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本研究主要在探討「強制公開制度對財務報表品質的影響」。強制公司公開發行是否有其必要性一直是各界所爭論的議題，藉著研究繼續保持公開發行與撤銷公開發行二類公司盈餘品質之異同，本研究提供證據證明強制公開發行此一政策是否有效。本研究用來衡量盈餘品質之代理變數有盈餘穩健性及避免負盈餘，實證結果顯示在控制規模的影響後，繼續公開發行公司之盈餘穩健性較撤銷公開發行公司為佳。而在避免負盈餘方面，二類公司都有避免負盈餘的傾向，唯二類公司差異並不顯著。本研究之結果顯示，我們無法要求自願公開與受法令規定而公開發行此二類公司有相同的盈餘品質，我期望本研究之結果能做為主管機關在制定相關法令時之參考依據。 / The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of force the company public on the quality of financial report. We provide evidence that the policy of force the company public is effectiveness or not. This study uses earnings conservatism and likelihood of negative earrings benchmark as dependent variables. The results show that, after controlling firm size effect, earnings quality of keeping public firms is better than that of going private firms in earnings conservatism. So it concludes that people are unable to request the two kinds firms to have the same earnings quality, I expects that this finding can be a reference when government legislates the related law.

This thesis investigates the pricing (or mispricing) of earnings quality in Australia. It investigates whether information in earnings quality is used by investors in valuing firms, evidenced by an association between earnings quality and the cost of equity. In the alternate form, the question may be posed as whether earnings quality is mispriced by investors such that there may be opportunities to earn abnormal profits from trading strategies based on earnings quality. Ten earnings quality constructs are studied: total accruals, unexpected accruals, cash-to-profit, accrual quality, persistence, predictability, smoothness, relevance, conservatism and timeliness. In the cost of equity pricing tests, when earnings quality is proxied using one construct (accrual quality), it is found to be associated with the cost of equity. However, when the additional nine constructs are included in the regression models, accrual quality loses statistical significance. Various other constructs are found to be associated with the cost of equity depending on the choice of the cost of equity proxy. In the trading strategy tests, there is some initial evidence of trading strategy opportunities for firms with high quality earnings. However, after deleting outlier observations with annual buy-and-hold returns of greater than 200% the potential for earning abnormal returns from a hedge portfolio strategy disappears. The existence of Australian evidence on the accruals anomaly provides a convenient basis to validate the results of the earnings quality trading strategy tests. Although no clear evidence on the accruals anomaly is found, results are obtained which appear to be consistent with prior Australian evidence of the accruals anomaly, depending on the research design choices made. Overall, the evidence on whether earnings quality is priced or mispriced in Australia is best viewed as inconclusive. It highlights the importance of conducting thorough robustness tests and suggests a need for caution by researchers in making inferences from a narrow set of earnings quality constructs and research design specifications.

This thesis investigates the pricing (or mispricing) of earnings quality in Australia. It investigates whether information in earnings quality is used by investors in valuing firms, evidenced by an association between earnings quality and the cost of equity. In the alternate form, the question may be posed as whether earnings quality is mispriced by investors such that there may be opportunities to earn abnormal profits from trading strategies based on earnings quality. Ten earnings quality constructs are studied: total accruals, unexpected accruals, cash-to-profit, accrual quality, persistence, predictability, smoothness, relevance, conservatism and timeliness. In the cost of equity pricing tests, when earnings quality is proxied using one construct (accrual quality), it is found to be associated with the cost of equity. However, when the additional nine constructs are included in the regression models, accrual quality loses statistical significance. Various other constructs are found to be associated with the cost of equity depending on the choice of the cost of equity proxy. In the trading strategy tests, there is some initial evidence of trading strategy opportunities for firms with high quality earnings. However, after deleting outlier observations with annual buy-and-hold returns of greater than 200% the potential for earning abnormal returns from a hedge portfolio strategy disappears. The existence of Australian evidence on the accruals anomaly provides a convenient basis to validate the results of the earnings quality trading strategy tests. Although no clear evidence on the accruals anomaly is found, results are obtained which appear to be consistent with prior Australian evidence of the accruals anomaly, depending on the research design choices made. Overall, the evidence on whether earnings quality is priced or mispriced in Australia is best viewed as inconclusive. It highlights the importance of conducting thorough robustness tests and suggests a need for caution by researchers in making inferences from a narrow set of earnings quality constructs and research design specifications.

