bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Measurement Alternatives on a Nonfinancial Quality Measure's Forward-Looking Properties
Authors: Sedatole Karen L.
Published: March 2008

Drawing on theories from operations, management, and marketing, this paper examines whether three types of measurement alternatives affect the forwardlooking properties of a quality measure. Using proprietary data from a medical services firm, the results show that the strength of the relation between a current quality measure and future quality-related warranty costs depends on: (1) the standard against which quality is measured, (2) assumptions regarding the relation's symmetry, and (3) assumptions regarding the relation's functional form. Thus, the construction of a quality performance measure may improve its ability to predict future financial performance and, hence, its usefulness for decision making and control. The paper concludes with an illustration of how firms can use a contemporaneous and forward-looking quality measure to assess quality-related decisions in a timely manner and shows that those decisions can be affected by the measurement alternatives examined.
Reviewers' Responses to Anticipated Stylization Attempts by Preparers of Audit Workpapers
Authors: Tan Hun-Tong , Trotman Ken T.
Published: March 2008

In this paper, we examine specific process gains and losses arising from the review process by considering the interaction between attributes of the preparer and attributes of the reviewer. Specifically, we investigate determinants of reviewers' performance in the presence of potential stylization attempts by audit workpaper preparers. We assess whether reviewers' detection of conclusion errors and documentation errors depends on three factors: nature of the preparer's stylization (by way of the preparer's differential emphasis on conclusion and documentation errors), auditor rank, and the reviewer's sensitivity to such stylization attempts. Our results show that, depending on the reviewers' stylization sensitivity, their cognitive templates can both facilitate and interfere with reviewers' effectiveness in responding to these stylization attempts, resulting in both potential gains and losses from the review process. Our paper identifies conditions related to whether and how reviewers can provide adaptive responses to stylization attempts, and demonstrates that conclusions about rankrelated performance differences in the review process should consider complex interactions between attributes of the reviewer and the preparer. Implications are discussed.
The Implications of Using Stock-Split Adjusted I/B/E/S Data in Empirical Research
Authors: Payne Jeff L. , Thomas Wayne B.
Published: March 2008

The purpose of this study is to highlight issues of interest to researchers employing the I/B/E/S earnings and forecast data. I/B/E/S has traditionally provided per share data on a split-adjusted basis, rounded to the nearest penny. In doing so, per share amounts are comparable over time. However, because not all prior forecasts and earnings per share amounts divide precisely to a penny, adjusting for stock splits and rounding to the nearest penny can cause a loss of information. Researchers are prohibited in many cases from determining the amounts actually reported in prior years, leading to misclassified observations. We obtain actual (unadjusted) earnings and forecast data from I/B/E/S and compare results to those generated using the a djusted I/B/E/S data. We replicate prior studies and find that conclusions are affected when using the actual I/B/E/S data.
Control in a Teamwork Environment—The Impact of Social Ties on the Effectiveness of Mutual Monitoring Contracts
Authors: Towry Kristy L.
Published: March 2008

This study examines control in a teamwork setting, experimentally investigating two financial incentive systems that have been proposed in the agency-theory-based analytic literature. Both systems rely on mutual monitoring—the ability of team members to observe each other's actions. However, the systems differ on whether team members report observations of their peers' efforts to management (vertical incentive system) or directly control the actions of each other (horizontal incentive system). Findings suggest that the effectiveness of these systems depends on the level of team identity. Specifically, a strong team identity leads to greater coordination. The result is that the effectiveness of a vertical incentive system is degraded by a strong team identity. On the other hand, a horizontal incentive system becomes more effective in the presence of a strong team identity. The results of this study suggest that when the team has achieved a high level of identity, the most effective way to use this information is likely horizontal in nature, delegating responsibility for control to self-managed teams, rather than extracting the information through reporting mechanisms. This study thus helps explain why firms have more readily embraced horizontal incentive systems than vertical incentive systems.
Price versus Non-Price Performance Measures in Optimal CEO Compensation Contracts
Authors: Core John E. , Guay Wayne R. , Verrecchia Robert E.
Published: March 2008

We empirically examine standard agency predictions about how performance measures are optimally weighted to provide CEO incentives. Consistent with prior empirical research, we document that the relative weight on price and non-price performance measures in CEO cash pay is a decreasing function of the relative variances. Agency theory speaks to the weights in total compensation (annual total pay and changes in the CEO's equity portfolio value), however, and we document that very little of CEOs' total incentives come from cash pay. We also document that variation in the relative weight on price and non-price performance measures in CEO total compensation is an increasing function of the relative variances. The conflicting results using total compensation indicate that existing findings on cash pay cannot be interpreted as evidence supporting standard agency predictions. Based on our results, we suggest approaches for future research on performance measure use in CEO total compensation.
Earnings Manipulation Risk, Corporate Governance Risk, and Auditors' Planning and Pricing Decisions
Authors: Bedard Jean C. , Johnstone Karla M.
Published: March 2008

