{"title":"To Buy or Not to Buy: Household Risk Hedging of Housing Costs","authors":"Shuo Liu, Jin Wang, Weixing Wu","doi":"10.1111/acfi.12333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12333","url":null,"abstract":"This study studies Chinese households’ decision between buying or renting a primary residence from a risk hedging perspective. Although homeownership means bearing house price risk, it eliminates exposure to rent risk. Our empirical results suggest that the homeownership rate increases with the rent volatility of living areas and decreases with the probability of move. However, households no longer hedge against the rent risk when owning a second house, which is often purchased as an investment property. Furthermore, we investigate households with heads aged over 60. Due to finite life expectancy, the rent hedging benefit of owning is weakened.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90785187","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}
J. Barrick, Nathan W. Mecham, S. Summers, David A. Wood
{"title":"Ranking Accounting Journals by Topical Area and Methodology","authors":"J. Barrick, Nathan W. Mecham, S. Summers, David A. Wood","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2848560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2848560","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper presents rankings of accounting journals disaggregated by topical area (AIS, audit, financial, managerial, tax, and other) and methodology (analytical, archival, experimental, a...","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76456152","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 Occurrence and Awareness of a Misstatement Effect in Auditors' Internal Control Severity Judgments","authors":"S. Asare, Barbara Majoor, A. Wright","doi":"10.1111/ijau.12093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ijau.12093","url":null,"abstract":"We define a misstatement effect as a tendency for auditors to take the non-detection of a misstatement as evidence of the absence of a material weakness and test the hypothesis that it occurs unconsciously in their internal control severity judgments. In a between-participants design, which is analogous to the practice setting, we find that auditors evaluate an internal control deficiency less severely when it has not led to a misstatement. However, in a within-participants design, where the misstatement manipulation (detected or not detected) is more salient, we find that auditors evaluate the deficiencies as equally severe, suggesting that the misstatement effect in the between-participants design is not intended. The findings suggest the need to consider the use of decision aids that align auditors' heuristics and knowledge. For instance, auditors may be required to document possible misstatements that could occur when evaluating control deficiencies that have not led to misstatements.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"10 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72585618","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":"Budget Difficulty and Performance in Unstable Production Environments","authors":"Jeremy Douthit, A. Sauciuc","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3062807","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3062807","url":null,"abstract":"Budgets serve an important role in motivating employee performance. We examine how the difficulty of meeting a budget target (“budget difficulty”) and the stability of the budget environment affect performance. We use a controlled experiment where employee-participants perform a task under incentivized budgets. The budget is either stable, with a constant difficulty, or unstable, with difficulty occasionally increasing from the typical difficulty to a high difficulty level. We find that performance is higher in unstable than stable environments and is higher when the typical budget difficulty is moderate rather than low. Further, we find that learning in unstable environments is greater when the typical budget difficulty is moderate rather than low. This yields greater preparedness for – and greater performance in – unstable periods with heightened difficulty. We contribute to the debate regarding the usefulness of budgets by highlighting benefits of fixed budget targets under environmental uncertainty: increased performance and learning.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88644533","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":"Auditing Practice and Cognitive Aging: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment","authors":"Leonardo P. Barcellos, R. L. Cardoso, R. Leite","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3026189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3026189","url":null,"abstract":"We show that auditing practice is more likely to prevent cognitive reflection abilities (CR-abilities) decline than financial reports elaboration practice. We rely on the institutionally unique setting of the Brazilian accounting profession together with previous research and interviews to reason that, while auditors and preparers follow indistinguishable educational paths, auditors usually engage in more cognitively taxing tasks than preparers. We collect data from a large number of Brazilian CPAs and use a quasi-experimental approach to estimate the moderation effect of career on the relationship between aging and CR-abilities. We find that CR-abilities do not differ at early career stages, but preparers’ CR-abilities decline across aging, whereas auditors’ CR-abilities are preserved. We cluster CPAs by age subgroups and compare auditors and preparers who are very similar across several personal and professional individual characteristics but career. This approach overcomes some of the pitfalls of previous studies, strengthening causal inferences.