Collaborative Tenure, Audit Committee Chair Changes, and Earnings Management

Collaborative Tenure, Audit Committee Chair Changes, and Earnings Management PDF Author: Nelson Milan Carrasco Abarca
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Audit committees
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
In a recent concept release the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) highlighted concerns regarding auditor independence and auditor objectivity. They expressed concern that auditors may have a bias to accept management's views, particularly in long auditor tenure relations, and asked for public comments on the idea of mandatory auditor rotation. Prior research has focused primarily on the auditor side of the relation, however, my study considers the collaborative effect of the three parties involved in the financial reporting process (management (Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the auditor, and the audit committee). I find that longer collaborative tenure between the CEO and the auditor is associated with lower positive discretionary accruals (i.e., less earnings management). This finding is contrary to the PCAOB's concerns regarding long auditor tenure and lower financial reporting quality. I do not find that the joint tenure of the three parties (CEO, auditor and audit committee chair) is significantly associated with earnings management or accrual quality. I also find that the first year of an audit committee chair change is associated with an increase in positive discretionary accruals. This association does not differ based on different lengths of auditor tenure. However, longer collaborative tenure between the auditor and the CEO constrains earnings management and there is an even greater effect when there is an audit committee chair change (i.e., there are lower positive discretionary accruals). This study provides evidence that longer auditor tenure is not necessarily an undesirable situation, either by itself and particularly not if the long tenure is coupled with long tenure of the CEO.

Collaborative Tenure, Audit Committee Chair Changes, and Earnings Management

Collaborative Tenure, Audit Committee Chair Changes, and Earnings Management PDF Author: Nelson Milan Carrasco Abarca
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Audit committees
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description
In a recent concept release the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) highlighted concerns regarding auditor independence and auditor objectivity. They expressed concern that auditors may have a bias to accept management's views, particularly in long auditor tenure relations, and asked for public comments on the idea of mandatory auditor rotation. Prior research has focused primarily on the auditor side of the relation, however, my study considers the collaborative effect of the three parties involved in the financial reporting process (management (Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the auditor, and the audit committee). I find that longer collaborative tenure between the CEO and the auditor is associated with lower positive discretionary accruals (i.e., less earnings management). This finding is contrary to the PCAOB's concerns regarding long auditor tenure and lower financial reporting quality. I do not find that the joint tenure of the three parties (CEO, auditor and audit committee chair) is significantly associated with earnings management or accrual quality. I also find that the first year of an audit committee chair change is associated with an increase in positive discretionary accruals. This association does not differ based on different lengths of auditor tenure. However, longer collaborative tenure between the auditor and the CEO constrains earnings management and there is an even greater effect when there is an audit committee chair change (i.e., there are lower positive discretionary accruals). This study provides evidence that longer auditor tenure is not necessarily an undesirable situation, either by itself and particularly not if the long tenure is coupled with long tenure of the CEO.

Audit Committees and Quarterly Earnings Management

Audit Committees and Quarterly Earnings Management PDF Author: Joon S. Yang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Regulators have frequently expressed concerns about corporate earnings management. Audit committees are expected to monitor managers' financial reporting, including attempts to manipulate earnings numbers. The extant literature has focused on managers'incentives to manipulate earnings numbers. However, managers also have incentives to manage earnings, due to, for example, pressures to meet quarterly analyst forecasts. We test the association between audit committee characteristics and measures of quarterly earnings management. Using a sample of 896 firm-year observations for the years 1996-2000, we report three findings. First, quarterly earnings management is lower for firms whose audit committee directors have greater governance expertise. Second, the extent of stock ownership by audit committee directors is positively associated with quarterly earnings management. Third, the average tenure of audit committee directors is negatively associated with quarterly earnings management.

Audit Committees and Quarterly Earnings Management

Audit Committees and Quarterly Earnings Management PDF Author: Joon S. Yang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Regulators have frequently expressed concerns about corporate earnings management. Audit committees are expected to monitor managers' tendencies to manipulate their earnings numbers. The extant literature until now has focused on managers' incentives to manipulate annual earnings numbers. However, managers also have incentives to manage quarterly earnings, due for example, to pressures to meet quarterly analyst forecasts. We test whether audit committees with certain characteristics curb managers' ability to engage in quarterly earnings management. We examine the following characteristics of audit committees: their independence, number of meetings, financial expertise, stock ownership, outside directorships, tenure, and number of directors.Using a sample of 896 firm-year observations for the years 1996-2000, we report three findings. First, the number of outside directorships held by audit committee directors is negatively associated with earnings management behavior. This could reflect possible independence of these directors because of their desire to maintain their reputations or their expertise in dealing with financial reporting issues. Second, we find that stock ownership by independent audit committee directors is positively associated with earnings management. The monitoring benefits of independent directors seem to be eroded in situations where they are given stock ownership. Moreover, in our sample, it is mainly the independent directors that own stock. Although we do not know how generalizable this finding is, it suggests that stock ownership by audit committee directors is undesirable. Third, the average tenure of audit committee directors is negatively associated with quarterly earnings management suggesting a possible positive effect of experience with the firm and its accounting. Our results are robust to two different measures of quarterly earnings management.