This paper investigates auditors' assessments of earnings manipulation risk and corporate governance risk, and their planning and pricing decisions in the presence of these identified risks. To conduct this investigation, we use engagement partners' assessments of their existing clients made during the participating public accounting firm's client continuance risk assessment process. We find that auditors plan increased effort and billing rates for clients with earnings manipulation risk, and that the positive relationships between earnings manipulation risk and both effort and billing rates are greater for clients that also have heightened corporate governance risk. These findings provide evidence that auditors assess situations involving both an aggressive management and inadequate corporate governance, and that there is a relationship between those assessments and auditors' planning and pricing decisions.
Value-Glamour and Accruals Mispricing: One Anomaly or Two?
Authors: Desai Hemang , Rajgopal Shivaram , Venkatachalam Mohan
Published: March 2008

We investigate whether the accruals anomaly is a manifestation of the glamour stock phenomenon documented in the finance literature. Value (glamour) stocks, characterized by low (high) past sales growth, high (low) book-to-market (B/M), high (low) earnings-to-price (E/P), and high (low) cash flow-to-price (C/P), are known to earn positive (negative) future abnormal returns. Note that “C” or cash flow is operationalized in the finance literature as earnings adjusted for depreciation. Sloan (1996) shows that firms with low (high) total accruals earn positive (negative) future abnormal returns. We find that a new variable, operating cash flows measured as earnings adjusted for depreciation and working capital accruals, scaled by price (CFO/P) captures mispricing attributed to the four traditional value-glamour proxies and accruals. Interpretation of this finding depends on the reader's priors. If the reader believes that value-glamour phenomenon can be operationalized only as C/P, and not CFO/P, then one would conclude that CFO/P is a parsimonious variable that captures the mispricing attributes of two distinct anomalies, value glamour and accruals. However, if a reader views the value-glamour anomaly broadly as a fundamentals-to-price anomaly, then (1) the CFO/P variable can be considered an expanded value-glamour proxy and; (2) our results are consistent with Beaver's (2002) conjecture that the accruals anomaly is the glamour stock phenomenon in disguise.
Determinants and Effects of Subjectivity in Incentives
Authors: Gibbs Michael , Merchant Kenneth A. , Stede Wim A. Van der , Vargus Mark E.
Published: March 2008

This study examines two questions: When do firms make greater use of subjectivity in awarding bonuses? What are the effects of subjectivity on employee pay satisfaction and firm performance? We examine these questions using data from a sample of 526 department managers in 250 car dealerships. First, the findings suggest that subjective bonuses are used to complement perceived weaknesses in quantitative performance measures and to provide employees insurance against downside risk in their pay. Specifically, use of subjective bonuses is positively related to: (1) the extent of long-term investments in intangibles; (2) the extent of organizational interdependencies; (3) the extent to which the achievability of the formula bonus target is both difficult and leads to significant consequences if not met; and (4) the presence of an operating loss. Second, we find that the effects of subjective bonuses on pay satisfaction, productivity, and profitability are larger the greater the manager's tenure, consistent with the idea that subjectivity improves incentive contracting when there is greater trust between the subordinate and supervisor
Litigation Risk and the Financial Reporting Credibility of Big 4 versus Non-Big 4 Audits: Evidence from Anglo-American Countries
Authors: Khurana Inder K. , Raman K. K.
Published: March 2008

Prior research suggests that Big 4 auditors provide higher quality audits in the U.S. in order to protect the firm's brand name reputation and to avoid costly litigation. In this study, we examine whether the perceived higher quality of a Big 4 audit is related to auditor litigation exposure or to reputation concerns. Specifically, we utilize an estimable proxy for financial reporting credibility—the ex ante cost of equity capital—to examine whether Big 4 auditors are perceived as providing higher quality audits (relative to non-Big 4 auditors) in the U.S., and in the less litigious (but economically similar) environments in other Anglo-American countries during the 1990–99 period. We find that a Big 4 audit is associated with a lower ex ante cost of equity capital for auditees in the U.S. but not in Australia, Canada, or the U.K. Our findings suggest that it is litigation exposure rather than brand name reputation protection that drives perceived audit quality.
Differential Response of Small versus Large Investors to 10-K Filings on EDGAR
Authors: Asthana Sharad , Balsam Steven , Sankaraguruswamy Srinivasan
Published: March 2008

