Since Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) is an exogenous shock to the information environment of U.S.-listed firms, those firms might adjust their capital structures to reflect the new information environment. Using univariate and multivariate tests, including differences-in-differences, I examine SOX's effect on the capital structure of U.S.-listed firms relative to Canadian firms listed in Canada, which are treated as control firms since they are not subject to SOX. The results indicate that, after the passage of SOX, U.S.-listed firms raise their long-term debt ratios by two to three percentage points, relative to the control group. U.S. firms listed in the U.S. drive this result, while Canadian firms cross-listed in the U.S. do not alter their long-term leverage ratios after SOX. The higher debt ratios do not occur because of lower rates of growth in equity and short-term debt after SOX for U.S.-listed firms, relative to control firms. In addition, firms that heavily (lightly) manage earnings prior to SOX use less (more) debt after SOX. Previous research argues that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) could require managers to reveal bad news about their firms. Bad news may cause market participants, including credit rating agencies, to update their beliefs about those firms and conclude that their outlook is not as profitable as initially thought. In this paper, I examine short- and long-term credit ratings after SOX. The main finding is that, in the SOX era, aggressive earnings management is associated with lower short- and long-term credit rating levels. This result is robust to size and suppliers' outlook on the economy.

A crescente onda de escândalos surgidos nos Estados Unidos na virada da década de 90, relacionados às demonstrações contábeis trouxeram uma importante mudança na ótica que se tinha dos controle internos. Podemos afirmar que 2002, com a promulgação da Sarbanes-Oxley Act transformou-se em um marco histórico dentro do âmbito empresarial americano, no que tange a controles internos, sendo o divisor de águas do que existia antes e depois em termos de forma de encarar a necessidade de as empresas possuírem uma estrutura de controles internos. Os controles internos passaram, sob o prisma de muitas empresas, de meros procedimentos de formalização de atividades e processos à condição de exigência legal. A nova Lei traz através da obrigatoriedade de apresentação de formulários específicos que devem ser assinados pelos altos representantes das empresas e a aplicação de sanções para quem não o faz ou faz de forma falsa, a conseqüente implementação de uma estrutura de controles internos que deverá ser monitorada, aperfeiçoada e enriquecida sempre que aparecer algum novo risco ou a empresa desenvolver uma operação. / The growing number of accounting scandals that have taken place in the USA at the turn of the 90's brought about an important change in how internal controls are understood. One could say that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 was a landmark in the American corporate world as far as internal controls are concerned. It was a turning point in the way companies face the need for a structure of internal controls, which for many of them have changed from mere formalizing procedures to a legal requirement. This new law requires specific forms to be filled out which have to bear the signature of the company's top management. Forgery or failure to comply involves penalties. The new law makes it necessary to implement an internal controls structure which is to be monitored and improved whenever a new risk is at play or when the company has a new operation.

A crescente onda de escândalos surgidos nos Estados Unidos na virada da década de 90, relacionados às demonstrações contábeis trouxeram uma importante mudança na ótica que se tinha dos controle internos. Podemos afirmar que 2002, com a promulgação da Sarbanes-Oxley Act transformou-se em um marco histórico dentro do âmbito empresarial americano, no que tange a controles internos, sendo o divisor de águas do que existia antes e depois em termos de forma de encarar a necessidade de as empresas possuírem uma estrutura de controles internos. Os controles internos passaram, sob o prisma de muitas empresas, de meros procedimentos de formalização de atividades e processos à condição de exigência legal. A nova Lei traz através da obrigatoriedade de apresentação de formulários específicos que devem ser assinados pelos altos representantes das empresas e a aplicação de sanções para quem não o faz ou faz de forma falsa, a conseqüente implementação de uma estrutura de controles internos que deverá ser monitorada, aperfeiçoada e enriquecida sempre que aparecer algum novo risco ou a empresa desenvolver uma operação. / The growing number of accounting scandals that have taken place in the USA at the turn of the 90's brought about an important change in how internal controls are understood. One could say that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 was a landmark in the American corporate world as far as internal controls are concerned. It was a turning point in the way companies face the need for a structure of internal controls, which for many of them have changed from mere formalizing procedures to a legal requirement. This new law requires specific forms to be filled out which have to bear the signature of the company's top management. Forgery or failure to comply involves penalties. The new law makes it necessary to implement an internal controls structure which is to be monitored and improved whenever a new risk is at play or when the company has a new operation.

