The role of analysts in corporate governance has been examined extensively in the accounting literature. Two conflicting representations of the influence of analysts have emerged. Analysts are either viewed as external monitors of corporate behavior, thereby reducing agency costs; or they are viewed as exerting additional pressure on management to meet earnings forecasts, which may contribute to aggressive corporate behavior. Studies exist that examine the impact of analyst coverage in a financial reporting context. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of analysts in the corporate tax reporting context. This dissertation examines the impact of analyst coverage on corporate tax aggressiveness using a cross-section of publicly traded firms between 1992 and 2006. Permanent discretionary book-tax differences are used to proxy for tax aggressiveness. The relation is examined using ordinary least squares regression as well as two-stage least squares regression using expected coverage and inclusion in the S&P 500 index as instrumented variables to account for the endogeneity of analyst coverage selections. Additional analyses investigate the impact of analyst characteristics: experience as an analyst, experience covering a specific firm and identification as a top analyst. Results indicate that analyst coverage is associated with lower levels of tax aggressiveness. This finding suggests that analysts serve as external monitors of corporate tax behavior. In addition, more experienced analysts are associated with lower levels of tax aggressiveness indicating an improvement in monitoring ability with experience. Analysts identified as All-American analysts by Institutional Investor magazine are associated with higher levels of tax aggressiveness. This result suggests that top analysts may view aggressive tax behavior as a wealth creation tool for firms. / Ph. D.

Annual university rankings produced by mainstream sources, such as U.S. News and World Report, are very popular and viewed as important by a variety of university stakeholders. Consequently, universities expend a great deal of effort in an attempt to ensure they appear in the best possible light. One major component of these ranking systems is the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which is partly based on the research expenditures reported by the university. This system provides incentives for administrators at institutions of higher education to make strategic accounting choices, with respect to the classification of research expenditures, to improve the prestige of the university. I first measure the amount of accounting discretion within a university's classification of research expenditures and then test whether discretionary research expenditures impact the prestige of a university. Results indicate that discretionary research expenditures are positively associated with university prestige. Specifically, universities within my sample that have positive discretionary research expenditures have an increased probability of subsequently being classified as a Doctoral University with moderate to high research activity by 5% and 7% respectively. In addition, universities within my sample that had positive discretionary research expenditures experienced increases in their ranking of federal funding received relative to other universities by an average of 20.4 positions. These results are consistent with the concept that universities can make certain discretionary accounting choices which can help improve the prestige of the institution with the goal of obtaining additional sources of funding. / Ph. D.

The design and life cycle cost of commercially available data communication networks for the Federal Aviation Administration’s Weather Message Switching Center Replacement (WMSCR) were analyzed. Only existing commercial networks large enough to handle the WMSCR traffic load were considered. The recommendation is to proceed into a full and open competitive government procurement. In a competitive environment, this type of procurement will allow the government to receive the lowest possible life cycle cost. A description of the existing system, the end-state system, the interim network design, the commercial networks analyzed, and their associated life cycle costs are included. / Master of Science / incomplete_metadata

The problem is to examine and analyze the methods used for reporting pupil progress in the elementary schools; to give evidence of the significant changes underlying the concepts of educational achievement; and to give consideration to the basic principles involved in order to develop a desirable method.

This study was an investigation and an evaluation of the pupil record and reporting systems used in twenty elementary schools of Hill County. The purposes of this study were: 1. To establish criteria for evaluating the pupil record and reporting systems of these elementary schools. 2. To determine the adequacy of the pupil record and reporting systems of these elementary schools in terms of the criteria set up. 3. To offer recommendations for changes that could be made for the improvement of the twenty elementary schools of Hill County.

The problem involved in this study is to determine a satisfactory way in which public schools can adequately revise their scientific evaluation system in order to develop a more effective method of marking and reporting of pupil progress to parents.

The purpose of this study is to determine an adequate and justifiable report to the parents regarding the progress of students in the public schools of the Colbert community, Colbert, Oklahoma.

The problem of this study is to evaluate methods of reporting pupils' school progress to parents and to discover trends in reporting which are revealed in educational literature and school practice.

No / Our aim is to increase understanding of the potential effects of culture and corporate governance on social disclosures. The ethnic background of directors and shareholders is used as a proxy for culture. Corporate governance characteristics include board composition, multiple directorships and type of shareholders. The dependent variable, disclosure in annual reports of Malaysian corporations, is measured by an index score as well as in terms of number of words. Our results indicate a significant relationship between corporate social disclosure and boards dominated by Malay directors, boards dominated by executive directors, chair with multiple directorships and foreign share ownership. Four of the control variables (size, profitability, multiple listing and type of industry) were significantly related to corporate social disclosure with the exception of gearing. This study has public policy implications for Malaysia as well as a number of other countries in the Asia¿Pacific region.

Yes / This paper, using data from 100 UK listed firms, investigates the relationship between audit committee characteristics and intellectual capital (IC) disclosure. We find that overall IC disclosure is positively associated with audit committee characteristics such as the size and frequency of meetings, and negatively associated with audit committee directors’ shareholding. We find no significant relationship between IC disclosure and audit committee independence and financial expertise. We also observe that the association between audit committee characteristics and IC disclosure varies with the IC components (i.e. human capital, structural capital and relational capital), suggesting that the underlying factors that drive various components of IC disclosure are different. These results have important implications for policy-makers in that they confirm that the effectiveness of audit committees in the corporate reporting processes is a function of certain characteristics.