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In 2001, the FASB (Financial Accounting Standard Board) introduced accounting regulations SFAS 141 and SFAS 142 to improve the relevance, representational faithfulness, and comparability of financial reporting. The new standards have profoundly changed the accounting for business combinations and goodwill under US GAAP by requiring reporting entities to no longer amortize goodwill over its expected useful life, but to test for impairment annually. However, the new regulation has met sharp criticism for creating a scope for high levels of managerial discretion which may be exercised opportunistically in the accounting for goodwill. This study examines whether the proportion of purchase price allocated to goodwill differs between public and private acquisitions. We try to answer this question by carrying out a quantitative study on 481 observations, between the period of 2001 to 2005 by studying the relationship between acquirer type (Public vs. Private) and target firm characteristic on goodwill allocated, and we find the following results: 1) Public acquirers allocate higher levels of goodwill in comparison to private acquirers. (2) Market-to-book values of private target firms are not positively correlated with recorded goodwill levels.

Dans cette thèse, la fiabilité des provisions comptables environnementales est évaluée par une combinaison de méthodes de recherche quantitatives et qualitatives dans une perspective de triangulation des résultats. Tout d'abord, l'étude de la divulgation de ces provisions par les groupes cotés français révèle son insuffisance et sa dégradation sur la période 2005-2010. Ensuite, l'utilisation de tests d'adéquation à la loi de Benford pour les montants comptabilisés au bilan et de régressions multiples pour les impacts au résultat ne permettent pas de remettre en cause la fiabilité des provisions environnementales divulguées par le même échantillon de groupes cotés français. Ces résultats contrastent avec ceux des recherches antérieures validant l'utilisation discrétionnaire des provisions environnementales pour lisser le résultat et limiter l'émergence de coûts politiques. L'étude de cas multiple conduite au niveau des acteurs de ces mêmes groupes explique cette fiabilité des montants par celle de leur processus de détermination et les nombreuses pressions institutionnelles qui l'encadrent. Les résultats de cette thèse indiquent donc que certains choix comptables pouvant affecter le résultat de façon discrétionnaire sont davantage expliqués par les pressions institutionnelles subies que par la volonté des dirigeants d'améliorer leur situation personnelle. / In this dissertation, the reliability of environmental provisions is assessed through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods to ensure a triangulation of the results. Firstly, the study of their disclosure by the French listed companies reveals its insufficiency and its degradation over the period of 2005-2010. Secondly, both compliance tests to Benford's law and multiple regression analyses do not undermine the reliability of environmental provisions disclosed by the same sample of French listed companies. These results contrast with previous research validating the use of discretionary environmental provisions to smooth earnings and to limit the emergence of political costs. Thirdly, the multiple case study conducted through semi-structured interviews with actors of these groups explains the reliability of environmental provisions by the one from their assessment process and the important institutional pressure that surrounds it. Therefore, the results of this dissertation suggest that some accounting choices that can discretionary affect earnings are better explained by institutional pressure than by the willingness of managers to improve their personal situations.

This paper examines the behaviour and use of accruals management (AM) and real activities manipulation (RAM) under local Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and if it has been altered following IFRS implementation in Sweden, Finland and Norway. The paper takes inspiration from Roychowdhury (2006) and Zang (2012) and use previously developed frameworks for earnings management. It provides empirical results with data from 1997 to 2016, focusing on companies around zero earnings and zero earnings growth. The results are mixed where the use of RAM through production suggests increased earnings manipulation. RAM, through discretionary expenditures, on the other hand are positive, which suggests that companies do not engage in these activities. The results regarding AM suggest downward adjustments. However, neither discretionary expenditures nor AM have a significant change following IFRS implementation. Overall, earnings management behavior in the sample appears to be limited. Although, increased RAM has been found regarding production costs, which suggest adjustments following IFRS adoption. Lastly the paper finds that studying one type of earnings management behavior, as often previously done in research, is insufficient in order to fully estimate earnings management.

