After Shleifer and Vishny (1997) introduce agency conflicts between controlling insiders and outside investors, a new research trend has emerged, which focuses on controlling insiders' incentives for opportunistic behavior and assumes that controlling insiders may want more opaque corporate information environment to mask their pursuance of private control benefits. However, there are still open issues on the topic of how different controlling shareholder types, such as business group owners, institutional owners and family owners, each affect corporate information environment. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the different roles of controlling ownership types on corporate informational environment. Chapter 1 examines earnings management behaviors of firms affiliated with business groups, using a unique dataset for South Korean business groups (chaebols) between 1993 and 2007. Contrary to predictions of agency theory, we find that group firms are actually less engaged in earnings management than non-group firms, and we offer controlling family's concern for group reputation as an explanation. Group firms are also shown to use more real cash flow-based earnings management than discretionary accruals management. The results are robust with respect to the method of control sample construction, alternative models and group definitions, and endogeneity. There is also evidence that corporate reforms undertaken in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, including regulations on auditing and combined group-wide financial reports, appear to have mitigated the use of earnings management by group firms. These results are consistent with the notion that concerns for group reputation may mitigate agency-based opportunistic earnings management behaviors. Chapter 2 examines whether domestic and foreign institutional investors improve corporate transparency in the presence of controlling benefits. We construct the transparency index, as well as its sub-indices based on firm- and market-level information, using group and non-group firm-level data for South Korea between 2001 and 2007. The results show that foreign institutional ownership improves overall corporate transparency, while the effects of domestic institutional ownership are insignificant. This is traceable to sub-index findings that foreign investors are associated with improvement in both firm-level and market-level transparency, while domestic institutional investors are associated with a decrease in firm-level transparency, but with an increase in market-level transparency, which may offset each other. The effects are non-linear for domestic institutional ownership, while those of foreign institutional ownership remain monotonic. These findings are consistent with the notion that domestic institutional investors are conflicted by their role as monitors to boost transparency and by their desire to pursue control benefits by exploiting insider information and promoting selective transparency. Foreign investors, lacking such controlling benefit opportunities, tend to promote general transparency. Chapter 3 examines how the dynamics between family owners and market participants, such as analysts, market makers and investors determine a firm's overall transparency, using South Korean data between 2001 and 2007. Our results show that family ownership has a positive relation with earning-based transparency, while it has a negative relation with market-based transparency. As a result, family ownership seems to have no impact on overall transparency. However, an analysis based on sorting of family ownership shows that firms with less than 30% family ownership show a positive significant relation to overall transparency, but firms with family ownership of 30% or higher have an insignificant relation with overall transparency. This discrepancy may exist because family owners may want to promote corporate transparency through better earning-based information dissemination, but market participants discount such efforts and this discount increases as family ownership increases. / Business Administration/Finance

