Submitted final thesis aims to map calculation methods for designation of cost of equity capital. It focuses on forward-looking approaches. Its practical part is dedicated to research of risk premium and implied cost of equity capital at the level of PX-TR index representing the Czech capital market

本研究採用Dhaliwal, Krull, Li, and Moser (2005)之實證模型研究投資相關稅負對企業權益資金成本的影響。Dhaliwal et al. (2005)利用股利所得與資本利得最高級距稅率計算股利稅租稅罰，然而，使用最高級距稅率計算而得知代理變數恐無法完全捕捉稅負對資金成本的影響，因此本研究參考許崇源、俞洪昭、洪盈斌與戚務君 （2000），假設在個人董監事等大股東之所得稅率較一般散戶為高的前提下，以個人董監事持股比例做為個人股東邊際稅率之替代變數，再計算股利稅租稅罰之代理變數。 本研究利用台灣經濟新報資料庫（簡稱TEJ資料庫）取得台灣上市櫃公司2000年至2009年之財務資料，進行迴歸分析。實證結果顯示，因股利所得稅率與證券交易所得稅率差異造成的股利稅租稅罰，會使得權益資金成本上升；而且因為機構投資人較一般投資人享有較多租稅優惠，造成其適用稅率較低；而公司的邊際投資人又多為機構投資人，因此機構投資人持股可減輕股利稅租稅罰造成權益資金成本上升的情形。 / This study uses the empirical model proposed by Dhaliwal, Krull, Li, and Moser (2005) to examine the effect of investment tax on the cost of equity capital. Dhaliwal et al. (2005) used the top statutory tax rates on dividends and capital gains to get the variable “penalty”; however, it may not perfectly capture the dividend tax penalty. We follow the assumption that individual directors and supervisors may adopt higher tax rate than other individual stockholders (Hsu, Yu, Hung, and ,Chi 2000), then derive the variable “penalty” by using the rate of shares owned by individual directors and supervisors as the proxy variable of individual stockholder‟s marginal tax rate. This study uses the financial data of listed companies in Taiwan via Taiwan Economic Journal database (TEJ database) from 2000 to 2009 for regression analysis. The empirical results show that the dividend tax penalty resulting from the difference between the tax rate on dividend and capital gain increase the cost of equity capital. Furthermore, institutional investors always receive more favorable tax treatment than individual investors, making them adopt lower tax rate, and a firm‟s marginal investor is more likely to be an institutional investor, therefore the aggregate institutional ownership mitigates the increase of cost of equity capital.

Financial reporting conservatism enjoys a long-standing place of prominence in accounting principles and practices. Its prevailing influence justifies the considerable attention conservatism has, and continues to receive in accounting research. A growing body of recent research suggests that, in time series, financial reporting has become more conservative. Whilst this evidence is intuitive on a number of levels, the notion of conservatism appears to be incongruent with the continual spate of corporate collapses that plague our financial world and the outward rejection of conservatism as a desirable qualitative characteristic of financial reporting by Australian and U.S. standard setters. Existing empirical research indicates that conservatism continues to be evident in accounting and serves a positive function in contracting efficiencies with evidence, inter alia, of conservatism mitigating agency conflicts and therefore reducing the cost of debt and improving corporate governance (Watts 2003a). However, little evidence exists regarding its economic consequences in terms of its impact on the cost of equity capital. This thesis empirically examines the relationship between conservatism and the cost of equity capital under a framework supported by Signalling Theory rather than Agency (Contracting) Theory, consistent with the theoretical propositions modelled by Gietzmann and Trombetta (2003) and Bagnoli and Watts (2005). The primary research question of this thesis explores the influence of conservatism on the cost of equity capital and thus asks if the firm’s decision to adopt conservative reporting practices has economic consequences. At the same time, research has seen a plethora of studies that investigate the capital market impacts of the firm’s disclosure policy. Existing empirical research provides evidence in part indicating that the cost of equity capital is reducing in disclosure levels, however, existing empirical research does not provide evidence on how conservatism and disclosure interact. Therefore, the second research question seeks to explore this interaction and investigates the conditional influence of disclosure on the primary relationship between conservatism and the cost of equity capital. Using a sample of U.S. listed entities for the period 1984 to 1994, this thesis investigates the individual (unconditional) and joint (conditional) impact of conservatism and disclosure on the cost of equity capital. The thesis makes several contributions. First, the findings provide