This thesis examines the relationship between tax-loss selling (TLS), where investors with taxable gains sell stocks that have declined in value just before the fiscal year-end to generate offsetting tax losses, and managers?? incentives to influence stock prices, either through increased disclosure or by engaging in upwards earnings management. Firms whose stock prices represent greater potential tax losses in investors?? portfolios at year-end are predicted to increase their disclosure level in June to prevent further share price falls due to TLS, and have higher levels of accruals. Using the number of discretionary, market-sensitive news releases in the Signal G announcement database to measure disclosure frequency, this thesis finds that, for a sample of 14,713 firm-year observations drawn from all ASX firms for the years 1994 to 2007, stocks with larger negative returns have higher disclosure in June, after controlling for size, performance, risk and external financing dependence. This is particularly true of small mining and exploration companies that are more reliant on voluntary disclosure as a vehicle for lowering information asymmetry. This increased disclosure does not appear to contribute to the higher July returns earned by stocks that experienced significant TLS in June. Disclosure frequency is negatively associated with the magnitude of operating and total accruals, suggesting that earnings management is less likely for firms with higher disclosure. There is also evidence that smaller firms with poor stock price performance have higher levels of operating accruals and thus may be more likely to engage in earnings management.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the concept of discretionary thrift amongst low income consumers. Flatters and Willmott (2009) identified discretionary thrift as an advancing trend amongst affluent developed nation consumers. These consumers temper their spending habits depending on product or occasion; there are certain products for which consumers are willing to pay a premium (behaviour associated with materialism) and there are others that consumers are looking to save money on (behaviour associated with frugality). Thrift for low income consumers, especially in emerging market settings, is not considered discretionary; rather, it is portrayed as ‘necessary’ to ensure survival. This study followed a descriptive, quantitative design and surveyed 154 individuals considered to be at the bottom of South Africa’s income pyramid. There is sufficient evidence from this research to support the proposition of discretionary thrift amongst low income consumers. Low income consumers were found to save money by paying as little as possible (behaviour associated with frugality) for fast moving consumer goods with low functional and status risk and were found to willingly pay the required premium (behaviour associated with materialism) for socially visible aspirational brands of clothing and fast moving consumer goods. The level of frugality and materialism expressed with respect to these products was not influenced by age or level of education. However, the level of frugality expressed with respect to these products was affected by an individual’s gross and disposable income. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / Discretionary effort (DE) is energy over which an individual has control, beyond that which is minimally required by the organization, expended pro-organizationally (to benefit the organization), consistent with organizational goals and requiring both a behavioral as well as a cognitive expenditure by the individual. The major question motivating this study was, "what relationships exist between DE and the previously established measures of organizational commitment (OC), psychological attachment (PA) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)?" A Discretionary Effort Scale (DES) was developed and integrated into a larger, 64-item Workplace Questionnaire (consisting of items from established measurement tools for OC, PA and OCB) and administered to 212 members of three business organizations (using both paper-and-pencil and electronic versions of the Questionnaire). Using principal components analyses, the original 15-item DES was reduced to a 10-item scale loading on two, key factors: In Role DE (IRDE) and Extra Role DE (ERDE). Analysis of results generally supported positive correlations between DE and OC, DE and PA, and DE and OCB. Analyses of relationships between IRDE (and ERDE) and specific components of the other dimensions (OC, PA, OCB) yielded pattems and results consistent with the nature of the constructs. The ve:ry early, rudimentary findings (1983) regarding levels of DE exhibited by workplace members were replicated in this study. The construct of DE does appear to merit further attention as one that may offer researchers and organizational managers opportunity for a better understanding of the relationship between organizational members and their organizations.

Compensation systems are designed by boards of directors to encourage manager performance. Severance packages are intended to provide insurance for the CEO's human value. Frequently, however, severance packages are increased upon termination by boards of directors at will. These non-contractual severance payments are called discretionary severance pay. This study investigates discretionary severance pay at financial institutions surrounding the financial crisis. Financial institutions are of particular interest as they faced unique regulations limiting the amount of severance payable to departing CEOs. There is evidence that the boards of directors engaged in regulatory arbitrage by increasing payments for the consulting and non-compete component of severance pay and decreasing payments for other components of discretionary severance pay.