The first essay examines the impact of investor protection, market monitoring, and liquidity on the firm-level and country-level earnings management using a sample of 432 firms from 34 countries cross-listed in the U.S. The major findings are as follows: First, cross-listed firms from countries with strong legal system, strong outside investor rights, more institutional investors, and higher financial transparency are less likely to engage in earnings management. In addition, in countries with strong investor protection or market monitoring, the level of earnings management is more pronounced for illiquid firms as compared to liquid firms. Second, cross-listed firms following IFRS have lower propensity in earnings management than those following the U.S. GAAP. Third, the degree of earnings management for cross-listed firms is greater in the home country than in the U.S. market. Fourth, cross-listed firms have higher earnings management in the pre-listing period than in the post-listing period. Fifth, foreign firms listed in U.S. major markets have lower propensity to engage in earnings management than those listed in the OTC market. The findings remain robust with the inclusion of industry fixed effects and GMM estimation. All findings are largely consistent with my hypotheses that better investor protection, greater market monitoring, and higher liquidity reduce the extent of earnings management. The second essay examines the relative contribution to price discovery process of EURO/USD currency futures traded on two major exchanges: Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), using the intraday data in 2010. The relative contribution to price discovery is estimated using the information share approach of Hasbrouck (1995). Empirical findings indicate that CME accounts for approximately 87% of price discovery in the EURO/USD market and its contribution is substantially larger in the morning than that in the afternoon. This study also examines the effect of trading characteristics, including volume, quoted bid-ask spread, and price volatility, on information share. CME’s price discovery leadership is attributed to its high trading activity, low transaction costs, and lower volatility. The results support the liquidity hypothesis that a market with greater liquidity contributes more to price discovery.

Conventional wisdom suggests that firm’s patenting choice is largely due to strategic considerations such as industry competition and the prominence of the invention. We explore this issue from a managerial discretion perspective, suggesting that patenting choice facilitates managerial discretion via earnings management. On the one hand, not filing patents generates a more opaque information environment for market scrutiny, suggesting higher chance of earnings management. On the other hand, stewardship theory indicates that managers use trade secrets to protect their intellectual property. We find that non-patenting firms do not engage in financial earnings management while their real activity based earnings management is lower than patenting counterparts. On average, non-patenting choice does not lead to harmful opaqueness.

Cryptocurrencies are a phenomenon which has appeared more and more during the last years and is widely used by both individuals and entities. Their technological features have intrigued many, resulting in a significant growth of the number of cryptocurrencies available and an increased amount of areas of usage. More and more businesses have started using cryptocurrencies for example for investment purposes or accepting them as a means of payment. This has resulted in an urgent need of guidance from accounting standard setters to regulate how they are treated in financial statements. The result of the lack of such guidance has led to a variety of accounting treatments used in practice which have created significant challenges for preparers of financial statements. Up until recently the guidance for preparers of financial statements consisted of reports issued by the big accounting firms and recommendations from local regulatory accounting bodies. The lack of literature together with the possible consequences for the marketplace has resulted in an urgent need of guidance to avoid a patchwork of accounting treatments in the market. Furthermore, these challenges may result in possibilities of conducting earnings management or an increased information asymmetry between stakeholders and entities.   The purpose of this study is to understand and discuss the practical accounting issues and challenges related to cryptocurrencies for preparers of financial statements. The research is based on four broad themes which seek to assist the purpose by including several perspectives to the issues and challenges faced. The themes that the research is divided into are assets, revenues, disclosures and risk factors associated with cryptocurrencies. Based on these four themes the research question this research aims at answering is:   “What are the practical accounting issues and challenges for the preparers of financial statements related to cryptocurrencies?”   The empirical findings of this research suggest that there are many challenges which need to be resolved when it comes to accounting for cryptocurrencies. There are issues present in all four themes, but the main challenges which were identified revolved around asset classification, valuation, disclosures and risk factors. Furthermore, based on the empirical findings it is evident that the knowledge of practitioners is of a more practical nature while literature is more based on specific standards and paragraphs which can be applied. However, this research provides practical contributions to existing literature and includes aspects of risk consequences for accounting and financial markets at large. It is concluded that more accounting guidance is needed for cryptocurrencies to increase the usefulness of financial information and to reduce possibilities of earnings management which occur because of divergent accounting treatments.