Despite countless efforts to elucidate market participants" understanding of the implications of earnings quality, empirical accounting research has rendered two distinct perspectives. The first perspective considers market participants naïve users of accounting information who fail to grasp the implications of earnings quality resulting in temporary security mispricing. The second perspective suggests that market participants scrutinize earnings reports carefully and subsequently discern and price the quality of earnings. The purpose of my research is to help clarify the ambiguity surrounding market participants" pricing of earnings quality using one clearly observable indicator of low-quality earnings, accounting restatements. This study examines the effect pre-restatement earnings quality has on short-window returns and analyst forecast revisions and dispersion following restatement announcements using a cross-section of 719 publicly traded firms that announced restatements between 1997 and 2004. Accrual and book-tax difference metrics are used to proxy for earnings quality. The metrics are examined separately and collectively to ascertain their individual and incremental effects in modeling the market reaction. Further analyses investigate the effects that various levels of investor sophistication have on the market reaction. Results indicate that the market reaction to restatement announcements is significantly influenced by pre-restatement earnings quality. Specifically, both the accrual and book-tax difference measures of earnings quality are significantly and negatively related to the market reaction. Further analysis indicates the predictive power of the model is improved by including both the accrual and book-tax difference proxies. This finding suggests the information in book-tax differences may provide market participants with signals from which to assess earnings quality that are distinct from those contained in accruals. Basic results for analyst forecast dispersion and revisions are not conclusive. Results of the interactions between each earnings quality proxy and level of investor sophistication are significant only for the accrual based measure of earnings quality. This suggests that sophisticated investors are more attuned to the implication of accrual based measures of earnings quality than book-tax difference measures. / Ph. D.

This study investigates the determinants and effects of voluntary book-tax difference (BTD) disclosures in earnings releases. Unlike prior studies, I find no evidence that managers are more likely to voluntarily disclose BTD information when firms have low earnings quality. I also find that managers are more likely to disclose BTD information when firms have large negative but not large positive BTDs. Because BTDs are particularly informative when earnings quality is low and when book income significantly exceeds taxable income (i.e., large positive BTDs), these results suggest that managers selectively disclose BTD information in earnings releases. Interestingly, I also find that managers are more willing to disclose BTD information when tax avoidance activities are high. This result suggests that managers are willing to bear some taxrelated disclosure costs to reassure investors that BTDs are not due to aggressive financial reporting. Prior research provides evidence of a systematic association between BTDs computed using required 10-K tax disclosures and future forecast errors and stock returns. I provide evidence that voluntary BTD disclosures attenuate the association between BTDs and future forecast errors. I also provide limited evidence that voluntary BTD disclosures attenuate the association between BTDs and future stock returns. These results suggest that voluntary BTD disclosures help analysts and investors impound BTD information into earnings forecasts and stock prices. / text

The high level of political risk might enhance the information asymmetry between managers and stakeholders, therefore leading to increased opportunity for earnings management activities, which depress the usefulness of financial information. On the other hand, times of high political uncertainty possibly increase the demand for information among stakeholders, consequently leading to enhanced scrutiny and fewer earnings management activities. By examine 625 firms listed in the United States between 20022016, I make use of a firm-level measurement of political risk to identify the possible impact on earnings quality. I identify that political risk exposure measured on a firm-level is negatively associated with earnings management. Therefore I can conclude that firm-level political risk increases earnings quality. I further show how firm-level political risk better predicts earnings management activities than an aggregated measurement of political risk. Finally, I provide evidence that suggests that accrual-based earnings management is affected by the past level of political risk exposure. Real earnings management activities show no such indications.

Den här studien undersöker om investerare tar hänsyn till den finansiella informationens kvalitet vid värdering av svenska börsnoterade företag. Tidigare studier har efterfrågat fler empiriska undersökningar av informationen som ingår i de olika teoretiska värderingsmodellerna. Dessa värderingsmodeller skall ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv generera samma värdering men det har visat sig att det inte är så i praktiken. Förklaringen till detta anses dels vara feluppskattningar i prognosvärden och dels vara periodiseringarna – skillnaden mellan kassaflödet och vinsten. Utifrån ett mätningsperspektiv undersöks först vinsternas samt kassaflödenas marknadsvärderelevans och därefter respektive informations kvalitet. Våra resultat visar att informationens kvalitet är relevant för investerare då vinsten har högre marknadsvärderelevans samtidigt som den är av högre kvalitet. Resultaten är robusta för företagsstorlek, branschtillhörighet samt konjunkturförändringar.