Background and Objectives: Rumination may contribute to depression by impairing the most effective allocation of time across activities. An experiment tested the role of rumination in time allocation across tasks. Methods: State rumination was manipulated by cueing an unresolved goal in one condition (32 participants) and cueing a resolved goal in another condition (32 participants). Trait rumination and depressive symptoms were also measured. All participants completed two word generation tasks and allocated a fixed overall time budget between the tasks by interleaving between them. Results: No difference was found in task performance or time allocation following the manipulation of state rumination. Self-reported rumination did not differ between conditions throughout the experimental task. Differences in time allocation behaviour were associated with trait rumination. Limitations: Use of a non-clinical population and tasks that are unrepresentative of everyday problem solving limited the generalisability of the results and may have limited the effect of the state rumination manipulation on task performance. Conclusions: The absence of a difference in self-reported rumination throughout the task suggests that either the word generation task reduced levels of rumination or that the level of rumination induced did not have a large effect on the cognitive processes required to complete the word generation task.

Ainda existem muitas controvérsias práticas e acadêmicas sobre o modo adequado de se regular a contabilidade (Cole et al., 2012). Por um lado, autores como Sunder (2009), Schipper (2003) e d\'Arcy (2000) defendem que os padrões mais flexíveis (aqueles baseados em princípios) aumentam a variabilidade do produto final dos relatórios financeiros e como consequência diminuem a sua comparabilidade. Agoglia et al. (2011) e Collins et al. (2012), por outro lado, encontraram evidências empíricas exatamente do contrário, ou seja, os padrões baseados em princípios geraram resultados menos discrepantes, o que poderia sugerir uma maior comparabilidade dos relatórios financeiros. Nesta pesquisa, o objetivo foi avaliar diretamente o impacto de um movimento de flexibilização regulatória contábil sobre a comparabilidade dos relatórios financeiros. O país escolhido para análise foi o Brasil, pois ele foi um dos poucos países no mundo em que houve um processo radical de mudança regulatória de um padrão totalmente baseado em regras com forte vinculo com a contabilidade fiscal (Lopes, 2011) para um padrão baseado em princípios com maior necessidade de julgamento por parte dos gestores que elaboram os relatórios financeiros. Para medir a comparabilidade foi utilizado o modelo de similaridade da função contábil desenvolvido por DeFranco et al. (2011) e outras medidas alternativas para análise de sensibilidade. Para medir o impacto da flexibilização regulatória foram utilizados dois modelos. O primeiro modelo separou o período de transição por ano e comparou os resultados obtidos nos anos 2006 a 2012 individualmente com o período de referência 2004 e 2005. O segundo modelo separou o antes e o depois do impacto da adoção das normas internacionais que ocorreu em 2010. As companhias analisadas foram todas as de capital aberto que apresentaram dados completos para o período analisado e possuíam, no mínimo, uma companhia par dentro do mesmo setor de atividades econômicas. Os resultados obtidos comprovam que, na média, não houve uma diminuição significativa do nível de comparabilidade within-country durante o período de transição regulatória nem com o impacto da adoção do padrão IFRS no Brasil. Pelo contrário, houve um aumento da comparabilidade genuína com a adoção do padrão internacional no Brasil para as companhias analisadas nesta pesquisa. Para as medidas alternativas de comparabilidade, a uniformidade de movimentação do lucro (covariação) foi a única que apresentou variação negativa significativa durante o período de transição. Isto reforça o resultado da pesquisa e mostra que enquanto houve uma diminuição no nível de uniformidade dos relatórios financeiros a comparabilidade não diminuiu, contrariamente, aumentou. A principal conclusão deste trabalho é que aumentar o poder discricionário do gestor por meio da flexibilização dos padrões contábeis não diminui a comparabilidade dos relatórios financeiros. / There are still many practical and academic controversies about the proper way to regulate accounting (Cole et al., 2012). On the one hand, authors like Sunder (2009), Schipper (2003) and d\'Arcy (2000) argue that more flexibility allowed in standards (those based on principles) increases the variability of the end product of financial reporting and as a consequence their comparability is reduced. Agoglia et al. (2011) and Collins et al. (2012), on the other