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has recently begun inspecting foreign audit firms. An important policy concern is that several foreign jurisdictions have refused to allow the PCAOB to conduct inspections of their audit firms. In this dissertation, I investigate (1) whether audit quality is higher for client firms (henceforth "complying" clients) whose foreign auditors have been inspected by the PCAOB, compared to client firms (henceforth "blacklisted" clients) of foreign auditors whose governments have refused inspections by the PCAOB, and (2) whether audit quality improves in the post inspection period for clients of inspected foreign auditors. I use abnormal accruals, total accruals, value relevance, and the likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion as proxies for audit quality. I conduct empirical tests on two samples, a cross-sectional sample consisting of blacklisted and complying clients, and a longitudinal sample of clients of inspected foreign auditors before and after PCAOB inspections. For the going-concern models, the samples are confined to financially distressed firms, which are either clients with negative net income or negative operating cash flows or clients in the top quartile in the bankruptcy probability distribution. The cross-sectional models indicate that blacklisted clients have significantly higher abnormal and total accruals, lower value relevance and a lower likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion, than complying clients, suggesting that clients of PCAOB-inspected auditors seem to have higher audit quality. Moreover, longitudinal analyses of clients of inspected foreign auditors show that abnormal accruals and total accruals are lower after PCAOB inspections than before inspections, and value relevance is greater after inspections than before. The likelihood of receiving a going concern opinion is higher after PCAOB inspections than before inspections for one of the two distressed-firm samples. Overall, the results are generally consistent with the PCAOB's claim that the clients of foreign audit firms that have undergone PCAOB inspections have benefited from the inspections. Further analyses indicate that the benefits are concentrated in jurisdictions where the PCAOB has conducted joint inspections with local authorities, in countries where legal traditions follow common law, and for clients of Big 4 auditors. / Business Administration/Accounting

A Sociedade de Economia Mista (SEM) é um tipo societário sui generis que não tem merecido atenção especial nos estudos, principalmente nos que são relacionados com a Ciência Contábil. A particularidade de possuir aspectos públicos e particulares, função econômica e social e de estar intimamente atrelada aos aspectos políticos e partidários, pode aduzir que essas sociedades não necessitam apresentar níveis de qualidade da informação contábil compatíveis com os outros tipos societários, porém esse fato não pode prosperar, pois as SEM estão inseridas dentro do contexto empresarial brasileiro e devem evidenciar informações contábeis com qualidade e transparência, em conformidade com as melhores práticas contábeis. Entretanto a influência pública não pode ser dissociada deste tipo societário, especialmente pelo fato de que as SEM são consideradas como intermediárias para a execução de políticas sociais que, implementadas e/ou potencializadas em períodos eleitorais, alteram os seus resultados e os seus reflexos podem não ser evidenciados de forma adequada aos usuários externos. Nesse contexto, o objetivo desta tese é analisar se a qualidade da informação contábil evidenciada pelas SEM sofre influência dos períodos eleitorais, das ideologias político-partidárias e da forma com que o capital é constituído (aberto ou fechado), bem como, qual o nível de comparação com as Sociedades Anônimas Privadas. Para a consecução dos objetivos, foram avaliadas 141 Sociedades de Economia Mista durante o período de 1995 a 2014 em três constructos de qualidade da informação contábil (suavização dos resultados, persistência dos resultados e conservadorismo condicional), através de regressões em dados em painel (desbalanceado), regressões em corte transversal e teste Qui-Quadrado de Pearson, com a finalidade de evidenciar os resultados desses constructos, sob o enfoque de dois conceitos de lucro: Lucro Líquido (LL) e Lucro Operacional (LO). Os resultados indicam que a qualidade da informação contábil das SEM é alterada em anos eleitorais, apresentando redução do nível de Persistência (LL e LO) e aumento no Conservadorismo (LL). Em relação à ideologia político-partidária do órgão governamental controlador da SEM, os resultados demonstram que a esquerda apresenta maior nível de Suavização (LL) e a direita apresenta níveis de Conservadorismo (LL) e de Persistência (LL/LO) maiores; quando analisados apenas os anos eleitorais, não existe diferença entre as ideologias. Na análise entre as SEM de Capital Aberto e Fechado aufere-se que as Fechadas possuem maior Suavização (LL), menor Persistência (LO) e menor Conservadorismo (LL); em anos eleitorais as Fechadas apresentam Conservadorismo (LL) maior. Na comparação com as Sociedades Privadas, tanto para a totalidade do período analisado quanto apenas dos anos eleitorais, vislumbra-se que as SEM apresentam: maior Suavização (LL/LO), menor Persistência (LL/LO) e menor conservadorismo (LL). Com esses resultados é possível concluir que o nível da qualidade da informação contábil das SEM sofre alterações em razão dos anos eleitorais, da