In the first essay, "Why Won't You Forgive Me? Evidence of a Financial Misreporting Stigma in Bank Loan Pricing," we examine the relation between bank loan pricing and intentional financial misreporting. Firms that misreport financial information pay greater spreads on their bank loans for five years following their restatements, whether benchmarked against their pre-restatement loans or similar loans made to matched non-misreporting firms. Misreporting firms that promptly replace certain parties who are potentially related to the misreporting see their spreads fall to benchmark levels within three years following restatement. Large fractions of firms, however, do not promptly replace the potentially related parties and continue to pay premiums over benchmark spread levels for five years following restatement. The results suggest that misreporting creates a long-lasting and costly stigma, but that certain actions can reduce the duration of the stigma. In the second essay, "Can Shareholder-Creditor Conflicts Explain Weak Governance? Evidence from the Value of Cash Holdings," we look into whether shareholder-creditor conflicts generate costs large enough to prevent improvements in governance. If firms choose to remain weakly governed, some cost must prevent improvements. We address our research question by estimating the value of cash as a function of governance, leverage, and the interaction of the two. We find that governance increases the value of cash, but that leverage reduces the gain from strong governance. However, the magnitudes are far too small to explain why weak governance firms remain weakly governed. Our estimates suggest more than 80 percent of weakly governed firms would increase the value of their cash by improving governance. In fact, half of weakly governed firms would increase the value of their cash holdings by $0.35 or more per dollar held by improving governance. Our focus on cash holdings does not seem to drive our results, nor do endogenous governance choices or nonlinearities reverse our conclusions.

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to reform the corporate governance mechanisms in order to improve the quality of financial reporting and thus, enhance the confidence of investors in the stock market and in the accounting profession. Despite the efforts of the SEC, financial reporting scandals continue with record numbers of financial restatements documented by the General Accounting Office. A financial restatement is a correction of a previously misstated financial statement. There is a small volume of literature examining the effects of corporate governance mechanisms on financial restatements. The results of these studies however, are mixed and possibly explained by their narrow focus and omitted variables that could influence the effectiveness of audit committees. Consequently, this study examines the effects of independent audit committee member characteristics and auditor independence on financial restatements. Specifically, this study investigates the relationship between the likelihood of financial restatements and: (1) the expertise of the independent audit committee members, (2) the expertise and diligence of the independent audit committee members, (3) the reputation of the independent audit committee members, (4) the interaction effect of expertise, diligence and reputation, (5) the tenure of the independent audit committee members, and (6) the cash compensation paid to independent audit committee members. Prior studies have not investigated some of these variables or the interaction effects of independent audit committee member characteristics on financial restatements. This study also investigates the association between auditor independence and financial restatements. The SEC alleges that an increasing number of audit failures are due to the lack of auditor independence. One of the major sources of the lack of auditor independence is the auditor’s economic dependency on the client. The provision of non-audit services increases the financial reliance of the auditor on the client. As a result, the auditor may become reluctant to raise issues with the preparation of the financial statements at the risk of foregoing the lucrative non-audit services fees. The SEC believes that longer audit firm tenure can also impair auditor independence and Section 203 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act suggests periodic audit firm rotation. Therefore, auditor independence was measured as: (1) fees paid to the auditor, and (2) audit firm tenure. Finally, this study extends the prior literature by studying the interaction effects of independent audit committee member characteristics and auditor independence on financial restatements. This interaction effect is important because the external auditor and the audit committee are regarded vital governance mechanisms that interact and exchange dialogue in the performance of their respective oversight of the financial reporting process. Prior research has not investigated this important interaction effect. The sample of the study comprises 69 U.S. publicly listed companies that announced their restatement from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2002. These companies were matched with 69 non-restatement companies based on industry and size. The data for the study is derived from SEC filings such as Form 10-K and DEF 14A, and Compustat. The univariate results show that compared to restatement firms, non-restatement firms generally have effective audit committee characteristics. The audit committees of non-restatement firms have members who are experts, diligent, reputable and appropriately compensated. They also pay lower non-audit services and total fees, and have audit firms with longer tenure. The multivariate results show that after controlling for other governance structures and firm specific non-governance variables, the likelihood of financial restatements is related to independent audit committee member characteristics and auditor independence. Specifically, the likelihood of financial restatements decreases when independent audit committee members are: (1) experts, (2) experts and diligent, (3) reputable, (4) experts, diligent and reputable, and (5) appropriately compensated. The audit committee member tenure variable is insignificant. In relation to the auditor independence variables, the multivariate results show that the likelihood of financial restatements increases when the non-audit services and total fees generated by the client are higher. On the other hand, the likelihood of financial restatements decreases when audit firm tenure is longer. The empirical results of this study suggest that independent audit committees are more effective overseers of the corporate financial reporting and auditing processes when: they comprise majority experts, they meet regularly, their members are reputable, and audit committee members are appropriately compensated. On the other hand, external auditors are not deemed to be effective overseers of the corporate financial reporting process when the non-audit services and total fees generated by the client are higher but are effective when audit firm tenure is long. The results support the SEC’s concerns regarding the provision of non-audit services impairing auditor independence. The results also support the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which under Section 201 prohibits external auditors from providing certain non-audit services to its audit client. Overall, these results support the regulatory efforts to increase the quality of financial reporting by enhancing the corporate governance process related to audit committees and auditor independence. However, the results do not support calls to limit the tenure of the auditor. The results of the multivariate interaction effects suggest that, after controlling for other governance structures and firm specific non-governance variables, when the non-audit services and total fees generated by the client are higher, the likelihood of financial restatements increases under conditions when the audit committee is not effective (a non expert audit committee, an audit committee that does not meet regularly, an audit committee whose members are not reputable or an audit committee that is not appropriately compensated). The implication of this result is that it provides evidence of conditions under which restatements take place. Knowledge of such conditions could aid regulators further improve the financial reporting process and corporate governance. This knowledge will support regulators in revising policies that ensure audit committee members are not only independent but also comprise other critical qualities. These improvements to the audit committee coupled with the existing regulations on the provision of non-audit services suggest a company’s governance will be more effective. Overall, the results extend current knowledge in the sparse but growing literature related to financial restatements and corporate governance, and extend our understanding of the effectiveness and interaction of governance mechanisms in reducing financial restatements.

