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.

An increasing number of people in Sweden and in the rest of the world are becoming more interested in the mutual fund sector. Investments in mutual funds have grown rapidly these past few years. Nilsson (2004) wrote that 85 percent of the Swedish population invested in mutual funds in 2004. The Swedish Investment Fund Association also found an increase in investments in mutual funds; 83 billion Swedish crowns were invested in mutual funds in 2005, an increase from 56 billion in 2004. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether or not there is a relationship between low fee, middle fee, and high fee charging Swedish Equity funds and their respective performance (unadjusted and risk-adjusted returns). The Modigliani & Modigliani (1997) risk-adjusted performance measurement was used to calculate the risk-adjusted performance of the 130 mutual funds. And the linear regression was used to analyze whether or not there was a relationship between the variables (management fee vs. returns/risk-adjusted returns). The mutual funds were also divided into three different categories, based on their management fees; low, middle and high fee mutual funds. The analysis illustrated that there was no clear relationship between the management fee and the returns/risk-adjusted returns. There was some connection found between the management fee and the low, middle fee category. However, this research confirms that investors should not believe that a mutual fund which charges higher fees necessarily generate higher returns.

Stereotypes in captive elephants is a widespread issue. Ways to tackle this is with social and feedenrichment among others. The aim of this study was to investigate if extra feed supply wouldaffect stereotypic behaviour in Asian elephants held in captivity. Three elephant cows wereprovided with extra feed and recorded during the night and morning. The results showed asignificant decrease in stereotypic behavior for one of the elephants, from 31% to 9,5% (P =0,003). While the second elephant did not engage in stereotypic behaviour, the third elephantshowed the same frequency of stereotypic behavior, 9%, during both baseline and treatment. Thethird elephant did increase her foraging significantly, from 31% to 54% (P = 0,02). Waken timespent foraging increased for all three elephants to 64-80% which is in the same range as in wildAsian elephants. Additional enrichment in the form of extra feed supply can be used both todecrease stereotypic behaviours and to increase foraging.

Pricing strategies (e.g. yield management) in the tourism industry, known as non-transparent pricing, have raised fairness issues, and more recently, new pricing schemes in the airline industry have been controversial issues in terms of price fairness. Nonetheless, few tourism researchers have studied price fairness from a consumer perspective. Thus, an understanding of the cognitive processes associated with perceived price fairness could have far-reaching implications for tourist behavior research. The purpose of this study was to examine the antecedents and consequences of tourists‟ perceived price fairness of the ancillary revenue (i.e. extra fees of airlines). In particular, a conceptual model was based on Weiner's (1980) attribution theory, which was expected to complement shortcomings of the traditional dual entitlement principle (Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler, 1986). Following the study purpose, four objectives of the study were established: (1) to examine the dimensionality of price fairness in a price change context; (2) to examine the antecedents of price fairness; (3) to examine the consequences of price fairness; and (4) to compare differences in the price fairness model between high and low price sensitivity groups. To achieve the study objectives, this study developed a conceptual model of price fairness with three antecedents (price comparison, cognitive attribution, and emotional response) and four consequences (behavioral loyalty, willingness to pay, complaining, and revenge), and determined the model that best predicted the hypothesized model using Structural Equation Modeling. Data were collected from an online survey and the respondents (n=524) were leisure travel passengers in the United States who had taken domestic flights in the past 12 months. The initial model fit the data well from a global perspective, yet, some hypotheses were not supported. Results suggested that price comparison evaluation and cognitive attribution are antecedents to price fairness, but emotional response was found to be influenced by price fairness as opposed to what was hypothesized. It was also revealed that while price fairness directly influenced favorable behavioral intentions (e.g. behavioral loyalty and willingness to pay more), it also influenced unfavorable behavioral intentions (e.g. revenge and complaining behavior), mediated by negative emotional response. The revised model was alternatively proposed. In addition, significant differences in price fairness, emotional response, willingness to pay more, and revenge intention between high and low price sensitivity groups were found. Results of this study provide potentially important direction for the development of a theoretical framework for the conceptualization of antecedents and consequences of price fairness in a tourism context. It is further expected that findings of this study from an attributional perspective provide managerial guidance for the utilization of marketing strategy when a company encounters inevitable price increases or extra fees.

<p>An increasing number of people in Sweden and in the rest of the world are becoming more interested in the mutual fund sector. Investments in mutual funds have grown rapidly these past few years. Nilsson (2004) wrote that 85 percent of the Swedish population invested in mutual funds in 2004. The Swedish Investment Fund Association also found an increase in investments in mutual funds; 83 billion Swedish crowns were invested in mutual funds in 2005, an increase from 56 billion in 2004.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether or not there is a relationship between low fee, middle fee, and high fee charging Swedish Equity funds and their respective performance (unadjusted and risk-adjusted returns). The Modigliani & Modigliani (1997) risk-adjusted performance measurement was used to calculate the risk-adjusted performance of the 130 mutual funds. And the linear regression was used to analyze whether or not there was a relationship between the variables (management fee vs. returns/risk-adjusted returns). The mutual funds were also divided into three different categories, based on their management fees; low, middle and high fee mutual funds.</p><p>The analysis illustrated that there was no clear relationship between the management fee and the returns/risk-adjusted returns. There was some connection found between the management fee and the low, middle fee category. However, this research confirms that investors should not believe that a mutual fund which charges higher fees necessarily generate higher returns.</p>

No Abstract available. / Thesis (M.Pub.Admin.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

This study investigates whether auditors respond to earnings management pressure created by analyst forecasts. Analyst forecasts create an important earnings target for management, and professional standards direct auditors to consider how this pressure could affect their clients. Using annual analyst forecasts available during the planning phase of the audit, I examine whether this form of earnings management pressure affects clients’ financial statement misstatements. Next, I investigate whether auditors respond to earnings forecast pressure through audit fees and reporting delay. I find that higher levels of analyst forecast pressure increase the likelihood of client restatement. I also find that auditors charge higher audit fees and delay the issuance of the audit report in response to pressure from analyst expectations. Finally, I find that when audit clients are subject to high analyst forecast pressure, a high audit fee response by auditors mitigates the likelihood of client misstatements.

The following thesis deals with three current legal issues regarding airports. / In the first chapter the development of airport ownership and management structures will be studied. Although in most cases airports are still owned and managed by governments or local bodies, since the 1960s, new approaches to ownership and management have come into practise. This phenomenon is studied from the perspective of its impact upon public air law. / The second chapter deals with airport charges and their international legal framework. After examining the different forms of airport charges and the recommendations enacted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the author will be led to the conclusion that the current legal regime is unsatisfactory and that the most appropriate solution to this would be to incorporate the principles formulated by ICAO in an Annex to the Chicago Convention. / The third and final chapter is devoted to the study of a legal dispute between Switzerland and Germany with respect to the approach paths to Zurich airport through German airspace. It is concluded that the unilateral legal measures taken by the German government are, with one exception, in conformity with international law.

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.

Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 1998. / This is an electronic reproduction of TREN, #029-0440. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-65).