The transition to the IFRS framework has contributed to changes in the handling of goodwill. The yearly impairment test has contributed with subjectivity in the measurements resulting in fewer but larger impairments. The purpose of the study is to investigate how postponement of goodwill impairment is conducted and if managers thereby contribute to a distortion of the underlying qualitative characteristics in financial reporting. Proxies for earnings management activities, through cash flow manipulation, are computed cross-sectionally by sector-year with at least ten observations. Suspect firms are then matched with control firms within the same sector and operating year to control for these effects. The study consists of quantitative secondary data collected from Thomson Reuters Eikon. The data consists of 1090 observations covering seven years of Swedish listed firms with goodwill in their balance sheet. The study concludes that suspect firms experience abnormal current free cash flows compared to control firms, which indicate managers manipulating cash flows in order to postpone goodwill impairment. Also, growth opportunities and analysts' coverage have a significant impact on earnings management activities.

Sob a teoria de agência e o contexto de gerenciamento de resultados, o objetivo do trabalho foi estudar a relação entre o gerenciamento de resultados (GR) e o custo da dívida (Ki) das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, no período de 1996 a 2007. Para isso, foram levantadas duas hipóteses de pesquisa quanto à possível relação entre GR e Ki: H1- as variáveis são inter-relacionadas; e H2- a relação é unidirecional, em que o Ki é influenciado positivamente pelo GR. Os pressupostos levantados, por meio da literatura existente, para a formulação da primeira hipótese são de que, almejando melhores condições contratuais, como o custo da dívida, o custo atual ou passado motiva a empresa a gerenciar o resultado corrente para obter melhores condições de custo futuro ou corrente. Dessa forma, as empresas, intencionalmente, procurariam gerenciar seus resultados, motivadas pelo custo da dívida. Todavia, há suporte teórico para que a relação entre essas variáveis seja unidirecional, com o gerenciamento de resultados influenciando o custo da dívida, sustentando a segunda hipótese. Um por exemplo disso é o gerenciamento de resultados, que é percebido como fator de assimetria de informação pelos credores, os quais, ao identificarem o gerenciamento, exigirão um prêmio maior pelo risco da falta de informação, elevando o custo da dívida das empresas. Assim, para testar as hipóteses do trabalho, a proxy de GR foi definida com o uso do modelo para cálculo dos accruals discricionários proposto por Kang e Sivaramakrishnan (1995) e a variável representativa do custo da dívida foi a relação entre a despesa financeira e o passivo oneroso total. A análise inicial foi feita utilizando-se o índice de correlação de Spearman e análise de média, por meio do teste não-paramétrico U de Mann-Whitney. Em seguida, utilizou-se o teste de especificação de Hausman para análise de simultaneidade, seguido da análise de regressão com dados dispostos em painel com correção de Newey-West, correção por cluster - ambas nas situações em que havia heterocedasticidade e correlação serial-, e estimador MQ2E. Os testes de correlação e de média apontaram para uma relação positiva entre GR e Ki, mas o teste de simultaneidade não indicou haver inter-relação entre as variáveis. Os resultados das regressões em painel indicaram que o Ki, atual ou passado, não influencia o GR, mas apontam para uma relação positiva, em que quanto maior o gerenciamento de resultados, maior o custo da dívida, ou seja, este é influenciado por aquele. Desse modo, os resultados permitem rejeitar a hipótese 1, mas confirmam a segunda hipótese. A princípio, tais resultados indicam que não há uma inter-relação entre GR e Ki e que as empresas não gerenciam com a intenção de impactar no custo da dívida, mas que o gerenciamento de resultados pode ter outras motivações para as empresas brasileiras. Todavia pode ser percebido pelos credores como maneira de reduzir a transparência das demonstrações contábeis, levando-os a cobrar maiores taxas de empresas com gerenciamento de resultados, gerando maior custo da dívida para as companhias. / Under the theory of agency and the context of earnings management, the objective of this research was to study the relationship between the earnings management (EM) and the cost of debt (Ki) of Brazilian open-capital companies, from 1996 to 2007. For this, two hypotheses of research have been raised as to the possible relationship between GR and Ki: H1: the variables are interrelated and H2: the relation is unidirectional where Ki is influenced positively by the GR. The hypothesis raised, by means of existing literature, to elaborate the first hypothesis are that, longing for better contractual conditions, such as the cost of the debt, the current or past costs motivate the company to manage the current result to get better conditions for future or current costs. Therefore, the companies, intentionally, would