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).

In the economy intangible assets have become more and more important. Financial standards have evolved in order to capture this change and to be relevant. IFRS are international financial accounting standards with the goal to provide investors relevant information in their investment decision process.  Since 2005, all listed companies in the European Union have to implement the IFRS 3; Forcing companies to write off their goodwill instead of amortizing it. The goal of this measure was to provide investors more information about management’s investment decisions. Beside, companies proceed to firm acquisitions in order to gain a competitive advantage. Such events are important in companies’ life and are impacting the potential value creation. Out of that reason, investors are reacting to acquisition announcements. Moreover, the market reacts to goodwill impairments.   The purpose of this research was to examine to what extent the market reaction of an acquisition announcement can predict goodwill impairment in the two following years. This study was conducted using a quantitative method; focusing on aspects of the financial statements of 43 companies from the Nordic countries that acquired companies in the G20 countries. A Spearman’s correlation, logistic and linear regressions were pursued in order to observe the correlation and the strength of the relationship between goodwill impairment and the market reaction.   The findings imply that the market reaction can predict goodwill impairment in the first year after an acquisition in case of positive market reaction. Additional to that, it can also predict the amount of impairment in the second year, but not whether the impairment is happening. Also, there is a correlation between the first and second year goodwill impairments. However, the results of this research indicate that neither the industry, financial or non-financial, nor the deal value can predict goodwill impairment after an acquisition.

Actions by both private sector organizations and legislators in recent years have highlighted the importance of the audit committee of the board of directors of corporations in the financial reporting process. For example, the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 has multiple sections that deal with the composition and functioning of audit committees. My dissertation examines multiple issues related to the composition of audit committees. In the first two parts of my dissertation, I examine the stock market reactions to disclosures of audit committee appointments and departures in the 8-Ks filed with the SEC during 2008 and 2009. I find that there is a positive stock market reaction to the appointment of audit committee directors who are financial experts. The second essay investigates the cumulative abnormal return to departure of audit committee directors. I find that when an accounting expert leaves the audit committee, the market reaction is significantly negative. These results are consistent with regulators’ concerns related to having directors with audit, accounting and other financial expertise on corporate audit committees. The third essay of my dissertation examines the changes in audit committee composition in the last decade. I find that while the increase in audit committee size is relatively modest, there has been a significant increase in the number of audit committee experts and the frequency of audit committee meetings over the past decade; interestingly, such increase in the number of meetings has persisted even after the media focus on the auditing profession, in the immediate aftermath of the Enron and Andersen failures, have waned. My results show that audit committee composition and its role continues to evolve with regulatory and other corporate governance related changes.

This study examines the market reactions to share repurchase announcements made by companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange from 2003 to 2012. We use an event study methodology and the Capital Asset Pricing Model to determine if there is an announcement effect when a share repurchase announcement is made. Our analysis show that consistent with signalling theory and the announcement effect, share repurchase announcements are associated with positive abnormal returns. The average abnormal return and cumulative average abnormal return noted was 0.46% and 3.81% respectively for the event period (t -20, t +20). There was an observable trend of declining share prices before the share repurchase announcement however the decline in the shares prices was not significant. We found some evidence of market timing ability in 2005 and 2010 however as a collective, we found no significant difference in timing a share repurchase announcement. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Background. Space mining is a subject of growing interest. People see where society is heading and that something needs to be done to pave the way for future generations. Outer space contains both the Moon and other celestial bodies as well. these contain precious materials which could be used on Earth. Although all these precious materials exist out there it will take much will and money to get there. This means that in order for people to invest they need to understand how it could benefit them and others. This will not only be through a higher supply of materials but also with the possibility to generate spinoff technologies that can be applied to other industries on Earth. Companies' stock prices should be adjusted when news about them is published, henceforth it can be more understood where space mining is in its development. Most of the previous research focuses have been on how space resources should be divided, likewise how it could be done on a more technical level.    Objectives. The objective of this paper is to understand how and if space mining-related news affects the stock prices of space-related stocks in any significant way. Methods. As a method to understand the market reaction to these kinds of news, a quantitative statistical event study has been used. Upon this, a multiple linear regression model has been applied to gain more understanding of the variance of the abnormal returns. The analysis was performed on 100 space mining-related news articles, news which directly was considered to benefit space mining.  Results. From the first regression, the abnormal return seemed to not be significantly affected on the event day of most of the events. Furthermore, when analyzing it more with the multiple regression, it could be seen that no independent variable could explain the abnormal return in a significant way.  Conclusions. Based on the result the market reactions from space mining-related news are not significantly big enough to affect the abnormal returns. The general fluctuation of abnormal returns on event days seems to be random since no variable has been found to explain its variance.

