This paper offers an empirical analysis of net job creation patterns at the firm level for the Austrian economy between 1993 and 2013 focusing on the impact of firm size and age. We propose a new estimation strategy based on a two-part model. This allows to identify the structural parameters of interest and to decompose behavioral differences between exiting and surviving firms. Our findings suggest that conditional on survival, young Austrian firms experience the largest net job creation rates. Differences in firm size are not able to explain variation in net job creation rates among the group of continuing enterprises. Job destruction induced by market exit, however, is largest among the young and small firms with this effect being even more pronounced during the times of the Great Recession. In order to formulate sensible policy recommendations, a separate treatment of continuing versus exiting firms as proposed by the new two-part model estimation approach seems crucial.(authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Purpose: Examine the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and financial performance in Swedish publicly traded companies in the years 2006-2009. Hypothesis: H1: There is a positive linear relationship between a company's CSR performance and its accounting based financial performance (represented by ROA). H2: There is a positive linear relationship between a company's CSR performance and its market based financial evaluation (represented by Tobin's Q) H3: Industry moderates the relationship between CSR and financial performance. H4: Firm size moderates the relationship between CSR and financial performance. Theoretical framework: CSR and previous research. Methodology: Longitudinal study, Secondary analysis.  Conclusion: Hypothesis 1 may be rejected. Hypothesis 2 may be rejected. Hypothesis 3 may be rejected. Hypothesis 4 may be rejected. / Syfte: Undersöka relationen mellan företags sociala ansvar och dess finansiella resultat på Svenska börsnoterade företag under åren 2006-2009. Hypoteser: H1: Det är ett positivt linjärt samband mellan ett företags CSR utförande och dess bokföring baserad på finansiella resultat (representerad av ROA). H2: Det är ett positivt linjärt samband mellan ett företags CSR utförande och dess markandsbaserad finansiella värdering (representerad av Tobin's Q). H3: Industri modererar relationen mellan CSR och finasiellt resultat. H4: Företagsstorlek modererar relationen mellan CSR och finansiellt resultat. Teoretiskt ramverk: CSR och tidigare forskning. Metod: Longitudinell studie, Sekundär analys. Slutsats: Hypotes 1 kan avvisas. Hypotes 2 kan avvisas. Hypotes 3 kan avvisas. Hypotes 4 kan avvisas.

This thesis deals with the problems of optimal grading, employee performance evaluation by unaccountable managers, and the evolution of inequity-averse preferences. The purpose is to explain certain stylized facts related to these problems, and this is attempted with the help of contract-theoretic models. Chapter 1 of this thesis studies a teacher-student relationship as a principal-agent model with a costless reward structure. The model shows that the stylized fact of a mismatch and low correlation between students' abilities and their grades can be the expected-effort-maximizing outcome of teachers' optimal grading. Chapter 2 presents a three-tier model of a firm's economic organization, which is centered on the observation that managers do not fully internalize the payroll expenses they incur. With the idea that the degree of manager accountability varies inversely with firm size, the model predicts that the compression of ratings, the large-firm wage premium, and the inverse relationship between wage dispersion and firm size can actually be equilibrium outcomes. The last chapter presents an evolutionary argument for the endogeneity of people's preferences with respect to market exposure. It shows that aversion to income inequality observed empirically could have evolved as an optimal response to merchants' price discrimination. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2009</p>

There are various factors effecting females' wage level such as marital status, occupation, education, and experience. This paper also includes firm size and answers the questions: What effect does firm size have on female earnings? Is that effect different for black than white females?

