Ao longo da última década, tem aumentado o reconhecimento de medidas de gerenciamento de valor. Dentre essas, uma que tem recebido grande atenção tanto no meio acadêmico quanto nas empresas em geral é o valor econômico agregado (EVA®). Muito se tem discutido sobre essa medida, sendo que seus defensores afirmam que ela é uma melhor medida de desempenho do que as medidas contábeis tradicionais. Nessa perspectiva, uma série de pesquisas tem sido realizada, verificando a relação entre o EVA® e o retorno de ações, onde os resultados alternam-se entre uma relação superior dessa medida e o retorno de ações em comparação com as medidas contábeis tradicionais e uma fraca relação ou a ausência de relação entre essas variáveis. Em diferente abordagem, Machuga, Pfeiffer Jr. e Verma (2002) realizaram um estudo no mercado norte americano para verificar a capacidade do EVA® na predição de lucros futuros. Replicando a metodologia desse estudo, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo verificar empiricamente se o EVA® fornece informação incremental para predição de lucros futuros das empresas de capital aberto do Brasil. Na metodologia, foram aplicados modelos de regressão linear múltipla no período de 1998 a 2006 para testar a proposição de que o EVA® fornece informação incrementalmente útil para predizer lucros de um ano adiante das empresas de capital aberto do Brasil. Foram aplicadas regressões anuais (crosssection) e verificou-se a significância estatística dos coeficientes médios. Com os resultados obtidos, não se pode comprovar a utilidade incremental do EVA® na predição de lucros futuros. Na seqüência, realizou-se um teste do valor incremental da inclusão da informação EVA® no modelo de predição, sendo que foram aplicadas novas regressões sem as variáveis EVA® e apurados os novos coeficientes médios; em seguida, foram efetuadas duas previsões de lucros, uma utilizando os valores médios com e outra sem o EVA® . Por meio da comparação desses valores previstos com os reais dos lucros e apurando suas respectivas diferenças, obteve-se os erros médios de previsão. Foi observado que os erros médios de previsão apresentaram-se elevados em função da alta dispersão das variáveis da pesquisa, também foi encontrado que os erros médios de previsão foram menores quando houve a inclusão da informação do EVA® , indicando a utilidade incremental dessa medida na predição de lucros futuros, entretanto esses resultados devem ser interpretados como indicativos e não como conclusivos, já que os coeficientes das variáveis, em sua maioria, não se demonstraram estatisticamente significantes. / There has been increased recognition over the last decade of the measures of management of value. Among these, one that has received the great attention either on the academic field or in the companies in general is the Economic Value Added (EVA®). A lot has been argued about this measure, its defenders affirm that it is one measure of performance better than the traditional accounting measures. In these perspective, a lot of researches have been done, verifying the relation between the EVA® and the stock returns, where the results change between one relation superior of these measures and the stock returns in comparison with the usual accounting measures and a weak relationship or absence of relation between these variables. In a different approach, Machuga, Pfeiffer Jr. and Verma (2002) realize a study on the North America market to verify the ability of EVA® in the prediction of future earnings. Applying the methodology of this study, this research had as goal to verify empirically if the EVA® supplies incremental information to predict future earnings of the Brazilian public companies. After, in the methodology, some multiple linear regression models were applied on the period of 1998 to 2006 to test the proposition that EVA® supplies information incrementally useful to predict one-year-ahead earnings of the Brazilian public companies. The annual cross-section regressions were applied and verified the statistic significance of the average coefficients. With the gotten results, one cannot confirm the incremental utility of EVA® in the future earnings prediction. In the sequence, a test of the incremental value of the inclusion of the information EVA® on the model of prediction was realized, it being that news regressions were applied without the variables EVA® and gotten the new average coefficients, after that, two predictions of earnings was effected, one using the mean values with and the other without the EVA® information. By the comparison of the predicted values with the actual earnings and checking its respective differences, one got the average forecast errors. It was observed that the average forecast errors had been presented high in function of the high dispersion of the variables of the research. It was founded too that the average forecast errors were lower when was included the information of EVA®, indicating the incremental utility of this measure on the prediction of future earnings, however, these results must be interpreted as indicative and not as conclusive, since the coefficients of the variables, in its majority, did not show statistically significant.

Pro forma EPS reporting is a fairly new accounting disclosure; it has since been modified in 2003 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to include additional disclosure and filing requirements. This “Regulation G” has been around for nearly a decade and since that time a major financial crises in the United States has occurred. This study attempts to analyze trends in pro forma EPS reporting within the S & P 500 constituents during the Great Recession, and speculate as to whether earnings management was apparent. This study provides evidence that there was a significant increase in the proportion of pro forma disclosers and magnitudes of those disclosers. Results also indicate that the presence of negative earnings and intangibles have a significant effect on the magnitude of these differences and that there appears to be a level of consistency in pro forma reporting among firms. Results allude to the possibility of short term and long term earnings management strategies during the Great recession among S & P 500 constituents.