considerable new evidence in support of the prediction that the cost of equity capital is decreasing in the level of conservatism. Consistent with the theoretical propositions in Gietzmann and Trombetta (2003) and Bagnoli and Watts (2005), it is argued that by signalling of firm quality through adoption of conservative reporting practices, firms have the ability to reduce non-diversifiable firm-specific information risk and hence will benefit from a resulting decrease in the cost of equity capital. Second, this thesis re-examines the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital with evidence indicating that the cost of equity capital is decreasing in the disclosure level as measured by the comprehensive disclosure score. Third, this thesis explores new ground in its investigation of the interaction between conservatism and disclosure and their joint influence on the cost of equity capital. The findings provide considerable support for the prediction that the value of conservatism is diminished in environments of low information asymmetry (high disclosure). It is conjectured that because there is little private information in environments of low information asymmetry, there are no signalling benefits to be gained. Finally, the results provide consistent evidence of an inverse relationship between conservatism and disclosure. The findings suggest that conservatism and disclosure are therefore strategy substitutes in the overall reporting strategy. The findings of this thesis provide considerable support for the benefits of conservatism and provide a further explanation for the continued observation of conservatism evidenced in prior empirical research. Further, the findings provide support for the conjecture that conservatism and disclosure each have a role to play in the financial reporting strategy of the firm. Overall, the findings of thesis provide new evidence indicating that the firm’s decision to adopt conservative reporting practices has the potential to reap real economic benefit in terms of reduction in the cost of equity capital and that conservatism has a positive role in accounting principles and practices.

本研究旨在探討不同的市場參與者是否會視公司自願性採用Clawback條款與否，而給予不同的回應。以2007至2011年間納入Russel 3000指數之公司(排除金融服務與保險業)為樣本，本研究發現，與未採用Clawback條款之公司相比，自願性採用Clawback條款之公司，其權益資金成本較低，且信用評等較佳，顯示投資人及信用評等機構皆認為Clawback條款有助於提升公司之財務報導品質，進而降低其所承受之資訊風險。本研究進一步以F-score (Dechow et al. 2011)來衡量公司的事前舞弊風險，並將樣本區分為高舞弊風險組與低舞弊風險組。本研究發現，Clawback條款僅在低舞弊風險組與權益資金成本呈顯著負相關，顯示財務品質較佳之公司確實會透過自願性採用Clawback條款來向資本市場彰顯其信心，而投資人亦會以較低之要求報酬做出回應。然而，本研究亦發現，Clawback條款僅在高舞弊風險組與信用評等呈顯著正相關，這意味著信用評等機構能夠區別Clawback條款對於高舞弊風險公司及低舞弊風險公司的效益，並針對尋求實質改善的公司做出正面回應。最後，本研究使用機構投資人持股比例，將樣本區分為高外部監督與低外部監督(亦即低代理問題與高代理問題)兩組。迴歸結果顯示，僅有在公司所受到的外部監督程度較低時，Clawback條款方會與權益資金成本及信用評等呈顯著相關。 / This study examines whether different market participants react differently to voluntary adopters and non-adopters of clawback provisions. Based on the sample of non-financial firms included in the Russel 3000 index from year 2007 to 2011, the empirical results show that, comparing to non-adopters, firms who voluntarily adopt the clawback provisons have lower cost of equity capital and higher credit rating, suggesting that both investors and credit rating agency regard clawback provisions as a means to reduce information risk and, therefore, enhance firms’ financial reporting quality. This study further uses the F-score (Dechow et al. 2011) to separate the sample into high versus low risk of occuring fraudulent financial reporting groups. The regression results from both groups indicate that the adoption of clawback provisions is negatively related to cost of equity capital only when firms have lower fraud risk. This finding implies that firms with good financial reporting quality tend to adopt clawback provisions to signal their confidence on financial reporting, and investors respond by requiring lower returns. In contrast, the results report that the adoption of clawback provisions is positively related to credit rating only when firms are more likely to incur fraudulent financial reporting, implying that credit rating agency appears to consider the effect of clawback provisions and responds to firms who seek real improvement in their financial reporting quality. Finally, this study adopts institutional investors’ ownership to seperate the sample into high versus low external monitoring (i.e., low versus high agency problem) groups. The regression results from both groups show that the effects of clawback provisions on cost of equity capital and credit rating remain only for firms that are subjected to low external monitoring.