In this paper we examine the effect of filing form 10-K on EDGAR on the incidence of small and large trades. We find that the change to EDGAR filings results in significant increases in the volume of small, but not large trades, during the five-day window (−1, 3) around the filing date. While our data does not allow us to directly examine the trading profits and transactions costs of investors, we are able to examine whether the trading patterns reflect information available in the 10-K differently in the pre- and post-EDGAR period. Using stock return as a proxy for the information content of the 10-K, our results show that post-EDGAR small trades are more likely to reflect that information, i.e., more likely than in the pre-EDGAR period to be buys (sells) when returns in the five-day window after the trade are positive (negative). We also find that while the product of the net buys (sells) and the price change over the five-day window after the trade for small trades in the post-EDGAR period is still less than that for large trades, the difference between the two groups decreased significantly. Consequently, while we cannot directly examine the profitability of these transactions, the evidence presented is consistent with EDGAR improving the trading outcomes of small vis-a`-vis large investors.
Managerial and Investor Responses to Disclosure Regulation: The Case of Reg FD and Conference Calls
Authors: Bushee Brian J. , Matsumoto Dawn A. , Miller Gregory S.
Published: March 2008

This paper investigates the effect of regulation that mandates open access to information on managers' disclosure choices and investors' reactions to disclosures. The recently passed Regulation FD (Reg FD) requires firms to make material disclosures broadly available. Using a sample of firms that previously restricted access to conference calls and a sample of firms that voluntarily allowed unlimited access to their calls in the pre-Reg FD period, we examine the effect of the new rule on managers' decisions regarding the timing, use, and information content of calls, as well as the effect on investors' trading behavior during the call. Our results indicate that Reg FD had a significant negative impact on managers' decisions to continue hosting conference calls and on their decisions regarding the optimal time to hold the call. However, contrary to the concerns of many critics, the magnitudes of these changes are not large. We do not find evidence that Reg FD decreased the amount of information disclosed during the call period, contrary to the concerns of Reg FD opponents. Finally, we find evidence that the new rule increased price volatility for firms that previously restricted access to their calls (relative to firms that previously held open calls) and that the amount of individual investor trading increased following the rule change. Overall, our results suggest that Reg FD impacted trading during the conference call window for firms most affected by the new regulation.
Does Search-Facilitating Technology Improve the Transparency of Financial Reporting?
Authors: Hodge Frank D. , Kennedy Jane Jollineau , Maines Laureen A.
Published: March 2008

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is an emerging technology that facilitates directed searches and simultaneous presentation of related financial statement and footnote information. We investigate whether using an XBRL-enhanced search engine helps nonprofessional financial statement users acquire and integrate related financial information when making an investment decision. We conduct our investigation in the context of recognition versus disclosure of stock option compensation. Our results reveal that many users do not access the technology, but those who do use it are better able to acquire and integrate information. Specifically, we find that when stock option accounting varies between firms, the use of an XBRL-enhanced search engine increases the likelihood that individuals acquire information about stock option compensation disclosed in the footnotes. We also find that XBRL helps individuals integrate the implications of this information, resulting in different investment decisions between individuals who use and do not use the search engine. Our results suggest that search-facilitating technologies, such as XBRL, aid financial statement users by improving the transparency of firms' financial statement information and managers' choices for reporting that information. Our results also reveal that wide publicity about the benefits of using search-facilitating technology may be needed to induce financial statement users to access the technology.
Permanently Reinvested Foreign Earnings, Taxes, and Earnings Management
Authors: Krull Linda K.
Published: March 2008

Firms can delay financial statement recognition of U.S. taxes on repatriations by designating foreign subsidiary earnings as “permanently reinvested” under APB Opinion No. 23. This paper examines (1) whether firms use the permanently reinvested earnings (PRE) designation to manage reported earnings, and (2) whether amounts reported as permanently reinvested reflect investment and tax incentives to reinvest foreign subsidiary earnings abroad. Consistent with the prediction that firms use PRE to manage earnings, year-to-year changes in amounts reported as PRE are positively related to the difference between analyst forecasts and pre-managed earnings. Additionally, changes in reported PRE are positively related to the difference between the foreign and domestic after-tax return on assets and negatively related to the tax benefit of deductible repatriations, thus reflecting investment and tax incentives to reinvest abroad.
Taxable Income, Future Earnings, and Equity Values
Authors: Lev Baruch , Nissim Doron
Published: March 2008

