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Dual-class stock structure is characterized by the separation of voting rights and cash flow rights. The departure from a common “one share-one vote” configuration creates ideal conditions for conflicts of interest and agency problems between controlling insiders (the holders of voting rights) and remaining shareholders. The owners of voting rights have the opportunity to extract private benefits and act in their personal interest; as a result, dual-class firms are often perceived to have low transparency and high information asymmetry. This dissertation investigates the quality of information and the information environment of firms with two classes of stock. The first essay examines the quality of information by studying accruals in dual-class firms in comparison to firms with only one class of stock. The results suggest that the quality of accruals is better in dual-class firms than in single-class firms. In addition, the difference in the quality of accruals between firms that abolish their dual-class share structure by unification and singe-class firms disappears in the post-unification period. The second essay investigates the earnings informativeness of dual-class firms by examining the explanatory power of earnings for returns. The results indicate that the earnings informativeness is lower for dual-class firms as compared to single-class firms. Earnings informativeness improves in firms that unify their shares. The third essay compares the level of information asymmetry between dual-class firms and single-class firms. It is documented that the information environment for dual-class firms is worse than for single-class firms. Also, the finding suggests that the difference in information environment between dual-class firms and single-class firms disappears after dual-class stock unification.

Although corporate environmental accountability is receiving unprecedented attention in the United States from policy makers, the capital market, and the public at large, extant research is limited in its examination of the implications of strategic corporate environmental initiatives on accounting and auditing. The purpose of my dissertation is to address these implications by examining the association between firm environmental initiatives and audit fees, capital expenditures, and earnings quality using multivariate regression analysis. I find that firms engaged in more strategic environmental initiatives tend to have significantly higher audit fees and capital expenditures, and significantly lower levels of earnings manipulation measured using discretionary accruals. These results support the notion that auditors do recognize the importance of environmental initiatives when conducting the year-end financial statement audit, an idea that positively reflects upon the auditor’s monitoring role. The results also demonstrate the increased amount of capital resources required to participate in strategic environmental initiatives, an anecdotal notion that had yet to be empirically supported. This empirical support provides valuable insights on how environmental initiatives materially impact corporate financial statements. Finally, my results extend the extant literature by demonstrating that the superior financial performance reported by environmentally active firms is less likely driven by earnings manipulation by management, and by implication, more likely a result of real economic gains. Taken together, my dissertation establishes a strong and timely foundation for current and future research to explore corporate environmental initiatives in the United States and globally, a topic increasingly gaining momentum in today’s more eco-conscious world.

Introduktion och problembakgrund: Finansiell rapportering är en viktig källa för information till externa intressenter. Analytiker spelar en viktig roll som informationsförmedlare, och bidrar således till en minskad informationsassymetri mellan företaget och dess intressenter. Vidare har analytiker även en övervakande roll i bolagsstyrningen. Real activities manipulation är en form av earnings management där företaget manipulerar sitt resultat genom riktiga affärshändelser. Det finns inga tidigare studier i Sverige på sambandet mellan analytikerbevakning och RAM. Således är det av intresse att genomföra en studie på börsnoterade företag i Sverige, vilket leder till forskningsfrågan: Finns det något samband mellan analytikerbevakning och förekomsten av real activities manipulation (RAM) i börsnoterade bolag i Sverige? Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka sambandet mellan analytikerbevakning och förekomsten av real activities manipulation hos företag noterade på stockholmsbörsens small- mid- och large-cap listor. Studiens första delsyfte är att kartlägga analytikerbevakningen inom urvalet. Det andra delsyftet är att skatta RAM. Teoretisk referensram: Den teoretiska referensramen är byggd på tidigare studier inom earnings management, real activities manipulation och analytikerbevakning. Vidare inkluderas även teorier som förklarar relationen analytikerbevakning och earnings management; signalteorin, agent/stewardshipteorin och prospektteorin. Metod och data: Studien är baserad på en longitudinell design med en deduktiv ansats. Studiens urval är företag noterade på Stockholmsbörsens small- mid- och large-cap listor mellan åren 2005-2015 och består efter exkluderingar av 2706 unika årliga företagsobservationer. Den normala nivån av RAM skattas för varje år och bransch och genomförs genom flertalet OLS regressioner. Residualerna från regressionerna hypotestestas sedan mot analytikerbevakning och tre andra relevanta kontrollvariabler för att undersöka sambandet. Resultat: Studiens resultat är att det absoluta värdet av de undersökta RAM metoderna har ett positivt och signifikant samband med analytikerbevakning. Detta betyder att ju fler analytiker som följer ett företag desto mer manipulation genom RAM förekommer. Sambandet är i likhet med tidigare studier. Vidare finner vi även att signed värdet av RAM metoderna har ett signifikant samband med analytikerbevakning. Signed värdena visar på att de olika RAM metoderna tillämpas för att manipulera resultatet i en viss riktning beroende på nivån av analytikerbevakning. Slutsats: I studien har vi kommit fram till att analytikerbevakning har ett signifikant samband med förekomsten av RAM. Tänkbara anledningar till detta är att manipulation genom RAM kan ske på ett effektivt eller opportunistiskt vis. Vidare kan analytikerbevakningen tänkas bidra till en press på företagsledningen att utföra RAM. Detta för att kunna uppnå resultat i linje med analytikernas prognoser.