Η ευρεία χρήση των λογιστικών πληροφοριών από επενδυτές και οικονομικούς αναλυτές με σκοπό την αξιολόγηση των μετοχών, δημιουργεί ένα κίνητρο για τους μάνατζερ να χειραγωγούν τα κέρδη και να μπορούν έτσι να επηρεάσουν τις βραχυπρόθεσμες επιδόσεις των τιμών των μετοχών αυτών. Παρακινημένη λόγω της αύξησης στις αγορές κεφαλαίου σε διεθνές επίπεδο και την πρόσφατη οικονομική κρίση, η εργασία αυτή εξετάζει το ρόλο της διαχείρισης των κερδών για τον προσδιορισμό του κόστους κεφαλαίου μιας επιχείρησης, τις συνέπειες της ποιότητας των κερδών στην αγορά κεφαλαίων και τις συνθήκες τις οποίες οι αναλυτές πρέπει να εξετάζουν προσεκτικά όσων αφορά τη ποιότητα των κερδών μιας εταιρείας. Επιπλέον, όπως υποστηρίζεται από τη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία, έχει διαπιστωθεί μια σύνδεση μεταξύ της ποιότητας των κερδών και του κόστος του κεφαλαίου, η οποία προϋποθέτει ένα βασικό οικονομικό ρόλο στις αποφάσεις κατανομής των κεφαλαίων (δηλαδή το χρέος και τις επενδύσεις μετοχικού κεφαλαίου) για την χρηματοοικονομική πληροφόρηση. Εξετάζοντας το θέμα από τη σκοπιά ενός οικονομικού αναλυτή και ενός επενδυτή , κύριος στόχος μου είναι ο ακριβής προσδιορισμός των κερδών, τα οποία θεωρούνται και ως συνοπτικός δείκτης της συνολικής ποιότητας της χρηματοοικονομικής πληροφόρησης. Τέλος, η πρόθεση μου στη συζήτηση της έρευνας που αξιολογεί τις επιπτώσεις της ποιότητας των κερδών στην αγορά κεφαλαίων αποσκοπεί στο να οδηγήσει κάποιον σε περαιτέρω έρευνα σε αυτόν τον τομέα αλλά και να ενθαρρύνει την έρευνα για συναφή θέματα, όπως για παράδειγμα, το ρόλο της ποιότητας των κερδών στη σύναψη συμβάσεων και τη διαχείριση. / The widespread use of accounting information by investors and financial analysts to help value stocks creates an incentive for managers to manipulate earnings in an attempt to influence short-term stock price performance. Motivated due to the growth in debt markets internationally and the recent debt crisis, this paper examines the role of earnings management in the determination of a firm’s cost of capital, capital market consequences of earnings quality and circumstances analysts need to look carefully at a company’s earnings quality. Furthermore, as argued by the international literature, is analysed and discussed a link between earnings quality and cost of capital, which implies a basic economic role in capital allocation decisions (i.e. debt and equity investments) for accounting information. Since I adopt a financial analyst & investor perspective, my main focus is on the precision of earnings, which is viewed as a summary indicator of the overall quality of financial reporting. Finally, my intent in discussing research that evaluates the capital market effects of earnings quality is both to stimulate further research in this area and to encourage research on related topics, including for example, the role of earnings quality in contracting and stewardship.

The objective of this research is to test the expensing of stock options as part of CEO compensation to earnings quality. Agency theory posits a conflict between the CEO's own self-interest and that of the owners who seek to maximize the long term value of their investment. To avoid this conflict compensation should align and bond these parties. Data was retrieved from Compustat, ExecuComp and Corporate Governance databases spanning the years of 2000 through 2009. The Dechow and Dichev (2002) earnings quality model using the change in working capital and error terms taken as the residuals was utilized. All hypotheses used earnings quality as a proxy for management choices and as the predictive power of accruals. The first hypothesis indicated granting of CEO stock options has a positive association to earnings quality. The second hypothesis tests the implementation of SFAS 123 (R) by expensing stock options and the association to earnings quality. The third and final hypothesis utilized the number of BOD members as to compare the association between expensing stock options as part of CEO compensation and earnings quality. Empirical support for all three hypotheses was found and consistent with expectations established by other research using earnings quality methodologies. Both the granting and expensing of stock options as part of CEO compensation has an association to earnings quality. There exists a stronger association between expensing stock options and earnings quality when firms have a larger number of BOD members. Support for agency theory was discovered because all three hypotheses were supported. This study was limited to U.S. firms that were publicly traded on major U.S. exchanges and only CEO compensation. Other executive compensation was not included. These limitations provide opportunities for future research. Knowledge was gained by exploring the earnings quality measures for evidence of bonding and alignment theory. This study extends the research in earnings quality by examining the relationship of granting and expensing of stock options as per SFAS 123 (R). It also contributes to the work in SFAS 123 (R) by testing four years before and after 2005, when implementation occurred.