Financial reporting conservatism enjoys a long-standing place of prominence in accounting principles and practices. Its prevailing influence justifies the considerable attention conservatism has, and continues to receive in accounting research. A growing body of recent research suggests that, in time series, financial reporting has become more conservative. Whilst this evidence is intuitive on a number of levels, the notion of conservatism appears to be incongruent with the continual spate of corporate collapses that plague our financial world and the outward rejection of conservatism as a desirable qualitative characteristic of financial reporting by Australian and U.S. standard setters. Existing empirical research indicates that conservatism continues to be evident in accounting and serves a positive function in contracting efficiencies with evidence, inter alia, of conservatism mitigating agency conflicts and therefore reducing the cost of debt and improving corporate governance (Watts 2003a). However, little evidence exists regarding its economic consequences in terms of its impact on the cost of equity capital. This thesis empirically examines the relationship between conservatism and the cost of equity capital under a framework supported by Signalling Theory rather than Agency (Contracting) Theory, consistent with the theoretical propositions modelled by Gietzmann and Trombetta (2003) and Bagnoli and Watts (2005). The primary research question of this thesis explores the influence of conservatism on the cost of equity capital and thus asks if the firm’s decision to adopt conservative reporting practices has economic consequences. At the same time, research has seen a plethora of studies that investigate the capital market impacts of the firm’s disclosure policy. Existing empirical research provides evidence in part indicating that the cost of equity capital is reducing in disclosure levels, however, existing empirical research does not provide evidence on how conservatism and disclosure interact. Therefore, the second research question seeks to explore this interaction and investigates the conditional influence of disclosure on the primary relationship between conservatism and the cost of equity capital. Using a sample of U.S. listed entities for the period 1984 to 1994, this thesis investigates the individual (unconditional) and joint (conditional) impact of conservatism and disclosure on the cost of equity capital. The thesis makes several contributions. First, the findings provide considerable new evidence in support of the prediction that the cost of equity capital is decreasing in the level of conservatism. Consistent with the theoretical propositions in Gietzmann and Trombetta (2003) and Bagnoli and Watts (2005), it is argued that by signalling of firm quality through adoption of conservative reporting practices, firms have the ability to reduce non-diversifiable firm-specific information risk and hence will benefit from a resulting decrease in the cost of equity capital. Second, this thesis re-examines the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital with evidence indicating that the cost of equity capital is decreasing in the disclosure level as measured by the comprehensive disclosure score. Third, this thesis explores new ground in its investigation of the interaction between conservatism and disclosure and their joint influence on the cost of equity capital. The findings provide considerable support for the prediction that the value of conservatism is diminished in environments of low information asymmetry (high disclosure). It is conjectured that because there is little private information in environments of low information asymmetry, there are no signalling benefits to be gained. Finally, the results provide consistent evidence of an inverse relationship between conservatism and disclosure. The findings suggest that conservatism and disclosure are therefore strategy substitutes in the overall reporting strategy. The findings of this thesis provide considerable support for the benefits of conservatism and provide a further explanation for the continued observation of conservatism evidenced in prior empirical research. Further, the findings provide support for the conjecture that conservatism and disclosure each have a role to play in the financial reporting strategy of the firm. Overall, the findings of thesis provide new evidence indicating that the firm’s decision to adopt conservative reporting practices has the potential to reap real economic benefit in terms of reduction in the cost of equity capital and that conservatism has a positive role in accounting principles and practices.

