{"title":"Causes and Effects of Late Payments on Company’s Projects: A Case on Engineering Services, Pakistan","authors":"H. Mahmood, N. Khalid, D. Siddiqui","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3641438","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3641438","url":null,"abstract":"The study found that causes of payment problems in the engineering services; cash flow problems due to delays and non-payments experienced on other projects, disputes over-payment claims and responses, cash flow difficulties due to lack of initial capital, the attitude of payers, easy exit of players, and the general payment culture of the industry. Subsequent clustering of the identified factors using a factor analysis provided knowledge on key areas that industry practitioners need to focus on in mitigating payment problems within the industry. From the factor analysis, the underlying factors for payment problems are six-fold: contractual issues, financial strength of industry players, disputes between players, project characteristics, the ‘domino effect’, and others. Most of the causes of payment problems fall under the clusters: financial strengths of industry players, project characteristics, and the ‘domino effect’. It is safe to conclude that the domino effect is partly due to financial weaknesses of key construction industry players.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130520781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Trading\" Political Favors: Evidence from the Impact of the STOCK Act","authors":"Ruidi Huang, Yuhai Xuan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2765876","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2765876","url":null,"abstract":"This paper demonstrates the tacit benefits that accrue to both politicians and the firms to which they are connected through stock ownership. Specifically, we show strong evidence that politicians use private information and political favors for financial gains from stock investments in their personal portfolios, and that these favors have a real impact on the value and economic outcomes of the firms in which they invest. To do so, we assemble the stock ownership and trading data for all members of the U. S. Congress from 2010 to 2013 and use the passage of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act in 2012 as an experiment to examine changes in politicians' trading performance as well as in firm value and outcomes. We find that prior to the STOCK Act, members of the Congress earn significant abnormal returns on their stock trades, and an increase in their holdings of a firm's stock positively predicts the firm's likelihood of being acquired as well as its revenue and earnings surprises. After the passage of the Act, politicians exhibit no such informational advantage in trading or outperformance. On the firms' side, we show that companies with politician ownership on average lose 1.4% in value during the three-day window around the Act's passage, while firms not owned by politicians experience no abnormal returns. Correspondingly, after the Act's passage, these politician-owned firms lose a significant amount of procurement contracts and government grants and become less likely to be selected by the government into high-profile trade missions compared to during the pre-Act period. We find that these mutual benefits are particularly pronounced for politicians who are powerful and firms that are politically active.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124078002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Sensitivity of Cash Savings to the Cost of Capital","authors":"V. Acharya, Soku Byoun, Zhaoxia Xu","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3631805","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3631805","url":null,"abstract":"We show theoretically and empirically that in the presence of a time-varying cost of capital (COC), firms have a hedging motive to reduce the overall COC over time by saving cash when COC is relatively low. The sensitivity of cash savings to COC is especially pronounced with respect to the cost of equity and for firms with greater correlation between COC and financing needs for future investments. Both financially constrained and unconstrained firms respond to low COC by saving cash out of external capital issuance in excess of current financial needs.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126086255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Administrative Expenses and Firm Value: Evidence from Chinese Stock Market","authors":"Qing Liang, Feng Guo, Guanglei Zhou","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3632901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3632901","url":null,"abstract":"Analyze the components of administrative expenses and find that some expenditure in administrative expenses, such as employee training expenses, employee education expenses, technology development expenses, etc., which have a long-term positive effect on improving the relationship between enterprises and the government or banks, enhancing employee satisfaction, improving corporate technology, and enhancing corporate competitiveness, so as to create future bene ts for the enterprise. Based on the empirical analysis, we prove that the previous administrative expenses are positively related to the current operating profit. Through data analysis and empirical research, it shows that: (1) administrative expenses are positively associated with future operating performance; (2) the capital market can partially recognize the future value creation ability of administrative expenditure so that the administrative expense future value has significantly positive pricing coefficient; (3) the capital market fails to fully recognize the future value created by administrative expenditure so that the highest portfolio can experience significantly positive future excess return.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"136 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129448022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fabio Moraes da Costa, Carol Liu, R. Rosa, Samuel L. Tiras
{"title":"The Effects of Fair Value on the Matching of Revenues and Expenses: The Case of Asset Revaluations","authors":"Fabio Moraes da Costa, Carol Liu, R. Rosa, Samuel L. Tiras","doi":"10.1142/S1094406020500195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1142/S1094406020500195","url":null,"abstract":"Researchers and practitioners have expressed concern that matching has declined over time, as evidenced by a decreasing association between revenues and expenses. They attribute this decline to the shift in financial reporting from a revenue-expense view that emphasizes matching, to an asset-liability view that emphasizes the measurement of economic resources that incorporates more fair values. When revenues rise with inflation but the expenses remain tied to historical costs, the two streams tend to diverge. We hypothesize that upwardly revaluing the long-lived fixed operating assets resets the expense stream; thus, changes in revenues will be more closely associated with changes in expenses for firms that revalue than firms that do not upwardly revalue. Based on a sample of United Kingdom firms, we find evidence supporting our expectations, particularly in those higher inflationary industries.