manage their results, motivated by the cost of debt. However, there is theoretical support that relations between these variables are unidirectional, with the earnings management influencing the cost of debt, supporting the second hypothesis. For example, the earnings management is perceived as a factor of asymmetric information by the creditors, who will demand a bigger prize for the risk regarding the lack of information, which raises the cost of debt of the companies. Thus, to test the hypotheses of this research, the proxy of GR was defined with the use of the model for calculation of discretionary accruals considered by Kang and Sivaramakrishnan (1995) and the representative variable of the cost of debt was the relationship between the financial expense and the total financial liability. The initial analysis was made using the index of correlation of Spearman and analysis of average, by means of non-parametric test U of Mann-Whitney. After that the test of specification of Hausman was used, for analysis of simultaneity, followed by the analysis of regression with data disposed on panel corrected by Newey-West, correction by cluster - both under the condition where there were heteroskedasticity and serial correlation, and estimator MQ2E. The average and correlation tests pointed out a positive relation between GR and Ki, but the concurrence test did not indicate to have interrelation between the variables. The results of the regressions in the panel indicated that the Ki, current or past, does not influence the GR, but point a positive relationship, where the bigger the earnings management, greater is the cost of debt, that is, this is influenced by management. Then, the results allow rejecting the first hypothesis, confirming the second hypothesis. Such results indicate that there is not an interrelation between GR and Ki and that the companies do not manage with the intention of impacting the cost of the debt, but that the earnings management can have other motivations for the Brazilian companies, however it can be perceived, by the creditors, as a way to reduce the transparency of the accounting demonstrations, leading to charge greater fees from companies with earnings management, generating bigger cost of debt for the companies.

The Upper Echelons Theory states that CEO characteristics, among them the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) of personality, affect decision-making. In an accounting context, the presence of the Dark Tetrad of personality in CEOs can reduce accounting information quality because the personalities of the Dark Tetrad are associated with callousness, impulsivity, manipulation, criminality, grandiosity, enjoyment of cruelty, and misconduct, therefore CEOs with these traits are likely to manipulate earnings or commit fraud. However, companies with strong reputation due to the credibility and trustworthiness built into the company values and culture can reduce the effect of dark personality in accounting information quality. In such context, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of corporate reputation on the relationship between the Dark Tetrad of personality and accounting information quality. The main assumption is that CEOs with strong Dark Tetrad traits engage more in earnings management and fraud; however, in companies with strong reputation, earnings management and fraud would be lower due to the values, structures, and formal or informal rules built around corporate reputation. This implies that companies with strong reputation tend to suppress the opportunistic actions of CEOs, enabling better accounting information quality. The research design was divided into two parts: the first part involved an archival method and the second part used an experiment method. For the archival method, I analyzed 434 firms (2,645 observations) with headquarters in the United States, covering the period between 2010 and 2017, using abnormal accruals, real earnings management, and classification shifting for earnings management, the overall Fortune\'s World\'s Most Admired Companies score for reputation, CEO speeches, and dark personality literature to measure the Dark Tetrad of personality. I ran regressions to test the research hypotheses and found that the Dark Tetrad of personality shows a positive relationship with all types of earnings management. Regarding reputation, only abnormal accruals show a negative relationship with corporate reputation. In turn, the interaction between the Dark Tetrad of personality and corporate reputation is negatively related to all types of earnings management. For the experimental method, I used a 2x2 between-subjects experiment design involving 101 MBA students who, in general, have had experience in management in Brazil and the United States of America. To measure the Dark Tetrad of personality, I used the Short-Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) and the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (Plouffe et al., 2017). For reputation, I adapted the scenarios from Goldberg and Hartwick (1990) and Lafferty (2007). For fraud, I developed two proxies, the first with