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恩隆（Enron）等管理當局舞弊案，是資訊不對稱所造成。為減少資訊不對稱之問題，各國對公司資訊揭露之範圍與內容規範甚多，沙氏法案（Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002）對公司財務揭露之要求即為例證，惟資訊不對稱之情形在資本市場中仍然很嚴重。 本文探討在市場資訊不對稱之情形下，投資人做投資決策時，是否考量公司資訊揭露之程度。本研究以Ohlson (1995)、Barth (1998)、Sloan (1996)及Fama and French (1992, 1995)作為理論基礎建構模型，探討資訊揭露程度對公司價值之影響。具體而言，本研究將揭露程度分為：「財務與營運」、「董事會及股權結構」及「公司網站」三類，針對傳統產業公司之資訊揭露程度與股價、權益市值及股票報酬等三類公司價值之關係進行實證研究。 實證結果發現，除了會計資訊對公司價值具有攸關性外，公司整體資訊揭露程度對公司之價值亦有顯著之正向影響。其中，「財務與營運」的揭露程度對三類公司價值均具有顯著的正向關係，「董事會及股權結構」的揭露程度對股價與權益市值具有顯著之正向關係，「公司網站」的揭露程度則與各公司價值間皆僅為正向但不顯著之關係。 / Information asymmetry may cause serious business fraud like Enron case. Countries around the word devote much effort enforcing regulation on the disclosure financial information, such as the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the USA. Based on Ohlson (1995), Barth (1998), Sloan (1996), and Fama and French (1995), this study investigates the market reaction to the financial information disclosure. The disclosure of financial information is decomposed into three categories including financial and operating disclosure, board and ownership structure disclosure, and website disclosure. How the stock price, market value and stock return are related to these financial disclosures is examined. As the results show, in addition to the fact that the accounting information is value relevant, the comprehensive financial disclosure has significantly positive effect on stock price, market value, and stock return, as the financial and operating disclosure does. However, the disclosure of board and ownership structure has significant positive effect only on both stock price and market value, but the market does not have significant reaction to the financial disclosure on website.

This thesis investigates how the U.S President’s Twitter mentions of individual companies’ investment announcements influence the short-term price of their stock. By assuming that the President’s comments on a company’s plans should be incorporated by markets as new information, testing the Efficient Market Hypothesis assumption that the markets incorporate all new information, the thesis seeks to contribute to a new, unexplored and growing, research field. This thesis utilizes a qualitative analysis method, studying Twitter mentions on the topic of Trump’s Tax Reform. The data in this thesis is derived from the President’s personal Twitter-account, company announcements, stock price charts, and the Standard & Poor’s S&P500 Index. To conclude, this study finds that although the President’s Twitter comments may signal his public approval of a company and its plans, it appears that any market reaction is only short-term, and that as the market incorporates additional information it returns to an informed state in terms of stock valuations. This study suggests that there are few observable indicators that Trump’s positive mentions on Twitter causes any significant market reaction.

Using the sample of three largest stocks from seven main market sectors in the US, the thesis examines the effect of information content of earnings announce­ ments on market reaction across sectors. Our findings prove the asymmetry of market reaction to different earnings surprise categories with negative-surprise reaction being the most profound. The financial markets tend to be less ef­ ficient in response to negative earnings surprises. Leakage of information is not present suggesting that insider trading is well-mitigated on the US capital markets. Furthermore, we investigate the market reaction to earnings surprises in different sectors separately and find that Consumer Staples and IT sector tend to be the most sensitive, on the contrary Telecommunication and Energy sector tend to be the least sensitive. G14; G15; G30JEL Classification Keywords Earnings announcement; Market reaction; Mar­ ket efficiency; Cross-sector analysis; Corpo­ rate disclosure; Insider trading; Post-earnings- announcement drift A u th o r's e-m ail p a v e l.prucekSgm ail. com S u p erv iso r's e-m ail kocenda@f s v . c u n i. cz

This study examines how the stock market reacts when a publicly-listed company announces a corporate green bond issuance in the European market. We examine 155 corporate green bond issuance announcements from 2017 to 2021 made by companies listed on the European stock exchange. Our findings can not confirm a stock market reaction to the announcement of a corporate green bond. The result shows no significant positive stock market reaction when a company announces a corporate green bond issuance for the first time. This finding suggests that the signaling argument is not necessarily applicable, as it suggests that companies signal their environmental commitment to the investors by announcing a corporate green bond issuance. Our findings do neither show a stronger stock market reaction due to a company having a low environmental performance at the time of announcement. This means that companies that actively try to transition into climate-friendly financing are not rewarded by the stock market.