Träffsäkerheten på Going Concern-varningar (GC-varningar) internationellt sett är låg, 40 procent, men enligt tidigare studier är den lägre i Sverige, under 20 procent. De fyra största revisionsbyråerna i världen, Big four, marknadsför sig med sin branschkännedom och flera studier pekar på att de har högre revisionskvalité än mindre byråer. Samtidigt finns det studier som visar att det inte finns någon skillnad på kvalitén mellan de fyra största och de mindre byråerna. Syftet med denna studie är att pröva om stora byråer har högre kvalité än medelstora och små byråer och om det finns skillnader mellan de enskilda byråerna inom respektive storlekskategori. Revisionskvalité mäter vi i form av GC-varningar och anmärkningar på finansiell stress (eget kapital understiger hälften av aktiekapitalet). Studien är kvantitativ och våra data omfattar 4718 aktiebolag, varav 1809 är finansiellt stressade, som gick i konkurs 2010. Genom Chi 2 test ser vi att träffsäkerheten på GC-varningar ligger på 17 procent och anmärkningar på finansiell stress på 82 procent. På samma sätt men med ytterligare hjälp av sambandsstyrka genom P-värden har vi kommit fram till våra andra resultat. Det finns ett väldigt starkt samband mellan andelen GC-varningar och storleken på byrån. Det finns även ett väldigt starkt samband mellan andelen GC-varningar och byrå inom kategorin stora byråer, ett visst samband inom kategorin medelstora byråer men inget samband inom kategorin små byråer. Det finns inget samband mellan andelen anmärkningar på finansiell stress och storleks-kategori eller mellan byråerna inom de olika kategorierna. Enligt vårt resultat har stora byråer högre revisionskvalité än medelstora och små byråer gällande GC-varningar, men vi finner inga skillnader mellan storlekskategorierna gällande anmärkning på finansiell stress. Vi finner även att kvalité med avseende på GC-varningar inte är homogen mellan de enskilda byråerna inom respektive storlekskategori. Våra slutsatser är att träffsäkerheten på GC-varningar är låg, men skulle kunna öka om revisorn kompletterar svårbedömd information med verifierbar information samt att etablerade metoder för GC-bedömningar infördes. Revisionskvalitén inom stora byråer är inte homogen, vilket kan bero på att de enskilda byråerna inom kategorin använder olika arbetssätt, som medför kvalitetsskillnader. / The international accuracy of Going Concern-warnings (GC-warnings) is as low as 40 percent, although studies show the accuracy is even lower in Sweden, under 20 percent. The four biggest accounting firms in the world advertise their knowledge of industry and a number of studies say that they have higher audit quality than the smaller firms. Meanwhile there are studies that claim that there are no differences in quality between them and the smaller firms. In this study we aim to test if the large firms have higher auditing quality than the medium and small firms and to test if there is any difference within the three categories. We measure quality as GC-warnings and a remark on financial stress (a remark on the equity being lower than 50 percent of the share capital). The study is quantitative and our data consists of 4718 limited companies, and 1809 financially stressed limited companies, which went bankrupt 2010. We measured the GC-warning accuracy to 17 percent and the remark on financial stress to 82 percent by using a Chi square test. We used the same test but added P-value to check the strength on the rest of the results. There is a very strong connection between the share of GC-warnings and the size of the accounting firm. There is also a very strong connection between the share of GC-warnings and the different firms within the large category. However there was only a weak connection between the different firms within the medium size and no connection at all within the small category. There is no connection at all between remarks on financial stress and either the firm size or within the firm size categories. According to our results, large audit firms have higher audit quality than medium and small firms concerning GC-warnings, but there are no differences between and within the categories concerning remarks on financial stress. We also find that quality concerning GC-warnings is not homogeneous between the different audit firms within each category. Our conclusions are that the accuracy on GC-warnings is low but it could increase if the auditors complement imponderable information with verifiable information and if methods for GC-judgments were established. The audit quality within large firms is not homogeneous which may be due to that the different audit firms within the categories use different ways to work, which causes differences in audit quality.