We investigate the ability of a tax-based fundamental—the ratio of tax-to-book income—to predict earnings growth and stock returns and to explain the earnings-price ratio. This tax fundamental reflects both temporary and permanent book-tax differences as well as tax accruals, such as changes in the tax valuation allowance. We find that the tax-to-book income ratio predicts subsequent five-year earnings changes, both before and after the implementation of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 109 in 1993. For the pre-SFAS No. 109 period, the tax information is unrelated to contemporaneous earnings-price ratios and strongly related to subsequent stock returns. Conversely, for the post-SFAS No. 109 period, the tax fundamental is strongly related to contemporaneous earnings-price ratios and only weakly related to subsequent stock returns, indicating improvement over time in investors' perceptions of the implications of the tax information for future earnings. Deferred taxes, a component of our tax fundamental and the focus of recent research, exhibits relatively modest ability to predict earnings or stock returns both before and after the implementation of SFAS No. 109. Finally, throughout the examined period, the taxable income information about future earnings is incremental to that in accruals and cash flows.
The Effect of Shareholder-Level Capital Gains Taxes on Acquisition Structure
Authors: Ayers Benjamin C. , Lefanowicz Craig E. , Robinson John R.
Published: March 2008

This study investigates the effect of shareholder capital gains taxes on the structure of corporate acquisitions. We analyze a sample of large publicly traded firms acquired in taxable cash-for-stock and tax-free stock-for-stock acquisitions from 1975 to 2000. We model acquisition structure (i.e., taxable cash-for-stock acquisitions versus tax-free stock-for-stock acquisitions) as a function of target shareholder capital gains taxes and other economic factors believed to influence acquisition structure. Consistent with expectations, we find a positive association between the capital gains tax rate for individual investors and the use of tax-free stock-for-stock acquisitions. In addition, we find that the effect of the capital gains tax rate for individuals decreases with target institutional ownership (a proxy that represents the likelihood the price-setting shareholder is not subject to the individual capital gains tax rate). We reconcile our analyses with previous studies and identify a plausible explanation for the lack of results in prior research. In supplemental analysis, we also report evidence that corporations “time” the completion of taxable acquisitions around major tax rate changes to minimize shareholder capital gains taxes. In sum, results suggest that shareholder-level taxes have a significant effect on the choice of taxable cash-for-stock versus tax-free stock-for-stock acquisitions, and this effect varies with the tax status of target shareholders.
Private Information, Earnings Manipulations, and Executive Stock-Option Exercises
Authors: Bartov Eli , Mohanram Partha
Published: March 2008

This paper investigates the decision by top-level executives of more than 1,200 public corporations to exercise a large number of stock option awards in the period 1992–2001. We hypothesize and find that abnormally large option exercises predict stock return future performance. We then hypothesize that this predictive ability represents private information about disappointing earnings in the post-exercise period. Consistent with this hypothesis we find that abnormally positive earnings performance in the pre-exercise period turns to disappointing earnings performance in the post-exercise period, and that this pattern comes as a surprise to even sophisticated market participants (financial analysts). We also hypothesize and find that the disappointing earnings in the post-exercise period represent a reversal of inflated earnings in the pre-exercise period. Collectively, these findings suggest that the private information used by top-level executives to time abnormally large exercises follows from earnings management so as to increase the cash payout of exercises.
Assessing Alternative Proxies for the Expected Risk Premium
Authors: Botosan Christine A. , Plumlee Marlene A.
Published: March 2008

Managers, investors, and researchers have a compelling interest in identifying a reliable empirical proxy for firm-specific cost of equity capital (r). In theory, deducing r is possible if the market's future cash flow forecast and current stock price are observable. Practically, deducing r is dependent on the ability to estimate the market's forecasted terminal value. We evaluate five methods of deducing firm-specific r (labeled rDIVPREM, rGLSPREM, rGORPREM, rOJNPREM, and rPEGPREM) that deal with this conundrum differently. The extent to which the estimates are associated with firm risk in a stable and meaningful manner is the basis for our assessment. We find that the rDIVPREM and rPEGPREM estimates are consistently and predictably related to risk, while the alternatives are not. Based on these results, we conclude that rDIVPREM and rPEGPREM dominate the alternatives.
How Do Investors Judge the Risk of Financial Items?
Authors: Koonce Lisa , McAnally Mary Lea , Mercer Molly
Published: March 2008

This paper proposes and tests a risk model that explains how investors perceive financial risks. The model combines conventional decision-theory variables—probabilities and outcomes—with behavioral variables from psychology research by Slovic (1987), such as the extent to which a risky item is new, causes worry, and is controllable. To test our model, we conduct two studies in which M.B.A. students judge the risk of a broad range of financial items. Our results indicate that both the decisiontheory variables and Slovic's (1987) behavioral variables are important in explaining investors' risk judgments. Further, we demonstrate that information about the amount of potential loss outcome contained within mandated risk disclosures not only directly influences risk judgments, but also indirectly affects such judgments via its effect on some of Slovic's (1987) behavioral variables. By identifying this unintended consequence of current risk disclosures, these results have the potential to influence the way accounting regulators, firm managers, and academic researchers think about risk disclosure.
The Role of Auditing in Investor Protection
Authors: Newman D. Paul , Patterson Evelyn R. , Smith J. Reed
Published: March 2008