hand, found empirical evidences showing exactly the opposite, standards based on principles generated less variability in accounting outcomes, which could suggest a greater comparability of financial reporting. In this research, the objective was to directly assess the impact of a movement in accounting regulatory easing on the comparability of financial reporting . The country chosen for analysis was Brazil because it was one of the few countries in the world where there has been a radical process of regulatory change of a fully rule-based with a strong bond with the tax accounting (Lopes, 2011) for a standard based on principles with greatest need of judment for managers who prepare financial reports. To measure the level of comparability in financial reports this research choosed the model similarity of accounting function developed by DeFranco et al. (2011). To measure the impact of regulatory flexibility two approaches were used. The first approach separated the transition period by year and compared the results obtained in the years 2006 - 2012 with the reference period of 2004 and 2005. The second approach separated the adoption of IFRS in Brazil in two periods, before and after 2010. The companies surveyed were all public corporations with stocks traded in brazilian\'s stock market that had complete data and had at least one pair within the same company sector of economic activities. The results shows that, on average for the companies analysed in this research, there was no significant decrease in the level of within-country comparability during the regulatory transition in Brazil. They also show that impact of adopting IFRS was positive rather than negative. This fact proves that there was na increase in genuine accounting comparability with the adoption of international standard in Brazil for the companies analyzed in this research. For the alternative measures of comparability, the earnings co-movement was the only one that showed a significant negative change during the transition period. This reinforces the results of this work and shows that while there was a decrease in the level of uniformity of financial reporting, the genuine comparability has not decreased, in contrast, it rose. The main conclusion of this work is: the increase in the discretion of the manager through the flexibility of accounting standards does not reduce the comparability of financial reporting .

A contabilidade brasileira passou por mudanças normativas que deixaram suas demonstrações de acordo com o padrão internacional. Pesquisas realizadas com empresas de capital aberto em vários países do mundo indicam que essa nova norma tende a melhorar a qualidade da informação e deixá-la mais comparável e transparente. Diante disso, o estudo tem como objetivo analisar o impacto da adoção do International Financial Reporting Standard sobre os níveis de gerenciamento de resultados das companhias brasileiras de capital aberto (com exceção das instituições financeiras). A hipótese desenvolvida é de que a nova norma reduz o gerenciamento de resultados nas empresas brasileiras. Os dados foram extraídos das demonstrações contábeis trimestrais dos bancos de dados do Economática e da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários referentes ao período de 2006 a 2011. Para alcançar o objetivo da pesquisa, foi examinada por meio de um modelo proposto a relação entre as variáveis accruals discrionários e a aderência do International Financial Reporting Standard. Na equação, além dessas, foram inseridas as variáveis de controle como o nível de endividamento, o fluxo de caixa operacional, o retorno sobre o ativo e o tamanho da empresa. Para o cálculo dos accruals discricionários foi empregado o Modelo de Jones Modificado. Com base no modelo proposto, foram utilizadas várias técnicas estatísticas e aplicou-se o teste de Kolmogorov-Smirnov para analisar se a amostra possui dados distribuídos normalmente. Em seguida, foi analisada a correlação de Spearman entre as variáveis do modelo proposto e analisada as médias dos accruals, por meio do teste U de Mann-Whitney. Por fim, foi elaborada a análise de regressão com dados dispostos em painel com correção de Newey- West. A correlação e o teste de médias corroboraram a hipótese desenvolvida, porém aregressão não confirmou a hipótese, com significância estatística, de que o novo padrão contábil reduziu o nível de gerenciamento de resultados nas divulgações das demonstrações elaboradas com a adoção das normas IFRS pelas empresas brasileiras de capital aberto. / The Brazilian accounting has undergone regulatory changes that have left their statements according to international standard. Research conducted with publicly traded companies in various countries around the world indicate that this new standard tends to improve the quality