five situations based on literature addressing accounting issues, and the other based on D\'Souza and Lima (2015). To test the hypotheses, I applied Ordinary Least Squares regressions and Poisson regressions and found that psychopathy, sadism, Machiavellianism, and the Dark Tetrad of personality show a positive relationship with accounting fraud and misrepresentation. Regarding reputation, in all the models, reputation is not related to fraud. On the other hand, in relation to the interaction between the Dark Tetrad of personality and corporate reputation, only highly Machiavellian CEOs are discouraged from committing fraud by a strong reputation. Therefore, this study demonstrated that CEO personality can affect accounting information quality, however, corporate reputation is an intangible resource that influences CEO decision-making, so as a result, reputation helps to increase accounting information quality. / A Teoria dos Altos Escalões afirma que as características do CEO afetam a tomada de decisão deles, na qual uma delas é a Tétrade Sombria (narcisismo, maquiavelismo, psicopatia e sadismo) da personalidade. No contexto contábil, a presença de traços da Tétrade Sombria em CEOs pode reduzir a qualidade da informação contábil, porque as personalidades da Tétrade Sombria estão associadas à insensibilidade, impulsividade, manipulação, criminalidade, grandiosidade, prazer na crueldade e má conduta, portanto, CEOs com esses traços provavelmente gerenciariam resultados ou cometeriam fraudes. No entanto, as empresas com forte reputação devido à credibilidade e confiabilidade que estão incorporadas em valores e cultura da empresa podem reduzir o efeito da personalidade sombria na qualidade da informação contábil. Neste contexto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo investigar o efeito moderador da reputação corporativa sobre a relação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e a qualidade da informação contábil. Assim, o principal pressuposto é que os CEOs com traços altos da Tétrade Sombria envolvem mais em gerenciamento de resultados e fraude, no entanto, em empresas com forte reputação, o gerenciamento de resultados e fraude seriam menores devido aos valores, estruturas e regras formais ou informais construídas em empresas com forte reputação. Isso implica que as empresas com forte reputação tendem a suprimir as ações oportunistas do CEO, permitindo uma melhor qualidade da informação contábil. O método de pesquisa foi dividido em duas partes: primeira parte, um método documental; e segunda parte, um método experimental. Para o método documental, foram analisadas 434 empresas (2.645 observações) com sede nos Estados Unidos para o período entre 2010 e 2017, utilizando accruals anormais, gerenciamento de resultados por atividades e mudança de classificação para gerenciamento de resultados, a pontuação geral das empresas mais admiradas da Fortune World para reputação, e o discurso do CEO e a literatura de personalidade sombria para mensurara Tétrade Sombria da personalidade. Para, foram executadas regressões para testar as hipóteses de pesquisa e verificou-se que a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade possui uma relação positiva com todos os tipos de gerenciamento de resultados; em relação à reputação, apenas os accruals anormais mostram relação negativa com a reputação corporativa; por sua vez, a interação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e a reputação corporativa está negativamente relacionada a todos os tipos de gerenciamento de resultados. Para o método experimental, foi utilizado o desenho de experimento 2x2 entre sujeitos com 101 alunos de MBA do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos da América que, em geral, tiveram experiência em gestão. Para medir a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade, foi usado The Short-Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) e Assessment of Sadistic Personality (Plouffe et al., 2017). Para a reputação, foi adaptado os cenários de Goldberg e Hartwick, (1990) e Lafferty (2007). Já para a fraude, foi empregada duas variáveis, a primeira tem cinco situações baseadas em literatura abordando questões contábeis e a outra baseia-se em D\'Souza e Lima (2015).Para testar as hipóteses, aplicou-se regressão por Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários e regressão Poisson, e observou-se que a psicopatia, o sadismo, o maquiavelismo e a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade mostraram uma relação positiva com a fraude contábil e a falsa representação; sobre a reputação, a reputação de todos os modelos não apresentou relação com fraude; Por outro lado, em relação à interação entre a Tétrade Sombria da personalidade e reputação corporativa, apenas os CEOs altamente maquiavélicos estão desencorajados a cometer fraude devido a uma forte reputação. Portanto, este estudo demonstrou que a personalidade do CEO pode afetar a qualidade da informação contábil, no entanto, a reputação corporativa é um recurso intangível que influencia a tomada de decisão do CEO, então a reputação ajuda a aumentar a qualidade da informação contábil.