This study investigates whether disclosures of material weaknesses in a firm’s internal control over financial reporting are associated with lower investor perceived earnings quality. I measure investor perceived earnings quality by a market returns based representation of earnings quality called e-loading developed by Ecker et al. (2006). My empirical tests use sample firms that disclosed at least one material weakness from August 2002 to October 2005. The cross-sectional univariate analysis shows that firms disclosing internal control material weaknesses have lower investor perceived earnings quality than matched firms that disclose no internal control problems. However, further cross-sectional multivariate regression analysis reveals that after controlling for firm characteristics, only disclosures of company-level material weaknesses have an incremental impact on investor perceived earnings quality, while disclosures of the less pervasive account-specific material weaknesses do not have a measurable effect on perceived earnings quality. From intertemporal within-firm analysis, I find no evidence that firms experienced a change in their perceived earnings quality after their first disclosure of internal control material weaknesses as per SOX 302 or 404. In contrast, I find that firms experienced an increase in perceived earnings quality after they received their first unqualified SOX 404 audit report indicating remediation of previously disclosed material weaknesses. This suggests that, although investors did not find the initial SOX disclosures of internal control weaknesses to be incrementally informative, the legislation motivated firms to remediate weak controls; moreover, the SOX-induced improvement in weak internal controls enhanced investors’ perception of the offending firms’ financial reporting quality. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2009-12-17 11:41:11.323

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the new Financial Fair Play regulations set forth by the United European Football Association (UEFA) in 2011 on levels of earnings management in European professional football. The Financial Fair Play regulations were imposed as a means of controlling the exorbitant amounts of debt and player’s wages that have threatened the financial stability of many professional football clubs throughout Europe. While UEFA has boasted early success of the new regulations, citing reduced aggregate losses of all football clubs, reduced overdue payables, and less outstanding debt, this study examines levels of discretionary accruals before and after the new regulations were instated to determine if teams are managing earnings to avoid UEFA sanctions. This study collected data from 137 different teams competing in UEFA competition from 2007 to 2013. Discretionary accruals were estimated using the Jones model (1991) as modified by Kothari et al. (2005). The findings of this study were largely inconclusive as a significant difference could not be found in levels of abnormal discretionary accruals before and after the introduction of Financial Fair Play. These findings may suggest that UEFA has succeeded in creating regulations that have curbed an era of extreme leveraging and club losses while simultaneously restricting additional opportunities for club owners to manage earnings that reduce both earnings quality and financial transparency. Overall, the findings from this study highlight the need for more widely available financial information from European football clubs and additional years of financial data under the new regulations.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how capital markets interpret accounting disclosure. In three empirical studies, I evaluate the role that accounting disclosure plays in evaluating financial prospects and facilitating pricing decisions. The present thesis contains three essays that analyze the market response to changes in accounting disclosure. I examine the relationship between financial disclosure and stock market reaction in three event studies, after: (1) a company's inclusion in the S&P 500 index (in Chapter 1), (2) the introduction of international accounting standards (IFRS) in Europe (in Chapter 2), and (3) cross-listing of a Canadian company on the US stock exchange (in Chapter 3). / El objetivo de esta tesis es analizar cómo los mercados de capital interpretan la información contable. En tres estudios empíricos, la tesis evalúa el papel que desempeñan los datos contables en la evaluación de las perspectivas financieras y en las decisiones de inversión. La presente tesis contiene tres ensayos que analizan la respuesta del mercado a los cambios en la calidad de información de los datos contables. En particular, la relación entre información financiera y la reacción del mercado de valores esta evaluada en tres diferentes contextos: (1) la inclusión de una empresa en el índice S & P 500 (en el capítulo 1), (2) la introducción de normas internacionales de contabilidad (NIIF) en Europa (en el capítulo 2), y (3) la admisión a cotización de una empresa canadiense en los mercados financieros de EE.UU. (en el capítulo 3).