Protection of outside investors depends on the detection and punishment of resource diversion by corporate insiders, including managers and controlling shareholders. We focus on the role played in investor protection by self-interested auditors operating in a competitive audit market. In our setting, auditors represent the mechanism whereby detection of diversion occurs. We show that markets with relatively greater auditor penalties for audit failures and greater insider penalties for detected resource diversion have larger total investment levels, a higher proportion of the firm held by outsiders, higher audit resource investment, higher audit fees, and higher expected investment returns.
The Effects of Accelerated Revenue Recognition on Earnings Management and Earnings Informativeness: Evidence from SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 101
Authors: Altamuro Jennifer , Beatty Anne L. , Weber Joseph
Published: March 2008

The SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 101 to address its concern that firms were masking true performance by managing earnings using accelerated revenue recognition. Critics of this Accounting Bulletin stated that it would eliminate industry-accepted revenue recognition practices and reduce the quality of reported earnings. The FASB's revenue recognition discussions echo these concerns stating that revenues recorded prior to the completion of the earnings process contain value-relevant information about future performance. This paper investigates these two hypotheses using a sample of firms that accelerated revenue recognition prior to SAB No. 101 adoption (SAB 101 firms) and a matched set of firms that were unaffected by this regulation (unaffected firms). Our earnings distribution tests indicate that SAB 101 firms are more likely to meet earnings benchmarks. Specifically, we find that, in the pre-adoption period, SAB 101 firms report fewer small negative and more small positive earnings than they do in the post-adoption period and than do unaffected firms in the pre-adoption period; SAB 101 firms report fewer small negative and more small positive earnings changes in the pre-adoption period compared to the post-adoption period. We also document that SAB 101 firms are more likely to have weaker corporate governance and more likely to have financial covenants, providing them with greater incentives to manage earnings. However, we find that the association between earnings and future cash flows and between unexpected earnings and earnings announcement period returns were higher for SAB 101 firms than for unaffected firms in the preadoption period, indicating higher earnings informativeness for SAB 101 firms. These associations declined for SAB 101 firms in the post-adoption period, suggesting that SAB No. 101 caused a decline in earnings informativeness. Overall, our results suggest that, although the revenue recognition practices targeted by SAB No. 101 have been used by some firms to manage earnings, the regulation's prohibition of revenue recognition prior to completion of the earnings process, on average, results in less informative earnings since these unearned revenues provide value-relevant information.
Equity Incentives and Earnings Management
Authors: Cheng Qiang , Warfield Terry D.
Published: March 2008

This paper examines the link between managers' equity incentives—arising from stock-based compensation and stock ownership—and earnings management. We hypothesize that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to sell shares in the future and this motivates these managers to engage in earnings management to increase the value of the shares to be sold. Using stock-based compensation and stock ownership data over the 1993–2000 time period, we document that managers with high equity incentives sell more shares in subsequent periods. As expected, we find that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to report earnings that meet or just beat analysts' forecasts. We also find that managers with consistently high equity incentives are less likely to report large positive earnings surprises. This finding is consistent with the wealth of these managers being more sensitive to future stock performance, which leads to increased reserving of current earnings to avoid future earnings disappointments. Collectively, our results indicate that equity incentives lead to incentives for earnings management.
The Effect of Control Systems on Trust and Cooperation in Collaborative Environments
Authors: Coletti Angela L. , Sedatole Karen L. , Towry Kristy L.
Published: March 2008

Because of conflicting incentives among participants, collaborations (e.g., strategic alliances, joint ventures, and work teams) present a significant control challenge to managerial accountants. On the one hand, formal controls such as sanctioning and monitoring systems improve cooperation by reducing the incentives for opportunistic behavior. On the other hand, prior research finds that the mere presence of a control system causes decision makers to view the collaborative setting as noncooperative, and other collaborators as untrustworthy. In this paper, we conduct two experiments in which participants act as business collaborators. Through these experiments, we examine the effects of control on trust and cooperation in collaborative settings. Specifically, we posit and provide evidence that a strong control system can enhance the level of trust among collaborators. The mediating role of control-induced cooperation provides the mechanism by which control systems can increase trust in collaborative environments. Furthermore, we show that this increased trust has a positive effect on the subsequent level of cooperation among collaborators. Taken together, the results suggest an increasing marginal benefit of control system strength arising from the trust that control-induced cooperation engenders. The implication is that firms will choose to implement a stronger control system than previous research would seem to suggest.
The Fleeting Effects of Disclosure Forthcomingness on Management's Reporting Credibility
Authors: Mercer Molly
Published: March 2008