of information and make it more comparable and transparent. Thus, the study aims to analyze the impact of adopting International Financial Reporting Standard on the levels of earnings management of Brazilian companies traded (excluding financial institutions). The hypothesis is that the new standard reduces the earnings management in Brazilian companies. Data were extracted from the quarterly financial statements of databases Economática and Comissão de Valores Mobiliários for the period 2006 to 2011. To achieve the objectives of the study was examined by means of a model the relationship between the variables discretionary accruals and International Financial Reporting Standard. In the equation, beyond these, the control variables were entered as the level of debt, the operating cash flow, return on assets and firm size. For the calculation of discretionary accruals, we employed the Modified Jones Model. Based on the proposed model, several statistical techniques were used and applied the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to examine whether the sample has normally distributed data. Next, we analyzed the Spearman correlation between the variables of the model and analyzed the average, by means of the U of Mann-Whitney. Finally, we elaborate regression analysis with data arranged in a panel with Newey-West correction. The correlation and mean test corroborated the hypothesis developed, but the regression did not confirm the hypothesis with statistical significance that the new accounting standard reduced the level of earnings management disclosures in the financial statements prepared with the adoption of IFRS for publicly traded Brazilian companies.

O objetivo geral do presente trabalho é identificar os fatores que explicam o nível de disclosure voluntário de companhias abertas no Brasil. A pesquisa está fundamentada na Teoria do Disclosure Discricionário (VERRECCHIA, 2001), que fornece os subsídios teóricos e analíticos para se verificar em que circunstâncias os gestores e/ou as empresas estariam dispostos a divulgar (ou não) informações de maneira voluntária. A amostra do estudo é composta pelas 100 maiores companhias abertas e não financeiras. A análise do nível de disclosure voluntário das empresas foi realizada a partir das Demonstrações Financeiras Padronizadas (DFPs), dos exercícios findos em 2006, 2007 e 2008 por meio da análise de conteúdo. Para isso, elaborou-se uma métrica, a partir de 27 estudos anteriores, composta por 92 itens de caráter voluntário e dividida em três grandes grupos: econômico (43), social (15) e ambiental (34). Do mesmo modo, as informações acerca das operações com instrumentos financeiros derivativos, também, foram examinadas no mesmo período, com o objetivo de analisar o impacto da Deliberação CVM Nº 566/08 e da Instrução CVM Nº 475/08 no disclosure das empresas. A última parte do trabalho envolveu a elaboração de um modelo de regressão com dados em painel que objetivou testar as hipóteses levantadas na literatura acerca dos fatores que determinam o nível de disclosure voluntário das empresas. A análise exploratória dos dados constatou que existe associação entre o nível de disclosure das empresas e o setor de atuação, conforme o teste Qui-quadrado e a Análise de Correspondência. Com relação ao disclosure de operações com derivativos, constata-se que: (i) o quadro de análise de sensibilidade não foi evidenciado por qualquer empresa em 2006 e 2007, sendo que, em contrapartida, 90% das empresas analisadas o evidenciaram em 2008 e (ii) a maioria das empresas divulgou o valor justo dos seus derivativos, mas não divulgou os critérios de avaliação e mensuração utilizados para cômputo desses valores. Finalmente, no que diz respeito às hipóteses testadas por meio do modelo de regressão com dados em painel, constata-se, ao nível de significância de 90%, que: (i) as variáveis Setor e Origem do Controle são significativas para todos os três modelos de disclosure testados: econômico, socioambiental e total; (ii) a variável Rentabilidade é significativa no modelo de disclosure econômico e no modelo de disclosure total; (iii) a variável Q de Tobin é significativa no modelo de disclosure socioambiental e no modelo de disclosure total; (iv) as variáveis Endividamento e Auditoria são significativas, apenas, no modelo de disclosure econômico e (v) as variáveis Tamanho, Governança, Emissão de Ações, Crescimento e Concentração do Controle não são, estatisticamente, significativas em nenhum dos três modelos de disclosure. / The central objective of this work is to identify the factors that explain the level of voluntary disclosure of Brazilian public companies. The theory underpinning this work is the Discretionary-based Disclosure (VERRECCHIA, 2001), which provides analytical and theoretical support to investigate