ideologia politica e do tipo empresarial, porém sem ser possível identificar se a alteração é para um nível maior ou menor de qualidade; já em relação à comparação com as Sociedades Privadas, é possível afirmar que as SEM possuem um nível de qualidade da informação contábil inferior, considerando os constructos adotados na pesquisa. / The State-Owned Company (SOC) is a sui generis type of company that has not deserved special attention in studies, especially those related to Accounting Science. The particularity of having public and private aspects, economic and social function and being intimately tied to political and party aspects may suggest that these societies do not need to present levels of quality of accounting information compatible with other societal types, however, this fact cannot prosper, because the SOC are inserted within the Brazilian business context and should evidence accounting information with quality and transparency, in accordance with the best accounting practices. However, public influence cannot be dissociated from this societal type, especially because SOCs are considered as intermediates for the implementation of social policies that, implemented and / or enhanced in electoral periods, alter their results and the reflexes may not be properly evidenced to external users. In this context, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze whether the quality of the accounting information evidenced by the SOC is influenced by electoral periods, political-partisan ideologies and the way in which capital is constituted (open or closed), and what level comparison with Private Corporation. In order to achieve the objectives, 141 State-Owned Companies were evaluated during the period from 1995 to 2014 in three constructs of quality accounting information (smoothing of results, persistence of results and conditional conservatism) through panel data regressions (unbalanced ), cross-sectional regressions, and Pearson\'s Chi-Square test, with the purpose of evidencing the results of these constructs, under the focus of two profit concepts: Net Profit (NP) and Operational Profit (OP). The results indicate that the quality of the accounting information of the SOCs is altered in electoral years, presenting a reduction in the level of Persistence (NP and OP) and an increase in Conservatism (NP). In relation to the political-party ideology of the governmental governing body of SOC, the results show that the left has a higher level of Smoothing (NP) and the right has higher levels of Conservatism (NP) and Persistence (NP/OP); when only electoral years are analyzed, there is no difference between ideologies. In the analysis between the Open and Closed Capital SOCs, the closed have a greater Smoothing (NP), lower Persistence (OP) and lower Conservatism (NP); in electoral years the Closed present Conservatism (NP) major. In the comparison with the Private Companies, both for the entire analyzed period and only for the electoral years, it is possible to observe that the SOCs have: greater Smoothing (NP / OP), lower Persistence (NP / OP) and lower conservatism (NP). With these results it is possible to conclude that the level of the quality of the accounting information of the SOC change due to electoral years, political ideology and business type, but is not possible to identify if the change is to a higher or lower level of quality; already in relation to the comparison with the Private Companies, it is possible to affirm that the SOCs have a level of quality of the lower accounting information, considering the constructs adopted in the research.

A literatura trata a suavização do lucro líquido como uma das proxies para medir a qualidade da informação contábil (DECHOW; GE; SCHRAND, 2010). Porém, pesquisas sobre suavização do lucro líquido são divergentes em responder se essa suavização aumenta ou diminui a qualidade da informação. Existem trabalhos que testam se o aumento da suavização do lucro líquido aumenta a qualidade da informação por meio da persistência do lucro (TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). Sabe-se, todavia, que os investidores não projetam fluxos de caixa futuros das empresas utilizando somente o lucro líquido, mas as contas de resultado que compõem esse lucro, pois são consideradas relevantes no processo de decisão sobre determinado investimento (BARTON; HANSEN; POWNALL, 2010). Entretanto, desconhecese qual o impacto da suavização sobre as contas de resultado que compõem o lucro líquido. Assim, esta pesquisa procura analisar como o objetivo de suavizar o lucro líquido afeta a persistência das contas de resultado que compõem esse lucro. Nesse sentido, as empresas que fazem parte da amostra foram separadas em empresas que mais e menos suavizam o lucro líquido de acordo com três modelos de suavização encontrados na literatura (LEUZ; NANDA; WYSOCKI , 2003; TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). Posteriormente, foram testadas a persistência das contas de resultado, utilizando o modelo de persistência adaptado de Dechow; Ge e Schrand (2010). Os resultados apontam que as empresas que mais suavizam o lucro líquido possuem contas de resultado mais persistentes em relação às contas das empresas que menos suavizam esse lucro. Além disso, as empresas que mais suavizam o lucro líquido com maior quantidade de accruals discricionários possuem determinadas contas de resultado mais persistentes quando comparadas às empresas que mais suavizam esse lucro com menor quantidade de accruals discricionários. Portanto, os resultados sugerem que o gestor esteja suavizando o lucro artificialmente aumentando a persistência de determinadas contas de resultado, o que caracteriza estas persistências como artificiais. Assim, o investidor que projetar fluxos de caixa de empresas que mais suavizam o lucro líquido com maior quantidade de accruals discricionários poderá ter sua decisão prejudicada / The literature treats the income smoothing as one of the proxies to measure the earnings quality (DECHOW; GE; SCHRAND, 2010). However, research on the income smoothing diverges in whether this smoothing increases or decreases the earnings quality. There are studies that test whether the increase in income smoothing increases the quality of information through the earnings persistence (TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). It is known, however, that investors do not project future cash flows of companies using only net income, but the profit and loss accounts that make up this profit since they are considered relevant in the decision process on an investment (BARTON; HANSEN; POWNALL, 2010). However, the impact of income smoothing on the income statements that make up net income is not known. Thus, this research seeks to analyze how the objective of smoothing the net profit affects the persistence of the income accounts that compose this profit. In this sense, the companies that are part of the sample were separated into companies that more and less smooth the net profit according to three models of income smoothing found in the literature (LEUZ; NANDA; WYSOCKI , 2003; TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). Subsequently, the persistence of the profit and loss accounts was tested using the persistence model adapted from Dechow; Ge and Schrand (2010). The results show that the companies that smoothed the net profit have more persistent profit and loss accounts in relation to the accounts of the companies that least smooth their profit. In addition, companies that the most smoothed their net income with greater amount of discretionary accruals have more persistent profit and loss accounts when compared to the companies that most smooth their profit with less amount of discretionary accruals. Therefore, the results suggest that it is possible for the manager being artificially smoothing the profit, making certain profit and loss accounts more persistent, which characterizes persistence as artificial. Thus, the investor who projects future cash flow from companies that the most smooth the net income with greater discretionary accruals may have their decision impaired, since the projection of future cash flow may not represent the expected future financial performance of the company

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-08-05T14:36:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Jean Carlos Oliveira Seidler.pdf: 860848 bytes, checksum: 82f554c11bb4f3893cd7b7f66e1c5222 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-08-05T14:36:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jean Carlos Oliveira Seidler.pdf: 860848 bytes, checksum: 82f554c11bb4f3893cd7b7f66e1c5222 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-16 / Nenhuma / Diante da importância do lucro como indicador de desempenho financeiro das empresas e os questionamentos sobre a qualidade destas informações, o presente estudo objetivou classificar a qualidade de lucros (Earnings Quality) das empresas listadas no mercado de capitais no Brasil por meio de um índice de qualidade doslucros (IQL). A amostra utilizada foi composta por sociedades anônimas de capital aberto, listadas na BM&FBovespa, que negociaram ações entre os anos de 2003 a 2012. A base de dados foi extraída do software Economática® e obteve um total de 1746 observações. Foram apresentados os resultados dos modelos de persistência de Dechow e Schrand (2004), conservadorismo de Ball e Shivakumar (2005) e gerenciamento de resultados de Kang e Sivaramakrishnan (1995). Os resultados obtidos nestes modelos possibilitaram a elaboração do Índice de Qualidade dos Lucros (IQL), mediante a aplicação da técnica de análise de componentes principais (PCA). A análise proporcionou identificar as empresas Elekeiroz, Ambev, Energias BR, Tegma e Tecnisa como as companhias com maiores scores de IQL de toda a amostra. Já em relação ao segmento de mercado, destacaram-se o setor da Construção civil, com 6 empresas entre o Ranking dos 30 maiores IQL’s. O menor nível dequalidade dos lucros foi para empresa Eletrobras que ficou em último lugar no Ranking de IQL. Em relação aos piores índices por segmento de mercado, destacou-se o setor da têxtil, com 6 empresas entre o Ranking dos 30 menores IQL’s. Importante salientar que o setor de energia elétrica apareceu de forma expressiva tanto no segmento com melhores índices de IQL, como também, nos menores índices de IQL. Dessa forma, sugere-se estudo especifico com a finalidade de se verificar a influência da qualidade dos lucros em setores altamente regulados, como por, exemplo o setor de energia elétrica. / Given the importance of income as a financial performance indicator of the companies, and the questions about the quality of this information, this study aimed to classify the Earnings Quality of listed companies in the capital market in Brazil through a quality index of profits (IQL). The sample was composed of corporations publicly traded, listed on the BM&FBovespa, that negotiated actions between the years 2003 to 2012. The database was extracted from Economática® software and a total of 1746 observations were obtained. Were presented the results of the models the persistence of Dechow and Schrand (2004), conservatism Ball and Shivakumar (2005) and earnings management of Kang and Sivaramakrishnan (1995) . The results obtained in these models allowed the preparation of the Profit Quality Index (IQL), by applying the principal component analysis (PCA). The analysis provided identify Elekeiroz companies, Ambev, BR Energy, Tegma and Tecnisa as companies with higher scores IQL of the entire sample. In relation to the market segment, the highlights were the civil construction sector, with 6 companies among the Top 30 largest IQL's. The lowest level of quality of earnings was to Eletrobras company that ranked last in the IQL Ranking. Regarding the worst rates by market segment, the highlight was the textile sector, with 6 companies among the Top 30 smaller IQL's. Noteworthy that the electricity sector appeared significantly both in the segment with better rates of IQL, but also in lower rates of IQL. Thus, it is suggested specific study in order to investigate the influence of the quality of profits in highly regulated industries, such as, eg the electricity sector.

本研究探討盈餘品質、風險因子與權益資金成本之關係，主要研究盈餘品質是否會因為其他風險因子而降低對權益資金成本的影響。本研究之盈餘品質採用四種不同的衡量方式，先探討三種衡量盈餘品質的方式與風險因子對權益資金成本的影響，再將三種衡量盈餘品質的方式計算出一個綜合分數，探討綜合分數與風險因子對權益資金成本的影響，並將變數標準化來排序所有影響權益資金成本的因素。 實證結果顯示異常應計項目及盈餘品質綜合分數在其他風險因子納入模型後，仍然是權益資金成本的顯著影響因素。三種盈餘品質衡量方式與風險因子進行標準化後，對權益資金成本的影響順序，依序為淨值市值比、負債市值比、非系統風險、企業規模、股票週轉率、動能效果、系統性風險、異常應計項目及負債淨值比。而綜合分數與風險因子標準化之排序結果為負債市值比、非系統性風險、企業規模、股票週轉率、動能效果、淨值市值比、系統性風險、負債淨值比及綜合分數。統計上，即使考量了各種風險因子，盈餘品質仍是權益資金成本顯著的影響因子。 / This study investigates the relation among earnings quality, risk factors and cost of equity, especially, the existence of the effect of earnings quality on cost of equity while risk factors are considered, and the impact order of determinants of cost of equity. Fur measures of earnings quality are examined in the study of determinants of cost equity. We investigate how three individual measures of earnings quality and risk factors affect cost of equity. Then, we use the common factor score of these three individual measures of earnings quality as a composite of earnings quality to examine the impact of earnings quality and risk factors on cost of equity. Furthermore, we standardize variables to order the effects of determinants of cost of equity. The empirical result shows that both the absolute value of abnormal accruals and the composite factor score of earnings quality have positive effect on cost of equity. With three individual measures of earnings quality and risk factors as determinants of cost of equity, the effects in order the ratio of book value of equity to market value of equity, are the ratio of debt to market value of equity, unsystematic risk, firm size, shares turnover, momentum effect, systematic risk, absolute value of abnormal accruals and the ratio of debt to book value of equity. While with the composite common factor score and risk factors as determinants of cost of equity, the effect in order are the ratio of debt to market value of equity, unsystematic risk, firm size, shares turnover, momentum effect, the ratio of book value of equity to market value of equity, systematic risk, the ratio of debt to book value of equity and common factor. As a conclusion, the earnings quality is statistically a significant determinant of cost of equity after considering a variety of risk factors.