In 1996, Sloan identified the accruals anomaly, in which the negative relationship between the accruals component of current earnings and subsequent stock returns can be exploited to generate excess returns. One would expect the accruals anomaly to dissipate and ultimately disappear as investors take advantage of the now-public information. However, nearly two decades later, it persists as one of the most prominent and contentious anomalies; its magnitude of current and future excess returns still remain controversial. The main reason for its persistence is that extreme accrual firms possess characteristics that are unappealing to most investors. These characteristics, which include insufficient analyst coverage, high idiosyncratic volatility and the presence of institutional constraints, are generally more pronounced in firms with weak internal controls. This paper finds that the accruals anomaly persists at a higher magnitude in firms with weak internal controls. This higher magnitude of excess returns survives the Fama-French five-factor (2015), the Stambaugh-Yuan four-factor (2017) and the Hou, Xue, and Zhang (2015) q-factor models.

A crescente onda de escândalos surgidos nos Estados Unidos na virada da década de 90, relacionados às demonstrações contábeis trouxeram uma importante mudança na ótica que se tinha dos controle internos. Podemos afirmar que 2002, com a promulgação da Sarbanes-Oxley Act transformou-se em um marco histórico dentro do âmbito empresarial americano, no que tange a controles internos, sendo o divisor de águas do que existia antes e depois em termos de forma de encarar a necessidade de as empresas possuírem uma estrutura de controles internos. Os controles internos passaram, sob o prisma de muitas empresas, de meros procedimentos de formalização de atividades e processos à condição de exigência legal. A nova Lei traz através da obrigatoriedade de apresentação de formulários específicos que devem ser assinados pelos altos representantes das empresas e a aplicação de sanções para quem não o faz ou faz de forma falsa, a conseqüente implementação de uma estrutura de controles internos que deverá ser monitorada, aperfeiçoada e enriquecida sempre que aparecer algum novo risco ou a empresa desenvolver uma operação. / The growing number of accounting scandals that have taken place in the USA at the turn of the 90's brought about an important change in how internal controls are understood. One could say that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 was a landmark in the American corporate world as far as internal controls are concerned. It was a turning point in the way companies face the need for a structure of internal controls, which for many of them have changed from mere formalizing procedures to a legal requirement. This new law requires specific forms to be filled out which have to bear the signature of the company's top management. Forgery or failure to comply involves penalties. The new law makes it necessary to implement an internal controls structure which is to be monitored and improved whenever a new risk is at play or when the company has a new operation.

Audit firm tenure impacts the quality of audit work and the disclosure of material internal control weaknesses. Public firms are required by the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) Section 302 to disclose material internal control weaknesses. Researchers debate whether audit firm rotation is necessary for improving audit quality (Chen, Lin, & Lin, 2008). Generally, an auditor needs sufficient time to become familiar with a client's business in order to enhance effective controls and financial reporting. However, long tenure may diminish auditor independence, and in turn reduce the quality of audit work and encourage a client to violate SOX disclosure requirements. Therefore, it is expected that the disclosure of material internal control weaknesses is less likely given long audit tenure. Prior studies consider many variables that impact the disclosure of control weaknesses, except audit tenure. Further, prior studies do not address the issue of whether familiarity or independence explains non-disclosure. This dissertation investigates the role of audit firm tenure and concludes that the disclosure of material internal control weaknesses is more likely given short tenure. Further, familiarity with the client's business, which is associated with long tenure, explains non-disclosure and not the lack of independence. Therefore, audit firm rotation may not be necessary.

The economic prosperity of the late 1990s was characterized by a perceived expansive growth that increased the expectations of a company's performance. WorldCom, a telecommunications company, was a victim of these expectations that led to the evolution of a fraud designed to deceive the public until the economic outlook improved. Through understanding what led to the fraud, how the fraud grew, and what its effects were, lessons can be derived to gain a better understanding of the reasons behind a fraud and to prevent future frauds from occurring or growing as big as the WorldCom fraud did.

In this thesis I try to clarify the concept of "creative accounting ". First I define the difference between error and fraud. Then I try to compare two different accounting systems (IFRS and Czech accounting standards). I specify the major differences between these two systems (the valuation of assets, the principle of revenue recognition etc.) and I compare their impact on the financial statements. In the end I consider the role of adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in relation to the creative accounting.