A contabilidade brasileira, a exemplo do que vem acontecendo em muitos países, promoveu recentemente uma histórica mudança na sua estrutura ao institucionalizar os padrões contábeis internacionais (IFRS) como padrões locais. A adoção compulsória das IFRS pelas empresas brasileiras ocorre concomitantemente com expectativas de vantagens econômicas e não econômicas por parte dos agentes que atuam no mercado de capitais e também por parte de outros usuários e atores envolvidos com a produção de informações contábeis. O fenômeno da migração de padrões contábeis brasileiros para padrões internacionais, por esses motivos, se torna singular e propício a pesquisas que se dediquem a analisar os efeitos que a regulamentação contábil seja capaz de promover no mercado e nas decisões dos agentes. Aproveitando-se da oportunidade, esta pesquisa tem a proposta de avaliar de que forma a adoção compulsória das IFRS tem impactado economicamente o custo de capital próprio das empresas brasileiras listadas na BM&FBovespa. As hipóteses elaboradas para a pesquisa pressupõem que a convergência para as IFRS possa ter aumentado a qualidade das informações contábeis das empresas brasileiras, reduzindo assim a assimetria de informação entre os agentes que negociam as ações no mercado de capitais e, consequentemente, promovendo redução nos custos de capital próprio. Como proxies de custo de capital próprio foram utilizados os modelos Easton (RPEG) e de Gordon. O estudo constitui-se de observações de empresas nacionais listadas na BM&FBovespa adotantes compulsórias das IFRS como grupo de tratamento; sendo outro conjunto de observações de empresas brasileiras adotantes voluntárias de IFRS ou USGAAP utilizado como grupo de controle; e um terceiro conjunto de dados de empresas latino-americanas, não adotantes das normas internacionais, utilizado como segundo grupo de controle. Os dados se estruturam em forma de painel e, para possibilitar a análise comparativa, compreendem exercícios financeiros anteriores e posteriores ao momento da adoção compulsória das IFRS pela contabilidade brasileira (2010). Para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa foram realizadas análises utilizando-se de estatísticas inferenciais, mais especificamente regressões multivariadas com estimadores de diferença em diferenças. Os resultados não apresentam indicativos de que a obrigatoriedade da adoção das IFRS, isoladamente, tenha sido condição suficiente para promover aumento na qualidade das informações contábeis das empresas brasileiras que optaram por adotar compulsoriamente tais normas em 2010 a ponto de promover reduções nos custos de capital próprio. Não há indícios suficientemente fortes de que as empresas adotantes voluntárias de IFRS, em período anterior a 2010, tenham auferido reduções nos custos de capital próprio em menor proporção que as empresas brasileiras que optaram por fazê-lo somente na data em que a regulamentação as tornou obrigatória. / Brazilian accounting, as it has been happening in many countries, recently promoted a historic change in its structure to institutionalize the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as local standards. The mandatory adoption of IFRS by Brazilian companies occurs concomitantly with economic and noneconomic expectations of agents operating in the capital market and of other users and stakeholders involved with the production of accounting information. The phenomenon of migration of Brazilian accounting standards to international standards, for these reasons, becomes singular and conducive to studies engaged to analyze the effects that the accounting rules are able to promote on the market and on agent decisions. Taking advantage of the opportunity, this research has the purpose of evaluating how the mandatory adoption of IFRS economically affects the cost of capital of Brazilian companies listed on the BM&FBovespa. The hypotheses developed for this research assume that the convergence to IFRS may have increased the quality of financial reporting by Brazilian companies, thereby reducing the information asymmetry between the agents who trade shares in the capital market and consequently promoting cost reduction equity. Easton (RPEG) and Gordon models were used as proxies for the cost of capital equity. The study consisted of observations of domestic companies listed on the BM&FBovespa mandatory adopters of IFRS as the treatment group; and another set of observations of Brazilian companies voluntary adopters of IFRS or USGAAP used as a control group; and a third set of Latin American companies, non-adopters of international data standards, used as a second control group. Data are structured