Le résumé en français n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur. / Administrative registers maintained by statistical offices on vastly heterogeneous firms have much untapped potential to reveal details on sources of productivity of firms and economies alike. It has been proposed that firm-level shocks can go a long way in explaining aggregate fluctuations. Based on novel monthly frequency data, idiosyncratic shocks are able to explain a sizable share of the Finnish economic fluctuations, providing support to the granular hypothesis. The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 has challenged the field of economic forecasting, and nowcasting has become an active field. This thesis shows that the information content of firm-level sales and truck traffic can be used for nowcasting GDP figures, by using a specific mixture of machine learning algorithms. The agency problem lies at the heart of much of economic theory. Based on a unique dataset linking owners, CEOs and firms, and exploiting plausibly exogenous variations in the separation of ownership and control, agency costs seem to be an important determinant of firm productivity. Furthermore, the effect appear strongest in medium-sized firms. Enterprise group structures might have important implications on the voluminous literature on firm size, as large share of SME employment can be attributed to affiliates of large business groups. Within firm variation suggests that enterprise group affiliation has heterogeneous impacts depending on size, having strong positive impact on productivity of small firms, and negative impact on their growth. In terms of aggregate job creation, it is found that the independent small firms have contributed the most. The results in this thesis underline the benefits of paying attention to samples encompassing the total population of firms. Researchers should continue to explore the potential of rich administrative data sources at statistical offices and strive to strengthen the ties with data producers.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om revisionsbyråns storlek, uppdragslängden hos klienten, klientens storlek och revisorns kön påverkar revisorns benägenhet att utfärda fortlevnadsvarningar och således har en påverkan på revisionskvaliteten. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvantitativ forskningsmetod där data samlats in genom innehållsanalys av sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar och revisionsberättelser. Urvalet består av 301 onoterade aktiebolag som inlett konkurs under 2020 och 2021. Data har analyserats i statistikprogrammet SPSS genom en logistisk regression där sambandet mellan utfärdade fortlevnadsvarningar och utvalda faktorer studerats. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet från den statistiska analysen visar att varken uppdragslängden hos klienten, klientens storlek eller revisorns kön har ett statistiskt signifikant samband med revisionskvalitet. Däremot uppvisas ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan revisionskvalitet och mellanstora revisionsbyråer gentemot mindre revisionsbyråer. De mellanstora revisionsbyråerna uppvisade högre revisionskvalitet än de mindre revisionsbyråerna. Inget statistiskt signifikant samband uppmättes mellan revisionskvalitet och stora revisionsbyråer gentemot mindre revisionsbyråer. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien har bidragit till ytterligare forskning inom revisionskvalitet i onoterade bolag i Sverige och världen. Fortsatt bidrar studien till kunskap om vilka faktorer som har/inte har en påverkan på revisionskvaliteten. Studien visar bland annat på att kvinnor och män utför revision av samma kvalitet samt att stora och mindre revisionsbyråer utför revision av samma kvalitet. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att genomföra en jämförande studie där den levererade revisionskvaliteten innan respektive under och efter pandemin undersöks för att se om det skiljer sig åt mellan åren. Även att jämföra revisionskvaliteten mellan onoterade och noterade bolag är något som hade varit intressant. Vidare hade det till forskningen inom området varit givande om en studie genomförts som undersökte kvaliteten utifrån typ I-fel. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine whether audit firm size, audit tenure, client size and the audit gender affect the auditor’s ability to issue going concern warnings and through that has an impact on the audit quality. Method: The study was conducted with a quantitative research method where data has been collected through content analysis of secondary data from annual reports and audit reports. The sample consists of 301 unlisted companies that went bankrupt in 2020 and 2021. Data has been analysed in the statistical program SPSS through a logistic regression where the relationship between issued going concern warnings and selected factors has been studied. Results and conclusion: The result from the statistical analysis shows that neither the audit tenure, client company size or auditor gender have a statistically significant relationship with audit quality. In contrast, medium sized audit firms show a statistically significant relationship with audit quality in comparison with smaller audit firms where medium sized firms show higher audit quality than smaller audit firms. No statistically significant relationship was measured between audit quality and big sized audit firms in comparison with smaller audit firms. Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to further research of audit quality in unlisted companies. The study also contributes to knowledge about which factors that have, or do not have an impact on audit quality. It shows that women and men perform audit of the same quality and that big and small audit firms perform audit of the same quality. Suggestion for future research: A proposal for further research is to implement a comparative study where the delivered audit quality before, during and after the pandemic is examined to see if it differs between the years. Comparing the audit quality between unlisted and listed companies is also something that would have been interesting. Furthermore, it would have been rewarding for the research in the field if a study had been carried out thar examined the quality based on type I errors.