the circumstances in which managers and/or companies would have incentives to disclose (or not) voluntarily information. Sample is composed by the top 100 largest non-financial public companies. Information has been gathered from Financial Statements for the years ended in 2006, 2007 and 2008 with the use of content analysis. For these, a framework based on 27 studies has been elaborated. This disclosure framework contains a total of 92 voluntary items, divided in three groups: economic (43), social (15) and environmental (34). Information regarding operations with derivatives has also been examined in order to analyze the impact of Deliberation CVM Nº 566/08 and Instruction CVM Nº 475/08 on companys disclosure. Finally, a panel data model has been elaborated in order to test the works hypotheses regarding the factors that determine the level of voluntary disclosure. Exploratory analysis evidenced that there is association between the level of disclosure and industries, according to Qui-square test and Correspondence Analysis. Regarding disclosure of derivative operations, main findings are: (i) the sensitivity analysis table has not been disclosed by any company in 2006 and 2007, but for 90% of companies in 2008; (ii) great majority of company has disclosed the fair value of derivatives, but has not disclosed the criteria for valuing these instruments. Finally, findings, regarding the study´s hypotheses, which have been tested with a panel data model, at a significance level of 90%, have evidence that: (i) Sector and Origin of Control are statically significant in all three models tested: economic, social-environmental, and total;(ii) Profitability is relevant in the economic model and in the total model;(iii) Tobins Q is relevant in the social-environmental model and in the total disclosure model, (iv) Leverage and Auditing Firm are relevant, only, in the economic disclosure model; (v) Size, Governance, Stock Issuing, Growth Opportunities and Concentration of Control are not statistically significant in any of the three models of disclosure.

This study provides evidence between auditors' fees and earnings management in New Zealand. The fee measures used in this study are audit fees, non-audit fees and total fees paid by a client to the audit firm. For each of the three fee measures, I derive client importance fee measures that reflect a client’s economic importance to the auditor relative to other clients of the auditor at the city office and national levels. This study employs both performance adjusted discretionary accruals and current accruals as proxies for earnings management. Using a sample of 224 firm-years comprising firms listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, the results of multivariate tests indicate an adverse association between non-audit fees and earnings management. In other words, non-audit fees paid by a client relative to fees paid by other clients, at the office and national levels, appear to impair the auditor’s independence because clients generating relatively more non-audit fees report greater discretionary and current accruals. Such evidence is more pronounced for income increasing accrual proxies for earnings management. The results also show that audit fee is not related to earnings management. As the results in this study are consistent across both discretionary and current accruals, the validity of the results is strengthened. This study contributes to the literature by providing insight into how auditors’ fee metrics indicating client importance affect earnings management in a legal and institutional environment of a small economy, and where the audit market is largely saturated with little room for growth. This study raises implications for relevant regulatory bodies in New Zealand pertaining to future developments of auditor independence and financial reporting regulations.

This thesis researches to which extent companies use earnings management in times of CEO turnover, which is a continuing, complex and rather complicated issue. Earnings management was tested on different attribute such as: firm industry, firm size, CEO’s age, and the CEO’s origin (internal or external). The data was gathered through a quantitative study based on public companies’ financial reports. The sample includes 252 firms listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm and have been subject of a CEO change at some occasion during 2005-2011. The statistical result from the mixed-model ANOVA tests showed in general significant result of upward earnings management the year of CEO change, but not the following year. While there are many explanations to the findings of how earnings management is used on the Swedish market, the analysis and conclusion elaborate the reason that ought to be the blueprint of reality.