Post earnings announcement drift (PEAD) is defined as the drift that occurs in a company’s share priceafter their earnings announcement. A company that reports earnings above (below) the analysts’expectations should, according to previous studies of PEAD, continue to drift upwards (downwards)after the announcement. (Ball & Brown, 1968) The thesis purpose is to investigate if PEAD existed onthe Swedish market between 2006-2010. We test PEAD’s existences through; (i) creating portfolios inwhich companies’ abnormal return (AR) we expect to decline or increase, (ii) doing a multiple regressionanalysis to test if the drift is statistically significant. From the results of our study, we can neither acceptnor reject the hypothesis that PEAD existed on the Swedish market, although the multiple regressionanalysis prove a statistically significant result for companies’ AR that we expect to decline have drifted3,11% in a negative direction compared to our total sample.

I denna studie undersöker vi om det förekommer earnings management i resultathöjande syfte bland svenska börsnoterade företag vid tiden av en nyemission. Studier om earnings management vid nyemissioner har gjorts förut av exempelvis av (Shivakumar, 2000). Han kommer fram till att earnings management förekommer tiden precis innan en nyemission. Vi hittar dock ingen studie utförd på svenska företag, vilket vi vill undersöka närmare. Syftet med resultatet av studien är att visa intressenter till företagen att de kan bli vilseledda när de ska investera sitt kapital när earnings management förekommer. / In this study, we examine whether there occurs earnings management in order to increase earnings in Swedish listed companies at the time of an equity offering. Studies on earnings management at the time of an equity offering has been done before, for example by (Shivakumar, 2000). He concludes that earnings management occurs the time just before an equity offering. We find, however, no study conducted in Swedish companies, which we want to investigate further. The purpose of the outcome of the study is to show stakeholders to the companies that they can be misled when to invest their capital when earnings management occurs.

Starting from 2005 the disclosure of financial forecast for Taiwanese public companies has not been mandatory, firms can decide whether they want to disclose, and if so, how and when to disclose. How does the investor's reaction affect this decision? Furthermore, what is the trade-off between transparency and precision? This study develops a theoretical model in which the voluntary disclosure of earnings forecast is a double-edged sword. Such disclosure may reduce information asymmetry, but simultaneously allows entrepreneurs to hype the stock. The proposed model assumes that insiders might manipulate information and investors can learn with bounded rationality. The analytical results demonstrate that entrepreneurs may forgo earnings forecast disclosure if they can achieve greater profit under non-disclosure. In the multiperiod case, this study shows that insiders would reduce their forecast manipulation behavior due to the cost of forecast error and diminishing marginal expected profit. This study accommodates an explanation of the decrease in voluntary disclosure and the popularity of investor conferences in Taiwan. The inferences of the proposed model are examined based on forecasts issued by Taiwanese listed firms. The empirical results evidence a positive relationship between insiders¡¦ trading profit and manipulation of earnings forecast. Additionally, insiders¡¦ trading profit regarding forecast revisions is greater under voluntary disclosure than mandatory disclosure. This study offers important insights into earnings forecast policy in emerging markets.

Information transparency enhances corporate governance. In an attempt to reduce the information asymmetry between business insiders and outsiders and to allow outsiders to have more information for decision making by disclosing more corporate information voluntarily, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TSEC) and Over-The-Counter Securities Exchange (OTCE) requested the Securities & Futures Institute (SFI) to implement an information disclosure and evaluation system for all publicly traded and OTC companies listed in TSEC. This study investigates the effects of the system on decision behavior of the investors, analysts, and auditors. Empirical results indicate that investors¡¦ ability of future earnings evaluation increases, analysts¡¦ earnings forecasts are more accurate, and the earnings forecasts dispersion among the analysts decreases after the system has been implemented. However, the implementation of the system has no effects on the types of audit opinion issued by auditors. Besides, the analysts¡¦ earnings forecasts are more accurate for the ¡§more transparent¡¨ companies. However, the differences of future earnings evaluation, earnings forecasts dispersion among the analysts and types of audit opinion between ¡§more transparent¡¨ and ¡§less transparent¡¨ companies are not significant. These results may provide implication to authorities for making related policies.

