Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance

Publisher:: Wiley
Publication date:: 2021-02-01

ISBN:: 1044-8136

Issue Number

No. 35-1, January 2024

Latest documents

Geographic distance and tax fundamentals: An empirical analysis of location choice of Japanese firms’ outbound mergers and acquisitions
The deterrent effect of geographic distance on international expansion has been extensively examined in extant literature; however, little is known about whether tax‐related firm‐level characteristics could moderate the deterrent effect although both merger and acquisition (M&A) location decisions and tax‐related decisions involve considerable managerial judgments. Results using data on Japanese firms’ outbound M&A from 2010 to 2020 after Japan shifted from a worldwide tax system to a territorial tax system show that the deterrent effect of geographic distance is moderated by high tax avoidance, use of a tax consolidation regime, and a high level of deferred tax asset (DTA) balance. Additionally, we find that the 2017 Tax Reform on Japanese controlled foreign company (CFC) rules reduced the moderating effect of use of a consolidation regime, whereas it enhanced the moderating effect of a high level of DTA balance. These results call for a radical change in further research on various distances to incorporate insight from a tax perspective.
Causality and volatility spillovers of banks' stock price returns on BSE Bankex returns
This paper investigates the causal relationships and volatility spillovers between the BSE Bankex index and the stock prices of five major Indian banks (Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, and SBI). Daily data from January 2, 2018 to March 8, 2023 are used, and statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, Unit Root test, Cointegration test, Ganger Causality test, OLS regression, and GARCH model are employed. The study finds bidirectional causal relationships between the bank stocks and BSE Bankex returns, suggesting that the movement of the bank stocks significantly affects the overall market returns and vice versa. The study also finds significant volatility spillovers between the bank stocks and BSE Bankex returns, implying that the shocks in the bank stocks affect the market returns and vice versa. The study's outcomes have practical implications for investors and policymakers. Investors can use the results to make informed investment decisions in the Indian stock market, while policymakers can use the findings to monitor the financial stability of the banking sector and design appropriate policy interventions to address any potential financial crises. Overall, the study's findings suggest that policymakers should proactively monitor and manage market risks to safeguard overall financial stability.
Market share, investor horizon, and stock crash risk
On a 1990–2016 sample of 78,594 firm‐year observations, we document strong evidence of lower stock crash risk for more prominent firms (those with greater market share). This evidence is consistent across various proxies for stock crash risk, raw versus instrumented market share, and ordinary least squares versus logistic regressions. We also find that the market share's suppressing effect on stock crash risk is weakened by the relative prevalence of long‐term investors. This moderating effect of investor horizon suggests the quasi‐monopolistic insulation from market pressures as the explanation for the reduction in stock crash risk among more dominant firms.
Firms’ exposure to political risk and financial reporting quality
We examine the effects of political risk at the firm level on the integrity of financial reports between 2009 and 2019 using a data from U.S. firms. We provide evidence that, as evaluated by quarterly earnings conference call transcripts of companies with analysts that focus on political risk or uncertainty, political risk at the firm level is inversely related to the quality of accounting information. This effect is more likely to happen to firms with a higher agency problem, faster growth, and greater reliance on outside finance. The results persist after controlling macroeconomic variables. Our findings are also robust to alternative financial reporting quality criteria and endogeneity tests, and are economically significant.
PCAOB inspection deficiencies and audit fees
This study aims to extend research on the effect of PCAOB inspections on audit firm behavior by examining generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) type PCAOB inspection deficiencies, separately, to reveal the differential effects on audit fees in subsequent years. We empirically examine the audit fees of 98,393 client firm‐year observations for auditors who received a PCAOB inspection report during 2004–2021 via multivariate regression analyses. We find that GAAS (GAAP) deficiencies are associated with higher (lower) audit fees in the years following the reported deficiency. Our results suggest that the PCAOB inspection process modifies audit firm behavior when GAAS deficiencies are reported leading to the firm charging higher audit fees to defray the costs of addressing the deficiencies, but due to the severity of GAAP deficiencies that are identified, audit firms are willing to negotiate lower fees to retain the client. Our results are primarily driven by annually inspected audit firms. These results suggest that auditors respond to GAAS and GAAP PCAOB inspection deficiencies differently. The results of our study are useful to regulators and policymakers, such as the SEC and the PCAOB, in understanding how auditors respond to PCAOB inspection deficiencies and their due diligence to correct those deficiencies. PCAOB inspections are intended to evaluate compliance with accounting and auditing standards to improve audit quality and our study helps to extend the research to date which has not yet clearly demonstrated whether or not this has been accomplished.
Issue Information
Earnings management around reverse stock splits
Utilizing a sample of 1258 reverse stock splits from 1988 to 2019, we contrast earnings management by firms that initiate reverse splits for diverse reasons. Literature suggests that the incentives for reverse splits vary based on firms' stock price ranges. As such, we use the pre‐split and target‐price ranges to separate the sample into three groups. We find a stark difference in discretionary accruals across these groups. While previous studies have treated earnings management and reverse splits as substitutes, we hypothesize that firms at risk of delisting may employ these two mechanisms as complements. Consistent with the hypothesis, we document a strong positive association between reverse splits and post‐split discretionary accruals for firms with pre‐split prices below $1. This relationship, however, is non‐existent among the remaining two groups. Our findings have two important implications for investors: (i) firms with different motives behind reverse splits exhibit different earnings management behavior and (ii) firms that are likely facing exchange delisting use discretionary accruals in complement with reverse stock splits.
The spouse effect and CEO risk‐taking
We examine how a CEO's family life affects their corporate decisions. Specifically, we investigate whether a CEO's spouse's professional status affects the CEO's risk‐taking behavior. Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from the 2010 to 2012 period, we find evidence that CEOs with spouses who are professionals, defined as working spouses, spouses holding graduate degrees, or spouses graduated from Ivy League schools, tend to adopt riskier corporate policies. Our evidence suggests that firms led by CEOs with professional spouses exhibit higher accounting return volatility, make more aggressive financial reporting decisions, and invest more in risky assets. We do not find a significant association between professional spouses and firms’ market return volatility. Our results are consistent with the indirect channel theory, which suggests that CEOs with professional spouses might be inclined to undertake higher risks, potentially stemming from heightened conflicts between family and work commitments or improved wealth diversification attributed to their spouses' professional standing.
The timeliness of 10‐K filings, financial performance, and stock returns
Using a dataset constructed from the EDGAR database, this study investigates whether the timing of filing 10‐Ks contains useful information to investors. We argue and find that firms with better earnings news are more likely to file their 10‐Ks early. We further show that firms experience earnings increase would accelerate the filing of their 10‐Ks. We explore whether the timeliness measure is useful for predicting future financial performance and stock returns. We find that firms filing 10‐Ks early in the current year are more likely to have better earnings and higher stock returns in future years. Our results are robust to different measures of timeliness, before and after the statutory filing deadline changes, and subsamples of firms with large or small market capitalization.
Top management team incentive dispersion and audit fees
We study whether heterogeneity in pay‐performance sensitivities (PPS) across top management team (TMT) members influences audit fees. Evidence from current literature reveals that the heterogeneity in PPS among TMT affects TMT managers’ motivation to coordinate their activities to manipulate earnings. Since the quality of earnings lowers auditors’ financial reporting risk, we posit that audit fees will be lower when dispersion in the PPS among TMT is high. We demonstrate that audit fees are negatively linked with dispersion in PPS among TMT members. This finding is robust to numerous sensitivity testing. Overall, our findings suggest that firms benefit from the heterogeneity in PPS among TMT members in the form of lower audit fees.