This study provides a theoretical framework and experimental evidence on how managers' disclosure decisions affect their credibility with investors. I find that in the short-term, more forthcoming disclosure has a positive effect on management's reporting credibility, especially when management is forthcoming about negative news. However, these short-term credibility effects do not persist over time. In the long-term, managers who report positive earnings news are rated as having higher reporting credibility than managers who report negative earnings news, regardless of their previous disclosure decisions.
Rounding of Analyst Forecasts
Authors: Herrmann Don , Thomas Wayne B.
Published: March 2008

We find that analyst forecasts of earnings per share occur in nickel intervals at a much greater frequency than do actual earnings per share. Analysts who round their earnings per share forecasts to nickel intervals exhibit characteristics of analysts who are less informed, exert less effort, and have fewer resources. Rounded forecasts are less accurate and the negative relation between rounding and forecast accuracy increases as the rounding interval increases from nickel to dime, quarter, half-dollar, and dollar. An examination of announcement period returns reveals that market expectations more closely align with consensus forecasts including rounded forecasts and then correct toward the more accurate consensus forecasts excluding rounded forecasts. Finally, exclusion of rounded forecasts decreases forecast dispersion.
Strategic Disclosure of Risky Prospects: A Laboratory Experiment
Authors: Hobson Jessen L. , Kachelmeier Steven J.
Published: March 2008

In a market experiment, buyers respond to sellers' disclosures of one of the two potential outcomes of a risky prospect. Buyer reactions reflect two separate disclosure phenomena that heretofore have not been considered jointly. First, consistent with cognitive predictions that users tend to anchor on explicit one-sided disclosures, buyers pay more relative to expected value when the seller discloses the higher of the two potential outcomes than when the seller discloses the lower potential outcome. Second, consistent with the incentive-driven predictions of information economics, buyers systematically discount bids when sellers choose which potential outcome they wish to disclose, relative to bids in a control condition in which the seller is constrained to disclose randomly. Both findings are robust to each other, addressing qualifications in prior research about generalizing cognitive disclosure phenomena to a strategic disclosure environment. One implication supported by the data is that if cognitive information processing limitations are robust to a strategic environment, then strategic agents can exploit these limitations when choosing disclosures.
Judging the Risk of Financial Instruments: Problems and Potential Remedies
Authors: Koonce Lisa , Lipe Marlys Gascho , McAnally Mary Lea
Published: March 2008

Information that firms provide about financial instruments and derivatives should help investors judge risk. However, this paper reports that such information often is not effective for this purpose. Through a series of experiments, we demonstrate that the labels firms use to describe financial instruments and derivatives cause investors to assess economically equivalent instruments as different in terms of risk. We also show that loss-only disclosures that companies use to describe their risks cause investors to assess the same level of risk for firms with differing underlying exposures. Moreover, we establish that loss-only disclosures cause investors to make risk judgments that correspond to infrequently used risk-management strategies. We test two possible remedies for these judgment problems. Our results show that additional information describing the underlying economic exposures of a financial instrument does not eliminate the labeling effects. However, we do find that providing investors with upside and downside (i.e., two-sided) risk disclosures help them distinguish among firms using different risk-management strategies.
Economic Effects of Tightening Accounting Standards to Restrict Earnings Management
Authors: Ewert Ralf , Wagenhofer Alfred
Published: March 2008

This paper examines the usual claim that tighter accounting standards reduce earnings management and provide more relevant information to the capital market. We distinguish between accounting and real earnings management and assume that a standard setter can only influence accounting earnings management by the tightness of standards. In a rational expectations equilibrium model, we find that earnings quality increases with tighter standards, but we identify several consequences that may outweigh this benefit. First, managers increase costly real earnings management because the higher earnings quality increases the marginal benefit of real earnings management. Second, tighter standards can increase rather than decrease expected accounting and total earnings management. Third, the expected total costs of earnings management can also increase. We provide conditions for the occurrence of each of these effects.
Does Income Smoothing Improve Earnings Informativeness?
Authors: Tucker Jennifer W. , Zarowin Paul A.
Published: March 2008