There is an ethical dilemma and a legal issue of earnings management and insider trading, and a risk of it affecting the accuracy of financial markets. The use of earnings management leads to an information asymmetry between the corporate management and the financial markets. This paper investigates how earnings management affects insider trading and whether insider trading is a good information source about earnings quality and future performance. Studying companies believed to have conducted earnings management on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stock Exchange (Stockholm) from 2005 through 2014 indicates that: (1) insiders do not sell shares after managing earnings upwards; (2) the relationship between insider selling and future earnings performance is positive, contradicting agency theory and previous research; (3) the market’s reaction to the earnings announcement one year after suspected earnings management is positive for firms where insiders have sold shares, and vice versa. Taken together, our results are not in line with those of previous studies conducted on other markets. This is likely to depend on the unique Swedish setting with the existence of endowment insurances, where insiders can trade shares without having to disclose their transactions to the market. Because of this, we argue that insider trading is not an adequate signal about Swedish firms’ earnings quality and future performance. We therefor further emphasize the importance of a change in the Swedish legislation, in order to insure the accuracy of financial markets and to protect other investors.

This study examines whether earnings guidance contributes to investor short-termism -- excessive focus on a firm's short term performance and insufficient consideration of its long-term value creation potential. Using an adaptation of Ohlson's (1995) valuation model, I find that investors place significantly higher (lower) weight on short-term (long-term) earnings of quarterly guidance firms than on the corresponding earnings of non-guidance firms. Further tests indicate that the differential weighting cannot be fully explained by measurement errors, earnings properties, risk, or accuracy of analysts' forecasts. For a sample of guidance initiating firms, I find no differential valuations of firm value components before the initiation of guidance, but large differential valuations after guidance initiation. In contrast, for guidance discontinuation firms, I find that investors shift their focus from short-term to long-term earnings after the discontinuation of guidance. Together, the results support critics' claim that quarterly guidance contributes to short-term fixation in the market. / text

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the new Financial Fair Play regulations set forth by the United European Football Association (UEFA) in 2011 on levels of earnings management in European professional football. The Financial Fair Play regulations were imposed as a means of controlling the exorbitant amounts of debt and player’s wages that have threatened the financial stability of many professional football clubs throughout Europe. While UEFA has boasted early success of the new regulations, citing reduced aggregate losses of all football clubs, reduced overdue payables, and less outstanding debt, this study examines levels of discretionary accruals before and after the new regulations were instated to determine if teams are managing earnings to avoid UEFA sanctions. This study collected data from 137 different teams competing in UEFA competition from 2007 to 2013. Discretionary accruals were estimated using the Jones model (1991) as modified by Kothari et al. (2005). The findings of this study were largely inconclusive as a significant difference could not be found in levels of abnormal discretionary accruals before and after the introduction of Financial Fair Play. These findings may suggest that UEFA has succeeded in creating regulations that have curbed an era of extreme leveraging and club losses while simultaneously restricting additional opportunities for club owners to manage earnings that reduce both earnings quality and financial transparency. Overall, the findings from this study highlight the need for more widely available financial information from European football clubs and additional years of financial data under the new regulations.

<p>This dissertation consists of two related essays on the economics of immigration. The first chapter presents new evidence on whether the earnings of foreign-born workers grow faster than that of similarly educated natives. We compare cross-sectional and panel analyses of assimilation in the U.S. context. The panel data allow us to control for fixed unobserved heterogeneity in earnings. As others have found for earlier entry cohorts, we find that immigrants with less than a college education start at an earnings disadvantage but converge toward native earnings with time in the U.S. in the cross-section. Lower earning immigrants selectively leave on-the-books jobs. We also find substantial selection among low earnings natives who also tend to work less and leave the labor force earlier. Both groups display selection and the net result is that controlling for fixed unobserved heterogeneity has little effect on the relative earnings growth of low-skilled immigrants.</p><p>We find very different results for high-skilled workers. In the cross-sectional analysis, immigrants whose highest level of education is a bachelor's degree exhibit a decline in relative earnings with time in the U.S. However, for these immigrants, the inclusion of an individual fixed effect reveals faster earnings growth relative to natives. Among both immigrants and natives, lower earners selectively leave the covered sector. However, because low earning immigrants who remain in the sample become more likely to work with time in the U.S., the net result is that the average earnings of immigrants diminish. These results indicate that controlling for individual heterogeneity is important in estimating the economic assimilation of immigrants.</p><p>The second chapter examines the role of the workplace in earnings assimilation. Using an earnings panel much like in the first chapter, we consider whether job characteristics such as firm size, industry, and firm specific tenure can account for earnings differences between native and foreign-born workers. We focus on workers with less than a college education and find that the job characteristics considered account for almost all of the faster earnings growth of high school dropouts and half of the faster earnings growth of high school graduate immigrants. Rising relative job tenure of immigrants is the most important factor.</p> / Dissertation