in a panel form and, to enable comparative analysis, include preceding and following years of the mandatory adoption of IFRS by Brazilian financial accounting (2010). To test the research hypotheses, analyzes were performed using specifically multivariate regressions with difference in the differences estimators inferential statistics. Results show no indication that the mandatory adoption of IFRS alone was enough to promote an increase in the quality of financial reporting by Brazilian companies that have chosen to compulsorily adopt such standards in 2010 about to promote reductions in the cost of equity condition. There is no enough strong evidence that voluntary IFRS adopters firms in the preceding period of 2010 have obtained reductions in the costs of equity capital to a lesser extent that Brazilian companies that have chosen to do so only on the date on which the regulation has become mandatory.

A contabilidade brasileira, a exemplo do que vem acontecendo em muitos países, promoveu recentemente uma histórica mudança na sua estrutura ao institucionalizar os padrões contábeis internacionais (IFRS) como padrões locais. A adoção compulsória das IFRS pelas empresas brasileiras ocorre concomitantemente com expectativas de vantagens econômicas e não econômicas por parte dos agentes que atuam no mercado de capitais e também por parte de outros usuários e atores envolvidos com a produção de informações contábeis. O fenômeno da migração de padrões contábeis brasileiros para padrões internacionais, por esses motivos, se torna singular e propício a pesquisas que se dediquem a analisar os efeitos que a regulamentação contábil seja capaz de promover no mercado e nas decisões dos agentes. Aproveitando-se da oportunidade, esta pesquisa tem a proposta de avaliar de que forma a adoção compulsória das IFRS tem impactado economicamente o custo de capital próprio das empresas brasileiras listadas na BM&FBovespa. As hipóteses elaboradas para a pesquisa pressupõem que a convergência para as IFRS possa ter aumentado a qualidade das informações contábeis das empresas brasileiras, reduzindo assim a assimetria de informação entre os agentes que negociam as ações no mercado de capitais e, consequentemente, promovendo redução nos custos de capital próprio. Como proxies de custo de capital próprio foram utilizados os modelos Easton (RPEG) e de Gordon. O estudo constitui-se de observações de empresas nacionais listadas na BM&FBovespa adotantes compulsórias das IFRS como grupo de tratamento; sendo outro conjunto de observações de empresas brasileiras adotantes voluntárias de IFRS ou USGAAP utilizado como grupo de controle; e um terceiro conjunto de dados de empresas latino-americanas, não adotantes das normas internacionais, utilizado como segundo grupo de controle. Os dados se estruturam em forma de painel e, para possibilitar a análise comparativa, compreendem exercícios financeiros anteriores e posteriores ao momento da adoção compulsória das IFRS pela contabilidade brasileira (2010). Para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa foram realizadas análises utilizando-se de estatísticas inferenciais, mais especificamente regressões multivariadas com estimadores de diferença em diferenças. Os resultados não apresentam indicativos de que a obrigatoriedade da adoção das IFRS, isoladamente, tenha sido condição suficiente para promover aumento na qualidade das informações contábeis das empresas brasileiras que optaram por adotar compulsoriamente tais normas em 2010 a ponto de promover reduções nos custos de capital próprio. Não há indícios suficientemente fortes de que as empresas adotantes voluntárias de IFRS, em período anterior a 2010, tenham auferido reduções nos custos de capital próprio em menor proporção que as empresas brasileiras que optaram por fazê-lo somente na data em que a regulamentação as tornou obrigatória. / Brazilian accounting, as it has been happening in many countries, recently promoted a historic change in its structure to institutionalize the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as local standards. The mandatory adoption of IFRS by Brazilian companies occurs concomitantly with economic and noneconomic expectations of agents operating in the capital market and of other users and stakeholders involved with the production of accounting information. The phenomenon of migration of Brazilian accounting standards to international standards, for these reasons, becomes singular and conducive to studies engaged to analyze the effects that the accounting rules are able to promote on the market and on agent decisions. Taking advantage of the opportunity, this research has the purpose of