董事會是公司治理之核心，設置審計委員會為其職能，確保盈餘品質與財務報導。因此，為了解審計委員會的專業性對盈餘品質與聯合貸款之影響，本研究選取2000年至2012年美國上市非金融業公司作為研究樣本，以聯貸利差作為衡量聯合貸款契約特性之變數。首先探討盈餘品質對貸款利差的影響，再進一步考量審計委員會的會計專業對於盈餘品質與聯合貸款有何影響。研究結果發現，企業的盈餘品質與貸款利差呈負向關係，顯示當公司的盈餘品質好的時候好，能取得較低的聯貸利差，且當審計委員會成員具有會計專業時，其現象會更加明顯。 / Board of directors is the core of corporate governance, and one of the main functions of board of directors is to establish audit committee to ensure the company’s earnings quality and financial reporting. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of audit committee with accounting experts on the loan spread in the syndication loan market. This study is based on a sample of US companies during 2000-2012. The results show that earnings quality is negatively associated with loan spread, and this is more pronounced when the proportion of accounting experts on the audit committee is higher. Keyword: Audit

A literatura trata a suavização do lucro líquido como uma das proxies para medir a qualidade da informação contábil (DECHOW; GE; SCHRAND, 2010). Porém, pesquisas sobre suavização do lucro líquido são divergentes em responder se essa suavização aumenta ou diminui a qualidade da informação. Existem trabalhos que testam se o aumento da suavização do lucro líquido aumenta a qualidade da informação por meio da persistência do lucro (TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). Sabe-se, todavia, que os investidores não projetam fluxos de caixa futuros das empresas utilizando somente o lucro líquido, mas as contas de resultado que compõem esse lucro, pois são consideradas relevantes no processo de decisão sobre determinado investimento (BARTON; HANSEN; POWNALL, 2010). Entretanto, desconhecese qual o impacto da suavização sobre as contas de resultado que compõem o lucro líquido. Assim, esta pesquisa procura analisar como o objetivo de suavizar o lucro líquido afeta a persistência das contas de resultado que compõem esse lucro. Nesse sentido, as empresas que fazem parte da amostra foram separadas em empresas que mais e menos suavizam o lucro líquido de acordo com três modelos de suavização encontrados na literatura (LEUZ; NANDA; WYSOCKI , 2003; TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). Posteriormente, foram testadas a persistência das contas de resultado, utilizando o modelo de persistência adaptado de Dechow; Ge e Schrand (2010). Os resultados apontam que as empresas que mais suavizam o lucro líquido possuem contas de resultado mais persistentes em relação às contas das empresas que menos suavizam esse lucro. Além disso, as empresas que mais suavizam o lucro líquido com maior quantidade de accruals discricionários possuem determinadas contas de resultado mais persistentes quando comparadas às empresas que mais suavizam esse lucro com menor quantidade de accruals discricionários. Portanto, os resultados sugerem que o gestor esteja suavizando o lucro artificialmente aumentando a persistência de determinadas contas de resultado, o que caracteriza estas persistências como artificiais. Assim, o investidor que projetar fluxos de caixa de empresas que mais suavizam o lucro líquido com maior quantidade de accruals discricionários poderá ter sua decisão prejudicada / The literature treats the income smoothing as one of the proxies to measure the earnings quality (DECHOW; GE; SCHRAND, 2010). However, research on the income smoothing diverges in whether this smoothing increases or decreases the earnings quality. There are studies that test whether the increase in income smoothing increases the quality of information through the earnings persistence (TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). It is known, however, that investors do not project future cash flows of companies using only net income, but the profit and loss accounts that make up this profit since they are considered relevant in the decision process on an investment (BARTON; HANSEN; POWNALL, 2010). However, the impact of income smoothing on the income statements that make up net income is not known. Thus, this research seeks to analyze how the objective of smoothing the net profit affects the persistence of the income accounts that compose this profit. In this sense, the companies that are part of the sample were separated into companies that more and less smooth the net profit according to three models of income smoothing found in the literature (LEUZ; NANDA; WYSOCKI , 2003; TUCKER; ZAROWIN, 2006). Subsequently, the persistence of the profit and loss accounts