Je développe ici une nouvelle évaluation de la qualité de la fonction d'audit interne (FAI) basée sur des données d'entrée et j'examine les facteurs qui poussent les entreprises à mettre en place une FAI de haute qualité ainsi que les conséquences économiques d'une FAI de haute qualité. Afin de rendre opérationnelle mon analyse empirique, je crée un échantillon d'archivage de FAI international unique en associant une enquête d'auditeur interne menée au niveau international intitulée CBOK 2010 à des données publiques présentes dans la base de données Worldscope. En me basant sur les Normes Internationales pour la Pratique Professionnelle d'Audit Interne proposées par l'Institut des Auditeurs Internes, je mesure la qualité de la FAI en fonction des attributs et des pratiques de FAI souhaitables qui prennent en compte la compétence (1), l'indépendance (2), les pratiques de reporting et de planification (3), et les pratiques d'amélioration et de vérification de la qualité (4) de la FAI. En ce qui concerne les facteurs décisifs de la qualité de la FAI, je constate que la qualité de la FAI est affectée par les cadres opérationnels et les caractéristiques d'autres mécanismes de gouvernance des entreprises y compris les mesures incitatives de supervision du conseil d'administration, la diligence du comité d'audit et les pouvoirs du PDG. En outre, les mesures incitatives des entreprises destinées à une FAI de haute qualité sont renforcées par les exigences strictes et détaillées en matière de FAI présentes dans les codes de gouvernance d'entreprise des pays. Enfin, je documente le fait que d'autres mécanismes de gouvernance, en particulier les mesures incitatives de supervision des directeurs, jouent un plus grand rôle pour influencer la qualité de la FAI lorsque le cadre réglementaire dans son ensemble est fragile. En ce qui concerne les conséquences économiques d'une FAI de haute qualité, j'aborde le rôle que joue la FAI pour fournir des services de vérification en matière de reporting financier et je constate que la qualité de la FAI est associée de manière positive à la qualité des revenus. En prenant en compte l'implication croissante de la FAI dans la gestion du risque et les initiatives stratégiques, qui a pour conséquence le fait que la FAI joue un rôle accru pour fournir des services de consulting appropriés aux opérations des entreprises, je fournis en outre les preuves qu'une FAI de haute qualité est importante pour la performance opérationnelle des entreprises. Je documente de manière spécifique le fait que la vitesse de reprise de la performance opérationnelle suite à la crise financière récente est considérablement plus rapide pour les entreprises qui bénéficient d'une FAI de haute qualité que pour les entreprises dont la FAI est de mauvaise qualité, et que la qualité de la FAI est associée de manière positive à la bonne capacité d'investissement des entreprises au cours de la période post-crise financière. De plus, je constate que le degré d'implication de la FAI dans les activités de consulting stratégique a un effet positif incrémentiel sur la reprise de la performance, ce qui suggère que fournir des services de consulting est une façon importante pour la FAI de procurer de la valeur aux entreprises. Les bénéfices d'une telle expansion des activités de consulting ont cependant un coût pour les entreprises dont la FAI est de mauvaise qualité, car je constate que l'implication de la FAI dans le consulting stratégique peut nuire au rôle que joue la FAI pour fournir des services de vérification et par conséquent affecter de manière négative la qualité des revenus lorsque la qualité de la FAI est mauvaise mais non pas lorsque la qualité de la FAI est bonne. De manière générale, ces constatations suggèrent que si l'on s'attend à ce que la FAI procure de la valeur aux entreprises en fournissant à la fois des services de vérification et de consulting, il est alors essentiel de maintenir un niveau de qualité de FAI adéquat. / I develop a new input-based measure of internal audit function (IAF) quality and investigate the factors that incentivize firms to establish a high-quality IAF as well as the economic consequences of a high-quality IAF. To operationalize my empirical analysis, I construct a unique, international archival IAF sample by matching a proprietary global internal auditor survey named CBOK 2010 with public data in the Worldscope database. Based on the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing proposed by the Institute of Internal Auditors, I measure IAF quality by desirable IAF attributes and practices which encompass the IAF’s (1) competence, (2) independence, (3) planning and reporting practices, and (4) quality assurance and improvement practices. Regarding the determinants of IAF quality, I find that the IAF quality is affected by firms’ operating environments and features of other governance mechanisms including board monitoring incentives, audit committee diligence, and CEO power. Moreover, firms’ incentives for a high-quality IAF are bolstered by strict and detailed IAF requirements in countries’ corporate governance codes. Finally, I document that other governance mechanisms, especially the monitoring incentives of directors, play a greater role in influencing the IAF quality when the overall regulatory environment is weak. Regarding the economic consequences of a high-quality IAF, I first address the role of IAF in providing assurance services in financial reporting and find that IAF quality is positively associated with earnings quality. Considering the increasing involvement of IAF in risk management and strategic initiatives, which leads to an expanded role of IAF in providing consulting services relevant to firms’ operations, I further provide evidence supporting that a high-quality IAF matters for firms’ operating performance. Specifically, I document that the speed of operating performance recovery after the recent financial crisis is significantly quicker for firms with a high-quality IAF than for firms with a low-quality IAF, and that the IAF quality is positively associated with firms’ investment efficiency in the post-financial-crisis period. In addition, I find that the extent to which the IAF is involved in strategic consulting activities has an incremental positive effect on performance recovery, which suggests that providing consulting services is an important way for the IAF to deliver value to firms. However, the benefits from such an expansion of consulting activities comes at a cost in firms with a low-quality IAF, as I find that the IAF’s involvement in strategic consulting can impair the IAF’s role in providing assurance services and hence negatively affects earnings quality when the IAF quality is low but not when the IAF quality is high. Overall, the findings suggest that if the IAF is expected to deliver value to firms by providing both assurance and consulting services, maintaining an appropriate level of IAF quality is essential.

