Folajimi Ashiru , Emmanuel Adegbite , Franklin Nakpodia
{"title":"Nigerian professional investors' sense-making of the impact of shareholder activism on corporate accountability","authors":"Folajimi Ashiru , Emmanuel Adegbite , Franklin Nakpodia","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107114","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107114","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study investigates the perceptions of professional investors (PIs) on the impact of three groups of shareholder activists (i.e., reputable, sophisticated, or institutional) on corporate accountability in a weak institutional context and how this shapes the PIs’ investment recommendations. Relying on a sense-making theoretical perspective of the power and competence of shareholder activists obtained through semi-structured interviews with 27 Nigerian PIs, we reveal that the impact of shareholder activism occurs in three activism-accountability dimensions: dominant, insignificant, and emerging. Subsequently, we unpack factors that explain the power and influence of the dominant activism of reputable activists, the insignificant activism of sophisticated activists and the emerging activism of institutional activists. By advocating a contextual understanding of shareholder activism, this article sheds much-needed insights into the concept of ‘activism-accountability’ in a weak institutional environment.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46407250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Earnings expectations and the quality of financial services","authors":"Xiaomeng Shi , Duc Duy Nguyen , Mingzhu Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107115","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107115","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Using complaint data filed by consumers with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against financial institutions, we show that banks receive, on average, 13.3% more customer complaints in the quarter immediately after they narrowly beat analysts’ earnings forecasts. The effect is mainly driven by banks’ attempts to reduce their non-interest expenses to beat earnings benchmarks. The relationship is stronger when bank CEOs receive a greater proportion of incentive-based compensation. Overall, our paper demonstrates how capital market incentives exacerbate shareholder–customer conflicts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47706811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reputation and commercialism: Did accounting have a golden age? The US audit profession 1929–1990","authors":"Michael E. Doron","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107119","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107119","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper argues that maintaining the CPA’s reputation, along with a collegial professional environment, were the central goals of the American audit profession through most of the twentieth century. <span>Matthews (2017)</span> and <span>Lee (1995)</span> contend that economic self-interest has always been the profession’s goal. This paper, based on extensive study of primary sources largely unused by accounting historians, argues that the existing record is not consistent with an economic self-interest thesis. Magali Larson argued in The Rise of Professionalism that professionals tend to pursue social status and collegiality over profit seeking. Auditors worked to maintain the quiet, collegial profession that enhanced their self-image as professionals, not businessmen. But this proved to be unsustainable as the American economy expanded and a market-based ethic pervaded American culture and government in the last third of the twentieth century.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41633634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effect of disclosure committees on non-GAAP reporting quality","authors":"Jie Hao","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107118","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107118","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>I examine whether company-implemented disclosure committees help to improve non-GAAP reporting quality. I find that firms with disclosure committees provide higher quality non-GAAP performance metrics and that the exclusions used to calculate their non-GAAP numbers are less persistent for future operating income and operating cash flows. Moreover, I find that firms with disclosure committees are less likely to receive SEC comment letters about non-GAAP disclosure. For firms that receive comment letters about non-GAAP reporting, disclosure committees can help to improve non-GAAP reporting quality. Comparing the influence of audit committees and disclosure committees, I find that audit committee financial experts have stronger monitoring effects than those on disclosure committees. Meanwhile, legal experts on disclosure committees provide similar monitoring compared to audit committees’ financial experts. Finally, the interaction between audit committee financial experts and disclosure committee legal experts produces the strongest effect on non-GAAP reporting quality. In sum, my analyses suggest that disclosure committees can provide important monitoring of non-GAAP reporting.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42977890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transparency trade-offs in the operation of national Public Private Partnership units: The case of Ireland’s National Development Finance Agency","authors":"Gail Sheppard , Matthias Beck","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107111","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107111","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Since 2002, the Irish National Development Finance Agency [NDFA] has played a leading role in the procurement of Public Private Partnership [PPP] projects in Ireland (UNECE, 2008). It has procured 9 PPP projects bundles, which are currently listed on its website, between 2002 and 2022 <span><sup>1</sup></span> in addition to Primary Care, Justice, OPW and Education bundles not currently listed on its website. Ireland follows a global pattern where national or provincial PPP units, frequently organised as arm’s-length bodies, play a central role in managing the partnership-based procurement of infrastructure projects (Burger, 2009). This paper examines how the NDFA, acting as Ireland’s PPP unit, has affected the transparency and accountability of Irish PPP procurement. Our analysis indicates that the expanding role played by the NDFA has been depoliticisation and agencification. Our analysis deviates from some previous critical studies of PPP agency governance (Sześciło, 2020) in that we argue that agencification can adversely affect some aspects of PPP transparency while strengthening others, such as selection process transparency. Nonetheless, we suggest the approach to PPP procurement could harm the long-term sustainability of Irish PPP. Using the example of Ireland, our paper contributes to an understanding of the impact of such institutional arrangements on transparency and accountability of PPP procurement.