This thesis describes fundamental analysis method based on a price to earnings ratio and an effort is put on the following areas: (i) empirical verification of factors determining the price to earnings ratio, (ii) empirical verification of an investment strategy based on historical price to earnings ratios and (iii) behavior of P/Es in bear market periods. The empirical verification of the main factors determining the price to earnings ratio is conducted on empirical data for a sample of eleven stocks listed on Prague Stock Exchange in period 2006-2011. The empirical verification of macroeconomic factors determining the price to earnings ratio as well as the empirical verification of an investment strategy based on historical price to earnings ratios are researched based on empirical data of an equity index S&P 500 in period 1954-2011 and an equity index PX in period 2001-2011. Behavior of P/Es in bear markets is researched on empirical data of index S&P 500 in period 1954-2011 and index PX in period 2001-2011.

The aim of thesis was to analyse management and economic activity of sports club Iuventa Michalovce with his sports arena Chemkostav Arena. To achieve this goal it was necessary to analyse revenues and expenses of the club, along with the correlation results to finance resources. Emphasis was also held at the human resources, competition analysis and communication towards the fans and society. It was proved that Iuventa Michalovce is the prototype of a modern sports club, which together with the patron tries to build a quality background and increase the popularity of handball locally and Slovakia. Thanks to its main partner, the situation in the club is stable, although the club does not achieve positive economic results, as it focuses primarily on the sport results.

The objective of this research is to test the expensing of stock options as part of CEO compensation to earnings quality. Agency theory posits a conflict between the CEO's own self-interest and that of the owners who seek to maximize the long term value of their investment. To avoid this conflict compensation should align and bond these parties. Data was retrieved from Compustat, ExecuComp and Corporate Governance databases spanning the years of 2000 through 2009. The Dechow and Dichev (2002) earnings quality model using the change in working capital and error terms taken as the residuals was utilized. All hypotheses used earnings quality as a proxy for management choices and as the predictive power of accruals. The first hypothesis indicated granting of CEO stock options has a positive association to earnings quality. The second hypothesis tests the implementation of SFAS 123 (R) by expensing stock options and the association to earnings quality. The third and final hypothesis utilized the number of BOD members as to compare the association between expensing stock options as part of CEO compensation and earnings quality. Empirical support for all three hypotheses was found and consistent with expectations established by other research using earnings quality methodologies. Both the granting and expensing of stock options as part of CEO compensation has an association to earnings quality. There exists a stronger association between expensing stock options and earnings quality when firms have a larger number of BOD members. Support for agency theory was discovered because all three hypotheses were supported. This study was limited to U.S. firms that were publicly traded on major U.S. exchanges and only CEO compensation. Other executive compensation was not included. These limitations provide opportunities for future research. Knowledge was gained by exploring the earnings quality measures for evidence of bonding and alignment theory. This study extends the research in earnings quality by examining the relationship of granting and expensing of stock options as per SFAS 123 (R). It also contributes to the work in SFAS 123 (R) by testing four years before and after 2005, when implementation occurred.

Theoretical models suggest that ownership structure may be an important determinant of securities' market characteristics. For example, the presence of informed traders leads to greater bid-ask spreads (Copeland and Galai (1983), and Glosten and Milgrom (1985)), and strategic trading of informed and discretionary liquidity traders leads to intertemporal variation in both trading volume and trading costs (Admati and Pfleiderer (1988), and Foster and Viswanathan (1990)). However, the empirical studies on the effect of ownership structure on market characteristics are limited. Prior studies focus on either one type of market characteristics or one type of owners, and usually do not address the potential endogeneity problem between market characteristics and ownership structure. This dissertation extends existing literature with two essays on ownership and market characteristics. The first essay broadly examines the effect of ownership structure (inside ownership, institutional ownership, and individual ownership) on market characteristics such as order flow, price impact of trade, quoted spread and quoted depth. For each market characteristic examined, I establish an empirical model based on existing theories and empirical evidence. My results indicate that stocks with greater inside ownership have lower order flow, greater price impact of trade, greater quoted spread and lower quoted depth, while stocks with greater active institutional ownership and greater individual shareholders have greater order flow, smaller price impact of trade, lower spread and greater depth. These results may have implications for corporate governance. For example, while agency theory suggests managerial ownership may align interests of managers and shareholders, this essay finds that this comes with a liquidity cost. Further, my results suggest there are liquidity benefits of individual and institutional ownership. If as suggested by Amihud and Mendelson (1989), investors require a higher rate of return for illiquid stocks, firms can target their shares to specific types of investors (for example, active institutions and individuals) to improve liquidity, and reduce their cost of capital. The second essay is a specific application of the first essay and examines the effect of institutional ownership on price discovery around earnings announcements. I select earnings announcements as the event for my analysis because there are three well-documented regularities about earnings announcements. First, market participants anticipate the forthcoming earnings announcements. Second, the announcements of earnings news are usually accompanied by abnormal price changes and abnormal volume. Third, there is evidence that stock price continues to move in the direction of earnings surprise after the announcements of earnings news. Since results from the first essay suggest that institutional investors affect market characteristics such as price impact of trade and quoted spread, I expect that institutional participation would also affect the price discovery process around earnings announcements. My results indicate that institutional ownership is associated with greater anticipation of earnings news. Further, stocks with greater institutional ownership have a greater price response to announcements of earnings news. Finally, institutional investors have no significant effect on post-announcement drift. The results of the second essay suggest that institutional investors contribute to the price discovery process. / Ph. D.

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The main goal of this thesis is to analyze appropriate methods and approaches that lead to valuation of a sports complex, specifically the public swimming pool complex in Senica before and after reconstruction. The aim is to estimate the expenses that are related to running the place and to analyze its possible revenue. The object´s price is based on the up-to-date valuation acts. To perform the valuation, it was necessary to acquire the corresponding technical and economic documentation. Based on these documents, there is a visible technical upgrade, which is due to a reconstruction. The object is owned and managed by the town of Senica.