was tested using the persistence model adapted from Dechow; Ge and Schrand (2010). The results show that the companies that smoothed the net profit have more persistent profit and loss accounts in relation to the accounts of the companies that least smooth their profit. In addition, companies that the most smoothed their net income with greater amount of discretionary accruals have more persistent profit and loss accounts when compared to the companies that most smooth their profit with less amount of discretionary accruals. Therefore, the results suggest that it is possible for the manager being artificially smoothing the profit, making certain profit and loss accounts more persistent, which characterizes persistence as artificial. Thus, the investor who projects future cash flow from companies that the most smooth the net income with greater discretionary accruals may have their decision impaired, since the projection of future cash flow may not represent the expected future financial performance of the company

A Sociedade de Economia Mista (SEM) é um tipo societário sui generis que não tem merecido atenção especial nos estudos, principalmente nos que são relacionados com a Ciência Contábil. A particularidade de possuir aspectos públicos e particulares, função econômica e social e de estar intimamente atrelada aos aspectos políticos e partidários, pode aduzir que essas sociedades não necessitam apresentar níveis de qualidade da informação contábil compatíveis com os outros tipos societários, porém esse fato não pode prosperar, pois as SEM estão inseridas dentro do contexto empresarial brasileiro e devem evidenciar informações contábeis com qualidade e transparência, em conformidade com as melhores práticas contábeis. Entretanto a influência pública não pode ser dissociada deste tipo societário, especialmente pelo fato de que as SEM são consideradas como intermediárias para a execução de políticas sociais que, implementadas e/ou potencializadas em períodos eleitorais, alteram os seus resultados e os seus reflexos podem não ser evidenciados de forma adequada aos usuários externos. Nesse contexto, o objetivo desta tese é analisar se a qualidade da informação contábil evidenciada pelas SEM sofre influência dos períodos eleitorais, das ideologias político-partidárias e da forma com que o capital é constituído (aberto ou fechado), bem como, qual o nível de comparação com as Sociedades Anônimas Privadas. Para a consecução dos objetivos, foram avaliadas 141 Sociedades de Economia Mista durante o período de 1995 a 2014 em três constructos de qualidade da informação contábil (suavização dos resultados, persistência dos resultados e conservadorismo condicional), através de regressões em dados em painel (desbalanceado), regressões em corte transversal e teste Qui-Quadrado de Pearson, com a finalidade de evidenciar os resultados desses constructos, sob o enfoque de dois conceitos de lucro: Lucro Líquido (LL) e Lucro Operacional (LO). Os resultados indicam que a qualidade da informação contábil das SEM é alterada em anos eleitorais, apresentando redução do nível de Persistência (LL e LO) e aumento no Conservadorismo (LL). Em relação à ideologia político-partidária do órgão governamental controlador da SEM, os resultados demonstram que a esquerda apresenta maior nível de Suavização (LL) e a direita apresenta níveis de Conservadorismo (LL) e de Persistência (LL/LO) maiores; quando analisados apenas os anos eleitorais, não existe diferença entre as ideologias. Na análise entre as SEM de Capital Aberto e Fechado aufere-se que as Fechadas possuem maior Suavização (LL), menor Persistência (LO) e menor Conservadorismo (LL); em anos eleitorais as Fechadas apresentam Conservadorismo (LL) maior. Na comparação com as Sociedades Privadas, tanto para a totalidade do período analisado quanto apenas dos anos eleitorais, vislumbra-se que as SEM apresentam: maior Suavização (LL/LO), menor Persistência (LL/LO) e menor conservadorismo (LL). Com esses resultados é possível concluir que o nível da qualidade da informação contábil das SEM sofre alterações em razão dos anos eleitorais, da ideologia politica e do tipo empresarial, porém sem ser possível identificar se a alteração é para um nível maior ou menor de qualidade; já em relação à comparação com as Sociedades Privadas, é possível afirmar que as SEM possuem um nível de qualidade da informação contábil inferior, considerando os constructos adotados na pesquisa. / The