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48645213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do corporate taxes affect employee welfare? Evidence from workplace safety","authors":"Daniel Bradley , Connie X. Mao , Chi Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107112","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107112","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We examine the impact of tax policy on worker safety that exploits spatial discontinuity in treatment and control establishments stemming from state-level corporate tax changes. The granularity of our data and econometric approach allows us to exploit within-firm, across-establishment variation in worker safety shedding light on the real effects of headquarter versus plant-level decisions. Plant-level injury rates increase with tax hikes in establishment states, but not with those in headquarter states, highlighting the importance of plant-level decisions. We explore three plausible non-mutually exclusive mechanisms to help explain these findings ─ safety investment, leverage, and labor stress channels. We find that in the presence of a tax hike, firms reduce safety-related investments, and the tax effect on injury rates is exacerbated for firms that increase leverage and for firms where employees work longer hours and seasonal workers are used. Overall, our findings suggest that tax increases lead to negative welfare outcomes for employees, with no similar benefit accruing for tax cuts.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41571295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yanming Cao , Jengfang Chen , Meiting Lu , Grant Richardson
{"title":"To switch or not to switch? The effect of audit firms’ economies of scale on audit firm switches after audit price deregulation in China","authors":"Yanming Cao , Jengfang Chen , Meiting Lu , Grant Richardson","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107098","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107098","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We exploit the unique setting of China’s 2014 audit price deregulation policy to examine whether audit firms use their economies of scale (EOS) to compete for clients. We find a significant increase in client firms switching from a non-EOS auditor to an EOS auditor after the audit price deregulation policy was implemented. The additional analyses show that EOS audit firms are more likely to offer audit fee discounts than non-EOS audit firms while retaining audit quality. We also find that the auditors’ EOS effect is more pronounced for highly homogeneous industries and firms paying high abnormal audit fees, firms in financial distress, and firms receiving less capital market attention than for less homogeneous industries and firms paying low abnormal audit fees, financially stable firms, and firms receiving more capital market attention. Finally, we find that the presence of state-owned enterprises and political connections both separately and jointly moderate the effect of audit firm–client realignments from a non-EOS auditor to an EOS auditor after the audit price deregulation. Overall, our study provides important insights for policymakers and regulators reviewing and developing new policies on audit services.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44291658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Firm-level political risk and earnings opacity","authors":"Huy Viet Hoang , Khanh Hoang , Cuong Nguyen , Dung Viet Tran","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107101","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107101","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Given the recent growing global uncertainties, firms have encountered increasing political risks and responded accordingly to avoid a negative impact on their performance. This study examines the impact of firm-level political risk on corporate earnings opacity among listed U.S. firms. Our empirical results reveal that higher firm-level political risk engenders greater corporate earnings opacity via three channels of market scrutiny, political proximity, and multiple business objectives. Further analyses show that politically risky firms are more prudent in earnings management when they are highly dependent on government spending. The results hold after a wide range of robustness tests. Our findings provide several implications for the management of earnings quality in response to increasing firm-level political risk in the U.S.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42406808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do mandatory risk factor disclosures reduce stock price crash risk?","authors":"Shiu-Yik Au , Bin Qiu , Szu-Yin Wu \"Jennifer\"","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107077","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107077","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We test whether voluntary or mandatory risk factor disclosures (RFDs) in 10-K filings is associated with a reduction in stock price crash risk. We find that the level of mandatory RFDs in 10-K filings is associated with a reduction in stock price crash risk but find no similar relationship for voluntary RFDs. We exploit two exogenous shocks to mitigate endogeneity concerns that remain to be addressed in the literature. We investigate the moderators for this relationship and find the reduction is magnified among firms with higher information asymmetry<span>, higher litigation risk, or better corporate governance. Overall, our findings identify a potential avenue to mitigate stock price crash risk and provide evidence that mandated RFDs contain useful information content and benefit investors.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43311248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Support for pension reforms: What is the role of financial literacy and pension knowledge?","authors":"Noemi Oggero , Francesco Figari , Elsa Fornero , Mariacristina Rossi","doi":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107096","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2023.107096","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Despite the relevance of the issue of pension system sustainability in most advanced economies, the factors associated with the opposition to pension reforms are still under-studied. In this paper, we investigate the correlation between financial, pension and institutional knowledge and support for pension reforms. Using an ad hoc module of the SHARE data for Italy, we find that financially literate and pension knowledgeable individuals are more willing to accept pension reforms. In particular, individuals with a basic level of pension knowledge recognize that population ageing, low economic growth, and low contributions by the young make the public pension system hardly sustainable.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48070,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting and Public Policy","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42112588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}