evaluating how the mandatory adoption of IFRS economically affects the cost of capital of Brazilian companies listed on the BM&FBovespa. The hypotheses developed for this research assume that the convergence to IFRS may have increased the quality of financial reporting by Brazilian companies, thereby reducing the information asymmetry between the agents who trade shares in the capital market and consequently promoting cost reduction equity. Easton (RPEG) and Gordon models were used as proxies for the cost of capital equity. The study consisted of observations of domestic companies listed on the BM&FBovespa mandatory adopters of IFRS as the treatment group; and another set of observations of Brazilian companies voluntary adopters of IFRS or USGAAP used as a control group; and a third set of Latin American companies, non-adopters of international data standards, used as a second control group. Data are structured in a panel form and, to enable comparative analysis, include preceding and following years of the mandatory adoption of IFRS by Brazilian financial accounting (2010). To test the research hypotheses, analyzes were performed using specifically multivariate regressions with difference in the differences estimators inferential statistics. Results show no indication that the mandatory adoption of IFRS alone was enough to promote an increase in the quality of financial reporting by Brazilian companies that have chosen to compulsorily adopt such standards in 2010 about to promote reductions in the cost of equity condition. There is no enough strong evidence that voluntary IFRS adopters firms in the preceding period of 2010 have obtained reductions in the costs of equity capital to a lesser extent that Brazilian companies that have chosen to do so only on the date on which the regulation has become mandatory.

A contabilidade brasileira, a exemplo do que vem acontecendo em muitos países, promoveu recentemente uma histórica mudança na sua estrutura ao institucionalizar os padrões contábeis internacionais (IFRS) como padrões locais. A adoção compulsória das IFRS pelas empresas brasileiras ocorre concomitantemente com expectativas de vantagens econômicas e não econômicas por parte dos agentes que atuam no mercado de capitais e também por parte de outros usuários e atores envolvidos com a produção de informações contábeis. O fenômeno da migração de padrões contábeis brasileiros para padrões internacionais, por esses motivos, se torna singular e propício a pesquisas que se dediquem a analisar os efeitos que a regulamentação contábil seja capaz de promover no mercado e nas decisões dos agentes. Aproveitando-se da oportunidade, esta pesquisa tem a proposta de avaliar de que forma a adoção compulsória das IFRS tem impactado economicamente o custo de capital próprio das empresas brasileiras listadas na BM&FBovespa. As hipóteses elaboradas para a pesquisa pressupõem que a convergência para as IFRS possa ter aumentado a qualidade das informações contábeis das empresas brasileiras, reduzindo assim a assimetria de informação entre os agentes que negociam as ações no mercado de capitais e, consequentemente, promovendo redução nos custos de capital próprio. Como proxies de custo de capital próprio foram utilizados os modelos Easton (RPEG) e de Gordon. O estudo constitui-se de observações de empresas nacionais listadas na BM&FBovespa adotantes compulsórias das IFRS como grupo de tratamento; sendo outro conjunto de observações de empresas brasileiras adotantes voluntárias de IFRS ou USGAAP utilizado como grupo de controle; e um terceiro conjunto de dados de empresas latino-americanas, não adotantes das normas internacionais, utilizado como segundo grupo de controle. Os dados se estruturam em forma de painel e, para possibilitar a análise comparativa, compreendem exercícios financeiros anteriores e posteriores ao momento da adoção compulsória das IFRS pela contabilidade brasileira (2010). Para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa foram realizadas análises utilizando-se de estatísticas inferenciais, mais especificamente regressões multivariadas com estimadores de diferença em diferenças. Os resultados não apresentam indicativos de que a obrigatoriedade da adoção das IFRS, isoladamente, tenha sido condição suficiente para promover aumento na qualidade das informações contábeis das empresas brasileiras que optaram por adotar compulsoriamente tais normas em 2010 a ponto de promover reduções nos custos de capital próprio. Não há indícios suficientemente fortes de que as empresas adotantes voluntárias de IFRS, em período anterior a 2010, tenham auferido reduções nos custos de capital próprio em menor proporção que