This paper uses a new approach to examine whether income smoothing garbles earnings information or improves the informativeness of past and current earnings about future earnings and cash flows. We measure income smoothing by the negative correlation of a firm's change in discretionary accruals with its change in premanaged earnings. Using the approach of Collins et al. (1994), we find that the change in the current stock price of higher-smoothing firms contains more information about their future earnings than does the change in the stock price of lower-smoothing firms. This result is robust to decomposing earnings into cash flows and accruals and to controlling for firm size, growth, future earnings variability, private information search activities, and cross-sectional correlations.
Predicting Earnings Using a Model Based on Cost Variability and Cost Stickiness
Authors: Banker Rajiv D. , Chen Lei (Tony)
Published: March 2008

We evaluate the descriptive validity of the cost behavior model for profit analysis using Compustat data. For this purpose, we propose an earnings forecast model decomposing earnings into components that reflect (1) variability of costs with sales revenue and (2) stickiness in costs with sales declines. We evaluate the predictive ability of our model by benchmarking its performance in forecasting one-year-ahead returns on equity against that of two other time-series models based on line item information reported in the income statement and in the statement of cash flows. Specifically, we consider a model that disaggregates earnings into operating income and non-operating income components and another that disaggregates earnings into cash flows and accruals components. While all three models are less accurate than analysts' consensus forecasts that rely on a larger information set, we find that our model provides substantial improvement in forecast accuracy over the other two models that use only the line items in the financial statements. Finally, invoking the market efficiency assumption, we find that earnings forecast errors based on our model have greater relative information content than forecast errors based on the two alternative models based on financial statement information in explaining abnormal stock returns.
Using Counter-Explanation to Limit Analysts' Forecast Optimism
Authors: Kadous Kathryn , Krische Susan D. , Sedor Lisa M.
Published: March 2008

Prior research demonstrates that forecast optimism is, in part, a consequence of analysts' cognitive reactions to the scenarios managers use to communicate future plans. In two experiments, we examine whether counter-explanation (explaining why managers' plans could fail) reduces scenario-induced optimism. We find that when compared to analysts not asked to generate counter-explanations, analysts who complete the relatively easy task of generating few counter-explanations make less optimistic forecasts, but analysts who complete the relatively difficult task of generating many counter-explanations do not. Results demonstrate the usefulness of a cognitive, theory-based mechanism for reducing forecast optimism and suggest a boundary condition for the use of that mechanism.
Expense Misreporting in Nonprofit Organizations
Authors: Krishnan Ranjani , Yetman Michelle H. , Yetman Robert J.
Published: March 2008

We examine whether nonprofit organizations understate fundraising expenses in their publicly available financial statements. A large body of anecdotal evidence notes that an inexplicable number of nonprofits report zero fundraising expenses. We provide empirical evidence that the zero fundraising expense phenomenon is at least partly due to inappropriate reporting. We then examine to what extent these misreported expenses are the result of managerial incentives. Prior research finds an association between reported expenses and managerial compensation as well as the level of donations received. Using these findings we construct two incentive variables and find a positive association between misreporting behavior and managerial incentives. Our results also suggest that the use of an outside accountant reduces the probability that a nonprofit will misreport expenses, consistent with the use of an outside paid accountant increasing the reliability and usefulness of nonprofit financial reports. Finally, we find that SOP 98-2 reduced the probability that a nonprofit will misreport fundraising expenses.
An Empirical Analysis of an Incentive Plan with Relative Performance Measures: Evidence from a Postal Service
Authors: Matsumura Ella Mae , Shin Jae Yong
Published: March 2008

Using 1997–1999 annual performance evaluation data of 214 postal stores in Korea, we find that financial performance improves following the implementation of an incentive plan that includes relative performance measures, and that under this incentive plan, the degree of common uncertainty is positively associated with store profitability. We also find evidence that the incentive effect of the plan is mitigated in stores at which the employees' perceived unfairness is likely to be high. Finally, we find that the net benefits of introducing the incentive plan may be conditional on the degree of common uncertainty, which appears to be inversely related to the perceived unfairness attributable to the introduction of the contract with relative performance measures.
Optimal Information Asymmetry
Authors: Rajan Madhav V. , Saouma Richard E.
Published: March 2008

At the heart of decentralization lies the notion that tasks are delegated by owners to managers who possess superior local information. The extent of this information asymmetry is often an endogenous construct, as it is influenced by the owner's choice of internal accounting systems and the manager's investment in acquiring local expertise. In this paper, we explore how varying levels of pre-contract, asymmetric information affect the owner-manager relationship. We provide three main sets of insights. First, we find that the owner's payoffs are initially decreasing, and strictly convex everywhere, in the quality of the manager's private information. The owner thus prefers to deal with either a perfectly informed or a perfectly uninformed manager, and we characterize conditions for either to be the preferred choice. Second, in contrast to recent work, we demonstrate that when information can be communicated internally, the optimal strength of managerial incentives unambiguously decreases as the manager becomes better informed. Third, we derive the surprising result that a self-interested manager does not always prefer to maximize his informational advantage. Our work has implications for the optimal design of organizations, and for internal accounting and control systems in particular.
The Information Content of SEC Filings and Information Environment: A Variance Decomposition Analysis
Authors: Callen Jeffrey L. , Livnat Joshua , Segal Dan
Published: March 2008