本研究以財報重編為財報品質之代理變數，探討自由現金流量是否對內部股權結構與財報品質的關係具有調節效果，期望藉助對於自由現金流量調節效果之了解，以利報表閱讀者更適當地解讀財報訊息，瞭解財報之品質。 實證結果顯示，自由現金流量對內部股權結構與財報品質間確實具有顯著的調節效果，尤其是董、監持股率與董事兼任經理人這兩項因素對於財報品質之關係，很受到自由現金流量之影響。自由現金流量本身與財報重編呈顯著負相關，自由現金流量愈高，財報重編的可能性愈低。但自由現金流量所引發的代理問題，反而可能對董、監持股率、董事兼任經理人與財報品質間的關係產生負面的調節效果，即財報重編的可能性顯著提高。但自由現金流量對於經理人持股率與財報品質間的關係不具有顯著的調節效果。 / This study examines whether free cash flow has the moderating effect on the relation between ownership structure and financial reporting quality, using financial restatements as a proxy for financial reporting quality. This study tries to interpret earnings information more appropriately through more understanding on the moderating effect of free cash flow. The study shows that free cash flow exactly has the moderating effect on the relation between ownership structure and financial reporting quality, especially for stocks holding ratio by directors and supervisors and CEO duality. Firms having more free cash flow are less likely to restate statements. However, free cash flow might trigger agency problem, which might having negative moderating effects, causing higher possibilities to restate statements. Otherwise, the finding of this study shows that there is no significantly moderating effect on the relation between managerial ownership and financial reporting quality.

本研究針對國內1996至2003年68筆受證期局強制重編財報事件為研究對象，採個案與實證兼具之研究方法，探討財報強制重編之成因、外顯徵兆與經濟後果。 就財報強制重編之成因而言，本研究發現盈餘管理誘因亦適用於財報強制重編之情形；公司治理機制中控制權與所有權偏離程度的縮小、外部審計品質的提升與關係人交易之透明與簡單化，皆可以降低財報強制重編之機率。就財報強制重編之外顯徵兆，則發現會計師出具無保留以外之意見與損益品質的下降，為公司錯誤報導財務報表之重要指標。就財報強制重編之經濟後果，實證顯示財報強制重編與財務困難間具有顯著的關聯性。此外，本研究並發現財報重編影響的報表數愈多、金額幅度愈大、涉及業外非核心盈餘與投資損益之重編時，公司發生財務困難的可能性將顯著增加。 / This research employs both case study and empirical approaches to investigate the causes, demeanors and economic consequences of a sample of firms that were enforced by the Securities and future Bureau to restate their financial statements over the period of year 1996 to year 2003. The analysis of the causes of mandatory restatements shows that the motivations of earnings management also apply to the context of financial restatements. The firms with smaller deviation of control rights from the cash flow rights, higher audit quality and more transparency in related-party transactions help alleviate the probability of restatements. The results also indicate that unclean audit opinions and decrease in quality of earnings are important demeanors of misstatement of financial statements. In addition, firms are enforced to restate their financial statements are found to be significantly related to the occurrence of financial difficulties in the future. The findings show that the severer the materiality of the restatement in terms of the length of period, dollars, and the nature of the restatements, the higher the possibility of firms will experience financial difficulties.