In the United States, approximately 7% of nonprofits' annual revenue is lost as a result of a lack of ethical financial operations among nonprofit executive directors (EDs). This represents $85 billion in estimated annual losses in available operating funds. This study addressed the problem of ineffective leadership in nonprofit organizations from the perspective of EDs responsible for ethical financial operations. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of nonprofit EDs who self-reported the use of 1 of Burn's and Bass' 3 leadership styles and whether leadership style influenced the use of the Sarbanes Oxley Act to manage the ethical financial operations of their human service nonprofit organization. Qualitative data were collected from 12 EDs through semi structured interviews and then coded and analyzed using a modified van Kaam procedure. The results of the study indicated that EDs who self-reported using transformational leadership style were more inclined to adhere to the Sarbanes Oxley Act. In addition, participants acknowledged the need for organizational support to improve leadership qualities in EDs, efficiency, and effective ethical financial operations in nonprofit organizations. The study provides a baseline for nonprofit organizations to increase positive social change by adding knowledge on implementing strategies that will result in the enhancement of quality leadership in EDs that may ultimately result in more efficient and effective ethical financial operations in nonprofit organizations.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:19:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 43267.pdf: 987343 bytes, checksum: 81de9440ae0d094a00fa10f6381fd268 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-02-09T00:00:00Z / After a high-profile accounting frauds and misstatements occurred in the US financial markets, US Congress decided to enact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002 ñ the Act, also known as SarOx or Sox, contains a wide number of provisions affecting important issues of Corporate Governance. The objective of this study was to evaluate those provisions in the light of existent Governance mechanisms in order to detect if their compulsory format, as law provisions, will impact corporate governance structure. To achieve this objective, this paper reviews the literature of mainly concepts of Corporate Governance and its mechanisms in order to understand their impact on corporate structure. After that, it was prepared an evaluation of the key provisions of the law and the example of Enron was brought to attention to illustrate the Congress inspiration. The aim of this chapter was to understand the key provisions deeply in order to build a relationship between the law and the Governance mechanisms. Finally, it was evaluated the impact of those provisions on the US corporate governance structure by revising the literature of many studies performed in American companies after the period of Sox enactment. To complete this analysis, a qualitative research was performed in order to register the impressions of managers from a Brazilian corporation about the law implementation process as well as its impact on the Governance of this corporation. The conclusion of the bibliography evaluation is that Sox impacts on Governance structure are still controversial 2 and the recent database turns it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the law. Also, the results obtained with the research of the Brazilian case do not permit further conclusions, once it registers the perception of the interviewers, which cannot be extended to other sectors, neither is statistically proven. / Após uma série de escândalos e fraudes no mercado acionário norte-americano, o Congresso norte-americano decidiu promulgar a Lei Sarbanes-Oxley, em julho de 2002. A Lei, também conhecida como SarbOx ou SOx, é um extenso normativo de reformas corporativas, que estende seus domínios a importantes práticas de governança corporativa. Esse estudo teve como objetivo avaliar os artigos da lei à luz dos mecanismos de governança já existentes, a fim de detectar se a imposição de alguns mecanismos, no formato de lei, está surtindo efeito na estrutura de governança das empresas. Para isso, fomos buscar na literatura os conceitos de governança e seus mecanismos a fim de entendermos o impacto que causam na estrutura das empresas. A seguir, avaliamos os principais artigos da Lei e o exemplo do caso Enron, que foi uma das fontes inspiradoras dos legisladores – o intuito dessa pesquisa foi nos aprofundar na lei e seus artigos para que pudéssemos traçar uma relação entre a lei e os mecanismos de governança, avaliados no estudo preliminar. E, finalmente, analisamos os estudos realizados em empresas americanas, que buscavam comprovar o impacto da lei na estrutura de governança da Empresa. Complementamos essa análise com uma avaliação qualitativa, que visou registrar as impressões de gestores de uma empresa brasileira sobre o processo de adequação à lei bem como sua influência no processo de governança da empresa. Como conclusão do trabalho, avaliamos pela pesquisa bibliográfica que os efeitos da lei ainda são controversos e a base de dados muito recente, dificultando a avaliação sobre a efetividade da lei. A pesquisa qualitativa do caso brasileiro demonstrou uma percepção positiva do processo, porém não conclusiva, pois se trata de percepção, ou seja, das primeiras impressões que os entrevistados estão traçando a respeito do processo - o que não pode ser generalizável, nem estatisticamente comprovado. Palavras-chave: Lei Sarbanes-Oxley, governança corporativa, mecanismos de governança corporativa.