x, 65 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / I examine the relation between book-tax differences (BTDs) and earnings growth. Because financial accounting rules afford managers more flexibility and discretion in reporting than tax accounting rules, prior studies suggest that large differences between book and taxable income indicate lower quality (or less persistent) earnings. Lev and Nissim and Hanlon provide evidence that BTDs contain information about future firm performance, but the nature of the causality in this relation is not clear. While BTDs could proxy for earnings quality, they may also reveal underlying economic events or management's private information about future performance or simply predict future reversals in effective tax rates. I divide total BTDs into their measurable components: temporary (deferred taxes) and non-temporary (permanent differences and tax accruals), and test their relation with the components of net income changes: pretax earnings changes and tax expense changes. I hypothesize that the non-temporary component of BTDs is negatively related to future changes in tax expense, whereas the temporary component of BTDs is negatively related to changes in future pretax earnings. I also examine the maintained hypothesis that the lower earnings growth for large BTD firms is due to earnings management. I use various proxies from prior literature to identify firms potentially managing earnings and test whether the presence or absence of suspected earnings management activity alters the relation between BTDs and earnings changes. My results provide compelling evidence that permanent BTDs are related only to future changes in tax expense, and temporary BTDs are related to changes in pretax earnings. These results are robust to multiple sensitivity analyses, including a replication of the sample and methodology of Lev and Nissim. The results also hold in the case of firms not suspected of earnings management. In fact, 1 find only limited evidence that the results are stronger in the presence of earnings management. Overall, my study suggests that it is only the temporary component of BTDs that is related to future firm performance, with non-temporary differences being related to future tax expense changes, and that these results are primarily due to underlying economic factors, not earnings management. / Committee in charge: David Guenther, Chairperson, Accounting; Steven Matsunaga, Member, Accounting; Linda Krull, Member, Accounting; Glen Waddell, Outside Member, Economics

O propósito do presente estudo foi investigar a relação entre qualidade das informações contábeis, restrição financeira e decisões de investimentos na América Latina. Para isso analisou-se uma amostra com 10.318 observações de 958 empresas não financeiras de capital aberto, oriundas de sete diferentes países, entre os períodos de 1992 a 2009. Com o uso do modelo probabilístico Logit estimou-se o impacto da qualidade dos lucros na probabilidade das firmas apresentarem superinvestimentos, subinvestimentos ou restrição financeira. Em seguida, utilizando o método dos momentos generalizados (GMM) e uma adaptação do modelo acelerador de investimentos, estimaram-se os determinantes dos investimentos. Os resultados indicam que uma pior qualidade nos lucros possa reduzir a probabilidade de decisões eficientes de investimentos e aumentar a possibilidade de subinvestimentos. Verificou-se haver indícios de que a pior qualidade nos lucros possa exacerbar os problemas causados pelo conflito de interesses entre os tomadores de decisões e os investidores das firmas latino-americanas, pois a baixa qualidade nos lucros mostrou-se positivamente associada às taxas de investimentos das firmas com superinvestimentos e negativamente relacionada às taxas de investimentos das firmas com subinvestimentos. Por fim, os resultados indicam que a qualidade dos lucros afeta a sensibilidade dos investimentos ao caixa das firmas que estejam em situação de restrição financeira. Assim, conclui-se que a qualidade das informações financeiras, como ferramenta para redução de assimetria de informações, pode impactar as decisões de investimentos das empresas da América Latina. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among accruals quality, financial constraint and investment decisions in Latin America. For this, it was analyzed a sample with 10,318 observations of 958 non-financial companies from seven different countries, between 1992 to 2009. Using the probabilistic model Logit it was estimated the impact of earnings quality on the probability of overinvestment, underinvestment and financial constraints. Then, using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and an adaptation of the accelerator model of investment, it was estimated the investment determinants. The results indicate that a poor accruals quality can reduce the probability of efficient investment decisions and increase the possibility of underinvestment. The results show that poor accruals quality could exacerbate the problems caused by the conflict of interest between decision-makers and investors from Latin American firms, because poor accruals quality was positively associated with investment rates for firms with overinvestment and negatively related to firms investment for firms with underinvestment. Finally, the results indicate that the accruals quality affects the investment-cash flow sensitivities for firms in financial constraint situation. Thus, we concluded that quality of financial information, as a tool to reduce information asymmetries, might affect the investment decisions in Latin America.

