pela utilização da contabilidade está em uma menor assimetria informacional entre as partes, sendo capaz de afetar a performance econômica das empresas, reduzindo o custo de capital próprio das mesmas (BUSHMAN; SMITH, 2001). À vista disso, ganhos na qualidade da informação emanada pela contabilidade teriam o poder de influenciar o custo do capital próprio, diminuindo-o e elevando a performance das firmas. Com intuito de auferir tais ganhos, foi criado o International Accounting Standards Board - IASB que passou a emitir normas denominadas International Financial Reporting Standards - IFRS que, por sua vez, delimitaram uma série de medidas a serem seguidas, buscando harmonizar as práticas contábeis sob um único pilar. Entretanto, a adoção das IFRS não está desprendida das forças do mercado de capitais e da qualidade do enforcement do país adotante, não havendo uma correlação clara entre a convergência contábil e o acréscimo de qualidade. Consequentemente, o impacto da sua adoção perante a performance econômica e o custo de capital próprio também é divergente. O presente trabalho tem o intuito de avaliar os impactos sobre o custo de capital próprio das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto em função da convergência, averiguando o comportamento da taxa. Ademais, busca-se aplicar quatro metodologias de estimativa do custo de capital próprio: Ohlson Juettner-Nauroth (2005), Easton (2004), Claus e Thomas (2001) e Gebhardt, Lee e Swaminathan (2001) e confrontá-las na avaliação do impacto da adoção do IFRS no Brasil. Os resultados indicam uma redução do custo de capital próprio em três pontos base perante o modelo de Easton (2004), mas resultados não significantes para os modelos de Gebhardt, Lee e Swaminathan (2001) e Ohlson Juettner-Nauroth (2005), sendo o modelo de Claus e Thomas (2001) excluído da análise por dados insuficientes. Tais pontos predizem a necessidade de aprofundamento das pesquisas com modelos de custo implícito e ressalva se a adoção internacional foi realmente eficiente frente aos incentivos e o enforcement vigente no país. / One of the expected consequences when using accounting is a lower information asymmetry between the parties, being able to affect the economic performance of firms, reducing the cost of equity capital of them (BUSHMAN; SMITH, 2001). Thus gains in the quality of the information disclosed by accounting would have the power to influence the cost of equity capital, reducing it and increasing the performance of the firms. With the purpose of obtaining these gains, was created the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) which began issuing accounting standards called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to delimit a range of measures to be followed, seeking to harmonize the accounting practices under one pillar. However, the adoption of IFRS is not detached from the forces of capital markets and of the adopter country enforcement, without a clear correlation between the accounting convergence and the quality increase. Consequently, the impact of its adoption on the economic performance of firms and the cost of equity capital is also divergent. This study aims to evaluate the impact on the cost of equity capital of Brazilian joint-stock companies due to the convergence to IFRS. Furthermore, the present work seek to apply four methods of estimating the cost of equity capital: Ohlson Juettner-Nauroth (2005), Easton (2004), Claus and Thomas (2001) and Gebhardt, Lee and Swaminathan (2001) confronting each one on the analysis of the IFRS adoption impacts in Brazil. The results indicate a reduction of 3 basis points in the cost of equity capital under the framework of Easton (2004), but there are no significant results for the models of Ohlson Juettner-Nauroth (2005), Gebhardt, Lee and Swaminathan (2001), which the Claus and Thomas (2001) model was excluded for enough data. These points predict the need for further development of research on implied cost of capital models and raise the question if international convergence was really efficient given the incentives and the current enforcement in the country.