as empresas brasileiras que optaram por fazê-lo somente na data em que a regulamentação as tornou obrigatória. / Brazilian accounting, as it has been happening in many countries, recently promoted a historic change in its structure to institutionalize the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as local standards. The mandatory adoption of IFRS by Brazilian companies occurs concomitantly with economic and noneconomic expectations of agents operating in the capital market and of other users and stakeholders involved with the production of accounting information. The phenomenon of migration of Brazilian accounting standards to international standards, for these reasons, becomes singular and conducive to studies engaged to analyze the effects that the accounting rules are able to promote on the market and on agent decisions. Taking advantage of the opportunity, this research has the purpose of evaluating how the mandatory adoption of IFRS economically affects the cost of capital of Brazilian companies listed on the BM&FBovespa. The hypotheses developed for this research assume that the convergence to IFRS may have increased the quality of financial reporting by Brazilian companies, thereby reducing the information asymmetry between the agents who trade shares in the capital market and consequently promoting cost reduction equity. Easton (RPEG) and Gordon models were used as proxies for the cost of capital equity. The study consisted of observations of domestic companies listed on the BM&FBovespa mandatory adopters of IFRS as the treatment group; and another set of observations of Brazilian companies voluntary adopters of IFRS or USGAAP used as a control group; and a third set of Latin American companies, non-adopters of international data standards, used as a second control group. Data are structured in a panel form and, to enable comparative analysis, include preceding and following years of the mandatory adoption of IFRS by Brazilian financial accounting (2010). To test the research hypotheses, analyzes were performed using specifically multivariate regressions with difference in the differences estimators inferential statistics. Results show no indication that the mandatory adoption of IFRS alone was enough to promote an increase in the quality of financial reporting by Brazilian companies that have chosen to compulsorily adopt such standards in 2010 about to promote reductions in the cost of equity condition. There is no enough strong evidence that voluntary IFRS adopters firms in the preceding period of 2010 have obtained reductions in the costs of equity capital to a lesser extent that Brazilian companies that have chosen to do so only on the date on which the regulation has become mandatory.

董監事會為公司治理之核心，本研究以民國87年至民國91年為研究期間，針對我國上市公司探討董監事會特性與權益資金成本之關聯性，而不同於以往國內有關估計權益資金成本的方法，本研究以Ohlson模型來設算權益資金成本。實證結果顯示： 1.董監事會成員持股比率與企業權益資金成本率之關係並不顯著，若觀測兩者間是否存有非線性關係，本研究亦未發現兩者間的不顯著關係是由非線性因素所造成。 2.複迴歸分析顯示，董監事會持股質押比與權益資金成本之關係並不顯著，若進一步區分全體樣本為正、負盈餘樣本，則發現在負盈餘樣本中，董監事會持股質押比與企業權益資金成本呈現顯著正向關係；另外，若以Panel Data分析，本研究則發現在電子業中董監事持股質押比與權益資金成本始呈現正相關。 3.公司是否聘任獨立董監與權益資金成本之關係並不顯著，且不論是在有聘任或無聘任獨立董監之樣本間，或是在自願性聘任與強制性聘任獨立董監之樣本間，其權益資金成本並無明顯的差異。 / This study examines the relations between characteristic of board of directors and supervisors and cost of equity capital. It is unlike previous research to use capital assets pricing model（CAPM）, this research adopts an alternative technique for estimating the cost of equity capital. Specifically, we use Ohlson (1995) model to generate a market implied cost of capital. Our samples consist of all public companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporate over 5 years period 1998-2002. The empirical results are as follows: 1.There is no significant negative relation between the ratio of the stock held by the board and supervisors and the cost of equity capital. Moreover, we don’t find this relation caused by nonlinear specification. 2.There is no significant positive relation between the pledged share ratio of the board and supervisors and the cost of equity capital. When the entire samples are divided into the sub-samples of firms experiencing losses and others, the existence of the positive relationship is found only in the firms experiencing losses. In addition, the relation is further proved in the electronic industry when adopting panel data analysis. 3.There is no significant reverse relation between the independent directors and supervisors and the cost of equity capital. And there is also no significant difference in the cost of equity capital between companies with implementing the independent directors and supervisors and those without implementing the regulation.