Esta pesquisa investiga se os resultados contábeis de empresas publicados no Brasil apresentam reconhecimento tempestivo e assimétrico de perdas econômicas na ocorrência de sinais contemporâneos de mau desempenho, atributo de conservadorismo condicional. Através da análise de dados balanceados em painel, efetuaram-se regressões multivariadas utilizando os Modelos de Componentes Transitórios nos Lucros, de Apropriações Contábeis e Fluxos de Caixa, de Apropriações Discricionárias e modelos correlatos. Foram examinados os números contábeis de amostra de 110 Companhias de Capital Aberto e de 2.700 Companhias de Capital Fechado, coletada junto à SERASA, compreendendo o período de 1995 a 2004, abrangendo cerca de 20.000 demonstrações contábeis de sociedades por ações brasileiras. A tese de que os lucros publicados por essas empresas não contêm o atributo do conservadorismo condicional ? as empresas brasileiras não antecipam oportunamente o registro de perdas econômicas ? não pôde ser rejeitada aos níveis usuais de significância estatística. Adicionalmente, foram caracterizados, estatisticamente, evidências de gerenciamento de resultados contábeis, o que distingue o comportamento preponderantemente oportunista dos gestores responsáveis pela divulgação dos agregados contábeis. Ademais, tal característica assinala a baixa eficiência informacional das demonstrações contábeis em sua função de servir como suporte para a elaboração e o monitoramento de contratos entre as firmas e seus públicos de interesse. As companhias de capital fechado não apresentaram ? também com significância estatística ? diferenças relevantes na qualidade informacional de seus relatórios em relação às suas congêneres de capital aberto. Os resultados da pesquisa sugerem que condições institucionais locais ligadas às formas contratuais adotadas pelas firmas brasileiras não incentivam economicamente a demanda de informações contábeis publicadas para o monitoramento ex-post dos contratos com as empresas pesquisadas. Enfim, a ausência dos atributos dos relatórios contábeis aqui estudados conduz à ilação de que não são publicados com a intenção de reduzir a assimetria informacional existente entre agentes associados às firmas e os gestores destas. Ao contrário, pode-se aduzir que o comportamento observado busca preservar benefícios privados do controle das empresas para os gestores, não se constatando a presença de eficiência informacional nos relatórios contábeis pesquisados. / This research project examines whether the published numbers in the financial reports in Brazil present an asymmetric and timely recognition of economic losses upon occurrence of contemporary signs of a poor performance, which is an attribute of conditional conservatism. Through the analysis of balanced panel data, multivariate regressions were made using the Earnings Transitory Components, Accrual Accounting and Cash Flows and Discretionary Accrual Models and other correlative models. Financial reports of a sample of 110 public companies and 2,700 private companies were examined. These financial reports, encompassing about 20,000 financial statements of Brazilian corporations, were obtained from SERASA and covered the period 1995-2004. The thesis that the published profits by these companies do not contain the conditional conservatism attribute? the Brazilian companies do not timely anticipate economic losses? could not be rejected considering the usual levels of statistical significance. Moreover, evidence of earnings management have been statistically characterized, which points out a preponderantly opportunist behavior from the managers in charge of disclosing accounting numbers. Furthermore, such feature indicates poor informational efficiency of the accounting statements when used as a supporting tool for the preparation and monitoring of contracts between companies and their stakeholders. The closely-held companies did not show-- also with statistical significance-- relevant differences in the informational quality of their reports compared to other publiclyheld companies of similar nature. The results from the research suggest that local institutional conditions associated with contractual arrangements adopted by Brazilian companies do not economically encourage a demand for published accounting information for the ex-post monitoring of contracts with the researched companies. Finally, the absence of these accounting reports? attributes leads us to the conclusion that they are not published with the purpose of reducing informational asymmetry between agents associated with those companies and their managers. Otherwise, it can be inferred that this behavior aims to preserve the managers? private benefits of company?s control, not being observed informational efficiency in the researched financial reports.

This thesis examines the effect government ownership has on the relationship between fair value accounting and earnings quality when “mark-to-model” techniques are used in fair value estimations. To this end we compare 36 real estate companies controlled by private interests with 32 real estate companies controlled by the state and municipal governments in Sweden. We find that the relationship between fair value accounting exposure and aggregated earnings quality is negatively affected by government ownership when unobservable inputs are used in the fair value estimation. Previous research treats government ownership simply as having a first order relationship with earnings quality. Our results indicate determinants of earnings quality can affect one another, and that these effects should be considered.

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