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86785302","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 Effect of Discontinuous and Unpredictable Environmental Change on the Use of Management Accounting during Organizational Decline: A Field Study","authors":"Christie Hayne","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.3010333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.3010333","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates whether and how organizations use management accounting during decline. Based on interviews and observation in five private sector organizations and one in the public sector, I employ a theoretical lens distinguishing the continuity and predictability of environmental change. I find that members in organizations facing decline due to a discontinuous and unpredictable environmental change leverage management accounting during decline. In contrast, members in organizations facing decline due to a continuous and predictable environmental change question the truth and value of their management accounting practices and, as a result, do not change their use of management accounting to manage decline. For those organizations that do leverage management accounting to manage decline, I employ a theoretical lens based on theory and research relating to the process of organizational learning. I find that organizational members first engage in a comprehensive review of their management accounting systems and reports to convince themselves that they can be relied upon. Following this process, they use accounting to understand the past, develop metrics intended to reach all employees, and institute various forms of accountability to support the management of decline. These uses of management accounting align with the information processing, interpretation, and dissemination activities of organizational learning, which enables organizations to find a new language for understanding and managing decline. My findings contribute to research and practice.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76660259","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":"Rare Disaster Risk and the Expected Equity Risk Premium","authors":"H. Berkman, B. Jacobsen, John B. Lee","doi":"10.1111/acfi.12158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12158","url":null,"abstract":"Consistent with the predictions of rare disaster models, we find that a proxy for the time-varying probability of rare disasters helps to explain fluctuations in expectations of the equity risk premium. Our proxy for disaster risk is a recently developed measure of global political instability, and the expected market risk premium is from Value Line analysts' expected stock returns. Consistent with long-run risk models, uncertainty about expected GDP growth and expected consumption growth is also significantly positively related to the expected market risk premium. We obtain similar results when we use the earnings–price ratio and the dividend–price ratio as proxies for the expected market risk premium.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85349466","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}
Charles (Chad) Ham, Mark Lang, Nicholas Seybert, Sean Wang
{"title":"CFO Narcissism and Financial Reporting Quality","authors":"Charles (Chad) Ham, Mark Lang, Nicholas Seybert, Sean Wang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2581157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2581157","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate the effect of CFO narcissism, as measured by signature size, on financial reporting quality. Experimentally, we validate that narcissism predicts misreporting behavior, and that signature size predicts misreporting through its association with narcissism. Empirically, we examine notarized CFO signatures and find CFO narcissism is associated with more earnings management, less timely loss recognition, weaker internal control quality, and a higher probability of restatements. The results are consistent for within-firm comparisons focusing on CFO changes and are robust to controlling for CFO overconfidence and CEO narcissism. The results highlight the importance of CFO characteristics in the domain of financial reporting decisions.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87824685","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":"Determinants of Chinese Equity Financing Behaviours: Traditional Model and the Alternatives","authors":"Xiaoyan Chen, Xin Liu","doi":"10.1111/acfi.12151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12151","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies the capital structure of Chinese SEO issuers, from the perspective of equity. The traditional model is subject to several problems including spurious correlation, cumulative measure and endogeneity. System GMM (generalised method of moments) is superior to the traditional model. Corporate governance is positively correlated to firm equity level; however, it does not affect incremental managerial adjustments to equity. In addition, state control positively influences equity level but has a negative effect on incremental managerial adjustment. Mixed evidence is found for the established capital structure theories in the Chinese context.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88196169","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":"Leverage Adjustment after Mergers and Acquisitions","authors":"Joye Khoo, Robert B. Durand, S. Rath","doi":"10.1111/acfi.12148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12148","url":null,"abstract":"Australian firms have leverage targets. Speeds of adjustment to a target capital structure are higher than previously published estimates when there are major disruptions to firms’ leverage ratios. Firms exploit company-specific characteristics to achieve these targets. Profitability and cash levels are important drivers of the speeds of adjustment. Firms, which have lower profitability or higher cash levels, appear to adjust faster.","PeriodicalId":8737,"journal":{"name":"Behavioral & Experimental Accounting eJournal","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73197776","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}