The main purpose of this study is to enhance the analysis of the impact of R&amp;D expenditure on firms’ growth. This study adopts an OLS regression for a data sample of 46 firms listed on Nasdaq Stockholm for the 2006-2019 period. We present models with R&amp;D expenditure and R&amp;D intensity as the main mechanisms of firm growth, defined as sales growth in this study. Furthermore, firm size, firm age and sector belonging determining the R&amp;D and sales growth relationship are also investigated. We find that R&amp;D intensity has a statistically significant negative impact on firm growth, while R&amp;D expenditure does not show a statistically significant relationship to firm growth. Thus, the results of this paper suggest that devoting a higher proportion of your sales to R&amp;D activities does not translate into firm growth.

本研究旨在探討公司規模及產業競爭對CEO現金薪酬與股票報酬敏感性之影響。根據Leone et al. (2006)之研究，認為依未實現利得而給付之現金薪酬將產生事後交割成本，未實現損失可能遞延CEO之決策責任。由於未實現損益可反映至股票報酬上，因此有效率的現金薪酬契約對含有未實現利得之正股票報酬的敏感性低於含有未實現損失之負股票報酬，顯示現金薪酬與正、負股票報酬之敏感性呈現不對稱關係。本研究以此文獻作延伸，探究CEO現金薪酬與股票報酬之敏感關聯性及其不對稱性關係是否受公司規模與產業競爭之影響。 以ExecuComp資料庫2000年至2009年的CEO現金薪酬樣本進行迴歸分析，結果發現公司規模愈大，現金薪酬對市場績效之敏感性愈大，顯示為避免CEO從事會計盈餘管理，公司現金薪酬之給付更著重於市場績效之衡量；產業競爭方面，產業競爭愈激烈，現金薪酬與市場績效之敏感性愈小，符合風險差異化假說。關於CEO現金薪酬與正、負股票報酬敏感性之不對稱關係，實證結果顯示大規模公司及產業競爭程度較高者對CEO決策之審慎性更加要求，因此CEO現金薪酬與正、負股票報酬敏感性之不對稱的差距愈大。 / This study investigates the effect of firm size and industry competition on the asymmetric sensitivity of CEO cash compensation to the stock returns. Leone et al. (2006) shows that since stock returns include both unrealized gains and losses, cash compensation would be less sensitive to stock returns when returns contains unrealized gains (positive returns) than when returns contain unrealized losses (negative returns). As an extension, this study examines whether firm size and industry competition affect the sensitivity of cash compensation to market performance and the asymmetry of sensitivity of cash compensation to stock returns. Based on the CEO cash compensation during 2000 and 2009 from ExecuComp database, the empirical results show that the firm size has positive effect on sensitivity of cash compensation to market performance while the industry competition has negative effect. Moreover, the asymmetry of sensitivity of CEO cash compensation to stock returns increases as firm size and industry competition increase.

This study will validate several key results from previous studies of bank loan announcement effects by using the data from Hong Kong market following the 1997 Asian crisis. Banks are believed to play a unique role in financial market which could effectively reduce the problem of information asymmetry and moral hazard. Banks could access borrowers’ inside information which is not available to other participants. Thus bank loan announcements convey valuable information to the market, and market response of the stock price should be positive. However, because of the significant reform in both financial market and information market, the valuation of bank loan announcement conveyed need to be reconsidered. This study investigates whether banks are still “unique” in the financial market or whether they are like middlemen between borrowers and investors. Data used in this study is collected from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Index, and a standard event study with the market model is applied in the research to conduct the empirical analysis. The results suggest bank loan announcements are associated with significantly higher positive abnormal returns than non-bank loan announcements. Based on the market model of event study, market response is found to be significantly positive for loan syndication, short maturity loan and borrower’s debt ratio, and negatively related to firm size and loan size. Bank loans with refinancing and capital expenditure and no specific purpose have significantly higher positive abnormal returns, and borrowers with property and industrial industry type have more significant positive abnormal returns compared to other industry type. The findings also suggest the Hong Kong stock market is efficient in both strong and semi-strong form for bank loan announcements. A strong evidence of information leakage problem is found for non-bank loan announcements. The results are generally consistent with the existing literature.