Audit Committee Tenure, Earnings Quality, Firm Performance and Cost of Capital

Audit Committee Tenure, Earnings Quality, Firm Performance and Cost of Capital PDF Author: James M. Braswell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Audit committees
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Regulators and financial reporting institutions have recently increased their focus on audit committee composition, indicating an acknowledgement of the potential importance of audit committee monitoring efforts on financial reporting quality. I extend prior corporate governance research by exploring whether the duration of service on a specific audit committee (i.e., audit committee tenure) affects earnings quality, future financial performance and cost of capital. Using a sample of 2,355 firm years for fiscal years 1998-2003, I test the potential association between audit committee tenure and GAAP-based earnings quality proxies and find some evidence that audit committee tenure improves earnings quality by limiting the degree to which management relies on accruals to determine income. I also test whether audit committee tenure effectively reduces real earnings management proxies since such techniques reflect routine business decisions that often fall outside of GAAP's jurisdiction. I find that audit committee tenure is associated with the use of abnormally low discretionary expenses, suggesting that current-period earnings are artificially inflated when audit committee tenure is relatively longer. The next stage of my study examines the effect of audit committee tenure on firm performance. Audit committees can influence firm performance by two avenues. First, committee effectiveness can influence the quality of reported earnings, which could reduce the cost of capital and improve firm performance by making positive NPV projects more feasible. The audit committee also oversees risk management activities and internal reporting efforts that are ultimately used by the board of directors to monitor and ratify management's strategic decisions. The results of this analysis provide evidence consistent with the entrenchment hypotheses since audit committee tenure appears to have a negative effect on future firm performance. I conclude the study by analyzing the potential association between audit committee tenure and cost of capital. After employing both cost of equity and cost of debt proxies as dependent variables, I find no significant associations with audit committee tenure.

Earnings Management

Earnings Management PDF Author: Joshua Ronen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387257713
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 587

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Book Description
This book is a study of earnings management, aimed at scholars and professionals in accounting, finance, economics, and law. The authors address research questions including: Why are earnings so important that firms feel compelled to manipulate them? What set of circumstances will induce earnings management? How will the interaction among management, boards of directors, investors, employees, suppliers, customers and regulators affect earnings management? How to design empirical research addressing earnings management? What are the limitations and strengths of current empirical models?

Audit Committee, Board of Director Characteristics, and Earnings Management

Audit Committee, Board of Director Characteristics, and Earnings Management PDF Author: April Klein
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
This study examines whether audit committee and board characteristics are related to earnings management by the firm. The motivation behind this study is the implicit assertion by the SEC, the NYSE and the NASDAQ that earnings management and poor corporate governance mechanisms are positively related. A non-linear negative relation is found between audit committee independence and earnings manipulation. Specifically, a significant relation is found only when the audit committee has less than a majority of independent directors. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the new regulations, no significant association is found between earnings management and the more stringent requirement of 100% audit committee independence. Empirical evidence also is provided that other corporate governance characteristics are related to earnings management. Earnings management is positively related to whether the CEO sits on the board's compensation committee. It is negatively related to the CEO's shareholdings and to whether a large outside shareholder sits on the board's audit committee. These results suggest that boards structured to be more independent of the CEO may be more effective in monitoring the corporate financial accounting process.

Auditor-provided Tax Services and "last Chance" Earnings Management

Auditor-provided Tax Services and Author: Ling Lei
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description


Earnings Quality

Earnings Quality PDF Author: Jennifer Francis
Publisher: Now Publishers Inc
ISBN: 1601981147
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
This review lays out a research perspective on earnings quality. We provide an overview of alternative definitions and measures of earnings quality and a discussion of research design choices encountered in earnings quality research. Throughout, we focus on a capital markets setting, as opposed, for example, to a contracting or stewardship setting. Our reason for this choice stems from the view that the capital market uses of accounting information are fundamental, in the sense of providing a basis for other uses, such as stewardship. Because resource allocations are ex ante decisions while contracting/stewardship assessments are ex post evaluations of outcomes, evidence on whether, how and to what degree earnings quality influences capital market resource allocation decisions is fundamental to understanding why and how accounting matters to investors and others, including those charged with stewardship responsibilities. Demonstrating a link between earnings quality and, for example, the costs of equity and debt capital implies a basic economic role in capital allocation decisions for accounting information; this role has only recently been documented in the accounting literature. We focus on how the precision of financial information in capturing one or more underlying valuation-relevant constructs affects the assessment and use of that information by capital market participants. We emphasize that the choice of constructs to be measured is typically contextual. Our main focus is on the precision of earnings, which we view as a summary indicator of the overall quality of financial reporting. Our intent in discussing research that evaluates the capital market effects of earnings quality is both to stimulate further research in this area and to encourage research on related topics, including, for example, the role of earnings quality in contracting and stewardship.

The Accountant

The Accountant PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Accounting
Languages : en
Pages : 838

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Book Description


The Audit Committee: Performing Corporate Governance

The Audit Committee: Performing Corporate Governance PDF Author: Laura F. Spira
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 030647655X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Why do we need to understand audit committees? The Cadbury Committee recommended that UK companies should adopt them in response to financial scandals that have stemmed from dubious financial reporting practices. In other countries, similar commissions have made similar recommendations and audit committees are now a common institution. However, many practitioners doubt whether an audit committee really does much to ensure the integrity of a firm's financial statements because, as outsiders, members don't know enough to dig deeply beneath the numbers. The Audit Committee: Performing Corporate Governance argues that such criticism overlooks the ceremonial function of these committees. The audit committee is an arena where members can form and strengthen shifting and fragmentary networks with each other and with the external auditors. Within these networks, both consensus and independence are demonstrated, generating comfort, which legitimises the company and maintains its access to external sources of capital. The audit committee is a key part of the corporate governance structure within an organisation. Many in the UK have been patched together to meet regulatory requirements and their operation is poorly understood because few people other than their members have access to their deliberations. In this account of the world of audit committees the practitioner will find the ethnographical perspectives on ceremonial performance, consensus, independence, and comfort both familiar and different. It's like looking at a photograph of something commonplace from an unusual angle or through a strange-shaped lens.