Syfte: Hur CSR-prestation påverkar ett företags finansiella prestation har länge varit ett omtalat ämnesområde, vilket har bidragit till motstridiga resultat. Denna studie har tillämpat kostnad för eget kapital för att mäta finansiell prestation. Genom att betrakta CSR som en transparenseffekt, vilket ökar bolagens transparens, vill studien undersöka om CSR-aktiviteter kan sänka företagets uppfattade risk för att minska kostnad för eget kapital. Metod: Studien har tillämpat en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi och en deduktiv forskningsansats med uppställning av hypoteser. Vi har använt en kvantitativ forskningsmetod från vilket insamling av sekundärdata skett från den finansiella databasen Thomson Reuters. Studiens urval består av 548 företag från åtta europeiska länder. All data som inhämtats har bearbetats och analyserats i statistikprogrammet SPSS och JASP. Resultat & slutsats: Våra resultat bevisar att det förekommer ett positivt respektive negativt samband mellan CSR-prestation och kostnad för eget kapital beroende på nation. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag till vidare forskning är att undersöka varför sambandet mellan CSR-prestation och kostnad för eget kapital uppträder olika inom nationer. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till en ökad förståelse för hur CSR-prestation påverkar företagets kostnad för eget kapital i en europeisk kontext. Studien har bidragit till en ny forskningsinriktning beträffande hur CSR-aktiviteter kan fungera som en transparenseffekt för att minska bolagets kostnad för eget kapital. Vidare bidrar uppsatsen med ytterligare kunskap om relationen mellan CSR-prestation och finansiell prestation, vilket visar i tidigare forskning motstridiga resultat. / Title: CSR-performance and cost of equity capital – a quantitative study of 548 European companies Aim: The subject of how corporate social responsibility affects the company’s financial performance has been discussed for a long time, which has contributed to conflicting results. This study has applied cost of equity capital in order to measure financial performance. By considering corporate social responsibility as a transparency effect, which increases firms’ transparency, this study wants to examine if corporate social responsibility can minimize the company’s perceived risk to decrease cost of equity capital. Method: The study has applied a positivist research philosophy and a deductive research approach with setting of hypotheses. We used a quantitative research method where the secondary data was collected from Thomson Reuters DataStream. The sample of the study includes 548 companies from eight European countries. The collected data has been processed and analyzed in the statistical program called SPSS and JASP. Result & Conclusions: Our results prove that a positive respective negative relationship between corporate social responsibility and cost of equity exists depending on nation. Suggestions for future research: One suggestion for further research is to investigate why the relationship between corporate social responsibility and cost of equity appears different in nations. Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to an increased understanding for how corporate social responsibility can affect the company’s cost of equity capital in a European context. The study have contributed to a new research turn concerning how corporate social responsibility can work as a transparency effect too reduce the firms cost of equity capital. It provides further acknowledge on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance which in previous research shows conflicting results.