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"0904 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125631098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Disclosure Environment and Investment Information in Multiple Markets","authors":"Yoshikazu Ishinagi, Joonghwa Oh","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3624576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3624576","url":null,"abstract":"We study the effect of disclosure requirements on a firm's investment decisions when it competes with an identical competitor in multiple (two) markets. We assume that firms have limited investment resources, and we focus on cases in which the disclosure environment may differ from market to market. As with previous studies on single Cournot competition, our results show that firms pursue more aggressive investments under disclosure than under non-disclosure in symmetric disclosure environments. However, firms invest less in a market with disclosure than in one without if both markets have asymmetric disclosure environments. This is because firms are willing to concentrate their limited investment resources on a less competitive market, and multimarket contact allows firms to predict rival firm behavior.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132933988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Disruptive Life Events Affect How Analysts Assess Risk? Evidence from Deadly Hurricanes","authors":"Thomas Bourveau, Kelvin K. F. Law","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2782316","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2782316","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study examines whether disruptive life events affect how analysts assess risk. We exploit the staggered arrival of hurricanes between 1996 and 2009 at analysts' office locations across the United States as a plausibly exogenous shock in the analysts' experience of disruptive life events. We show in a difference-in-differences setting that relative to non-affected analysts, analysts in states affected by hurricanes issue less optimistic forecasts for non-affected firms after hurricanes. The temporary effects are strongest for affected analysts who had never before experienced a hurricane in their office location. The evidence suggests that analysts use the availability heuristic to assess risk. We observe the same effects in recent years, as our analysis based on Superstorm Sandy in 2012 yields similar results. Overall, our evidence indicates that disruptive life events affect analysts' judgments.\u0000 JEL Classifications: D81; D83; G02; G24; G29.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115186883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Measuring Corporate Investment Horizons and Identifying Short-Termism","authors":"Andreas Knetsch","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3810872","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3810872","url":null,"abstract":"This paper proposes an empirical approach to capture investment horizons. I utilize this method to analyze short-termist investment. It relies on information which is not observable to investors in the period of investment and therefore considers the nature of short-termism as an agency problem. My empirical findings establish the validity of the introduced approach by relating it to an existing measure of investment horizons as well as multiple firm characteristics which are connected to short-termism. I observe that investment horizons are shorter for firms that inflate their reported income through real or accrual-based earnings management and for firms whose stock prices are more sensitive to earnings surprises. I also investigate which governance mechanisms are effective in curtailing short-termism. Managerial entrenchment, analyst coverage, institutional ownership, the effectiveness of the board of directors, and managerial long-term compensation all relate to longer investment horizons and thus less short-termism.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116701169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What Are the Audit-Related Implications of Firm Profitability?","authors":"Keith Czerney","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3604647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3604647","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the implications of firm profitability, as a potential indication of audit-related risk, to audit quality, auditor reporting, auditor continuance decisions, and audit pricing in the post-SOX environment. Using a sample of non-financial public companies over the period 2005 – 2017, I find that profitability: is an important determinant of audit quality among profit firms; informs auditor reporting decisions such that when firm profitability is lower, auditors are more likely to report internal control weaknesses and express substantial doubt about the client’s ability to continue as a going concern; and, is an important consideration in audit pricing only for profit firms. These inferences continue to hold when I address the potentially endogenous nature of firm profitability, use first difference estimation that captures changes in firm profitability, and assess the importance of profitability relative to other predictors. I contribute to practice and to the auditing literature by providing a focused, contemporary examination of firm profitability in the audit setting. My results suggest that low firm profitability may not be as timely and reliable of an indication of risk as predominantly believed.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122486852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Evidence on Investors’ Valuation of Deferred Tax Liabilities","authors":"Russ Hamilton","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3304846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3304846","url":null,"abstract":"Although deferred tax liabilities (DTLs) represent a significant financial statement liability for most firms, research reaches conflicting conclusions regarding investors’ valuation of these items. Using an expanded dataset of hand-collected tax footnotes, I examine the nuanced association between depreciation-related DTLs and firm value, extracted from a period when these relations may have been more easily analyzed by investors. I show that investors price depreciation-related DTLs as economic burdens, on average. Despite arguments that growing DTL balances might signal lack of reversals (and a lower likelihood of being priced), I show that investors price growing depreciation-related DTL balances. Finally, I find evidence that DTL pricing is sensitive to expectations of firms’ future tax status and that investors value the tax deferral associated with DTLs. As depreciation-related DTLs are by far the largest DTL component, my study provides important insights into the valuation of deferred tax balances.","PeriodicalId":127551,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Finance: Valuation","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126111354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}