Using the Vuolteenaho (2002) variance decomposition methodology, this study assesses the relative value relevance of cash flow, accrual, and expected return news on SEC and preliminary earnings filing dates, as measured by their contribution to the volatility of unexpected returns. Cash flow news is found to be more valuerelevant than accrual news. Although expected return (risk) news is the least valuerelevant, it is significantly correlated with changes in betas and returns at the preliminary and SEC filing dates, indicating association with changes in firm risk and discount rates. This study also documents that these informational components contain less (more) value-relevant information at the SEC filing date for firms with a higher proportion of long-term (short-term) sophisticated investors after controlling for other dimensions of the information environment.
The Evolution of Stock Option Accounting: Disclosure, Voluntary Recognition, Mandated Recognition, and Management Disavowals
Authors: Frederickson James R. , Hodge Frank D. , Pratt Jamie H.
Published: March 2008

In this study we report the results of an experiment that examines how relatively sophisticated financial statement users interpret management stock option compensation disclosures under SFAS No. 123 and SFAS No. 123R. We predict and find that mandated income statement recognition, as required under SFAS No. 123R, leads to higher user assessments of reliability than either voluntary income statement recognition or voluntary footnote disclosure, options allowed under SFAS No. 123. Users view voluntary footnote disclosure as the least reliable reporting alternative. We also examine the amount users invest in response to these accounting treatments, and find that users invest more in a firm when management chooses income statement recognition than when management chooses footnote disclosure. We find no difference in investment amounts between mandated recognition and either voluntary recognition or footnote disclosure. Finally, although we find that these results are insensitive to whether management explicitly disavows the reliability of stock option expense, we present evidence that, in side-by-side comparisons, where one firm disavows and the other does not, disavowals may affect user judgments and decisions.
Are M.B.A. Students a Good Proxy for Nonprofessional Investors?
Authors: Elliott W. Brooke , Hodge Frank D. , Kennedy Jane Jollineau , Pronk Maarten
Published: March 2008

We investigate a key assumption underlying much of the experimental research in financial accounting that graduate business students are a good proxy for nonprofessional investors. To conduct our investigation, we categorize recent experimental studies in financial accounting, based on the relative level of integrative complexity inherent in each study's task. We then conduct experiments using two tasks, one that is relatively low in integrative complexity and one that is relatively high in integrative complexity, and compare the responses of two groups of M.B.A. students and nonprofessional investors.

Our results suggest that using M.B.A. students as a proxy for nonprofessional investors is a valid methodological choice, provided researchers give careful consideration to aligning a task's integrative complexity with the appropriate level of M.B.A. student. M.B.A. students who have completed their core M.B.A. courses and are enrolled in or have completed a financial statement analysis course are a good proxy for nonprofessional investors in tasks that are relatively low in integrative complexity. Though less definitive, the majority of our tests also suggest that these students are a good proxy for nonprofessional investors in tasks that are relatively high in integrative complexity. However, care must be taken when using students in the first-year core financial accounting course. In tasks that are relatively low in integrative complexity, these students perform similarly to nonprofessional investors except when they are asked to make an investment decision. In tasks that are relatively high in integrative complexity, these students acquire information similarly to nonprofessional investors, but they do not appear to integrate the information in a similar manner.
The Accrual Anomaly: International Evidence
Authors: Pincus Morton , Rajgopal Shivaram , Venkatachalam Mohan
Published: March 2008

We consider stock markets in 20 countries to investigate whether the accrual anomaly (Sloan 1996), characterized by U.S. stock prices overweighting the role of accrual persistence, is a local manifestation of a global phenomenon.We explore whether the occurrence of the anomaly is related to country differences in accounting and institutional structures, and examine alternative explanations for its occurrence. We find stock prices overweight accruals in general, with accruals overweighting occurring in countries with a common law relative to a code law tradition. Using firmlevel data on a country-by-country basis, we document the occurrence of the anomaly in four countries, Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., and also in a sample of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of firms domiciled in countries where we do not detect the anomaly. Using country-level data, we confirm the anomaly is more likely to occur in countries having a common law tradition, and also in countries allowing extensive use of accrual accounting and having a lower concentration of share ownership. Additional analyses reveal that earnings management and barriers to arbitrage best explain the anomaly.