State-Owned Company (SOC) is a sui generis type of company that has not deserved special attention in studies, especially those related to Accounting Science. The particularity of having public and private aspects, economic and social function and being intimately tied to political and party aspects may suggest that these societies do not need to present levels of quality of accounting information compatible with other societal types, however, this fact cannot prosper, because the SOC are inserted within the Brazilian business context and should evidence accounting information with quality and transparency, in accordance with the best accounting practices. However, public influence cannot be dissociated from this societal type, especially because SOCs are considered as intermediates for the implementation of social policies that, implemented and / or enhanced in electoral periods, alter their results and the reflexes may not be properly evidenced to external users. In this context, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze whether the quality of the accounting information evidenced by the SOC is influenced by electoral periods, political-partisan ideologies and the way in which capital is constituted (open or closed), and what level comparison with Private Corporation. In order to achieve the objectives, 141 State-Owned Companies were evaluated during the period from 1995 to 2014 in three constructs of quality accounting information (smoothing of results, persistence of results and conditional conservatism) through panel data regressions (unbalanced ), cross-sectional regressions, and Pearson\'s Chi-Square test, with the purpose of evidencing the results of these constructs, under the focus of two profit concepts: Net Profit (NP) and Operational Profit (OP). The results indicate that the quality of the accounting information of the SOCs is altered in electoral years, presenting a reduction in the level of Persistence (NP and OP) and an increase in Conservatism (NP). In relation to the political-party ideology of the governmental governing body of SOC, the results show that the left has a higher level of Smoothing (NP) and the right has higher levels of Conservatism (NP) and Persistence (NP/OP); when only electoral years are analyzed, there is no difference between ideologies. In the analysis between the Open and Closed Capital SOCs, the closed have a greater Smoothing (NP), lower Persistence (OP) and lower Conservatism (NP); in electoral years the Closed present Conservatism (NP) major. In the comparison with the Private Companies, both for the entire analyzed period and only for the electoral years, it is possible to observe that the SOCs have: greater Smoothing (NP / OP), lower Persistence (NP / OP) and lower conservatism (NP). With these results it is possible to conclude that the level of the quality of the accounting information of the SOC change due to electoral years, political ideology and business type, but is not possible to identify if the change is to a higher or lower level of quality; already in relation to the comparison with the Private Companies, it is possible to affirm that the SOCs have a level of quality of the lower accounting information, considering the constructs adopted in the research.

Understanding what drives stock returns is an essential question for investors, financial institutions, and economists. The question is important not only for individuals, but also for the overall economy, as forms of inefficiency such as bubbles can lead to stock market crashes that have a negative impact on the real economy itself. In contrast to the Efficient Markets Hypothesis, which posits that the stock market is efficient at correctly pricing stocks, the accrual anomaly is an example of one of the largest inefficiencies in the equity market. The aim of this thesis is to examine if the accrual anomaly has lessened in recent history. We analyze if the increasing trend of institutional funds trading on accrual mispricing, the increasing presence of cash flow forecasts, or earnings quality could be responsible for mitigating the accrual anomaly effect. A robust MM regression is used to assess the anomaly alleviation. The analysis focuses on the US stock market. We confirm the mitigation of accrual mispricing based on the increase in trading on the accrual anomaly and quality of earnings for the period from 1991 to 2015, but not the growing number of cash flow forecasts.