Corporate Payout Policy

Corporate Payout Policy
Author: Harry DeAngelo
Publisher: Now Publishers Inc
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2009
Genre: Corporations
ISBN: 1601982046

Corporate Payout Policy synthesizes the academic research on payout policy and explains "how much, when, and how". That is (i) the overall value of payouts over the life of the enterprise, (ii) the time profile of a firm's payouts across periods, and (iii) the form of those payouts. The authors conclude that today's theory does a good job of explaining the general features of corporate payout policies, but some important gaps remain. So while our emphasis is to clarify "what we know" about payout policy, the authors also identify a number of interesting unresolved questions for future research. Corporate Payout Policy discusses potential influences on corporate payout policy including managerial use of payouts to signal future earnings to outside investors, individuals' behavioral biases that lead to sentiment-based demands for distributions, the desire of large block stockholders to maintain corporate control, and personal tax incentives to defer payouts. The authors highlight four important "carry-away" points: the literature's focus on whether repurchases will (or should) drive out dividends is misplaced because it implicitly assumes that a single payout vehicle is optimal; extant empirical evidence is strongly incompatible with the notion that the primary purpose of dividends is to signal managers' views of future earnings to outside investors; over-confidence on the part of managers is potentially a first-order determinant of payout policy because it induces them to over-retain resources to invest in dubious projects and so behavioral biases may, in fact, turn out to be more important than agency costs in explaining why investors pressure firms to accelerate payouts; the influence of controlling stockholders on payout policy --- particularly in non-U.S. firms, where controlling stockholders are common --- is a promising area for future research. Corporate Payout Policy is required reading for both researchers and practitioners interested in understanding this central topic in corporate finance and governance.

Earnings Management

Earnings Management
Author: Joshua Ronen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2008-08-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0387257713

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?

Ethics and Finance

Ethics and Finance
Author: John Hendry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2013-11-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107654254

Ethics and Finance: An Introduction provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the ethical issues raised by modern finance. Drawing carefully on ethical theory and with frequent use of case studies, it includes an analysis of the global financial system and its regulation and control, as well as a detailed analysis of the financial crisis. Chapters on specific areas of finance practice cover all the major financial scandals of recent times, from mis-selling to market manipulation and from insider trading to bankers' bonuses, as well as much more positive developments. From micro finance to derivatives trading, the book provides a careful and balanced treatment designed to help finance students and practitioners approach this sensitive topic in a thoughtful and constructive way. No prior knowledge of ethics or finance is required, and the book will be invaluable to students, finance teachers, practitioners and regulators.

Ethnostatistics

Ethnostatistics
Author: Robert P. Gephart
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020
Genre: Anthropology
ISBN: 9781529745160

Ethnostatistics is concerned with understanding how statistics are actually constructed and used by social scientists and professionals. While the conventional field of statistics emphasizes formal rules and rational methods for creating reliable and valid counts and measures of social phenomena, ethnostatistics addresses how interpretive work and informal practices that are needed to produce statistics interact with formal, technical knowledge to shape statistical outcomes. The goal is to develop a social theory of measurement that explains the construction, use, and meaning of statistics in scientific and professional life. Ethnostatistics thus provides important insights into essential but neglected features of statistics production and use. It addresses how practical knowledge, informal practices, and research settings influence the construction of statistics; it provides new tools to help researchers determine the appropriateness of the assumptions made in using statistics; and it reveals how quantitative research uses literary practices to present and interpret numbers for rhetorical purposes. Three levels of ethnostatistics are explored. Level 1, producing statistics, uses ethnographies to describe how qualitative observations are undertaken and transformed into numerals and measures. Level 2, statistics at work, uses computer simulations to assess implicit assumptions and informal practices in measurement. Level 3, the rhetoric of statistics, explores how statistics are used for persuasive purposes in scientific texts. These levels are illustrated with examples from economics, psychology, sociology, social studies of science, management research, and organization theory. Ethnostatistics is extended into other domains including qualimetrics, methodological myths and urban legends, and bibliometric assessments of academic performance.

The Audit Committee: Performing Corporate Governance

The Audit Committee: Performing Corporate Governance
Author: Laura F. Spira
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2007-05-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 030647655X

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.

Earnings Quality

Earnings Quality
Author: Jennifer Francis
Publisher: Now Publishers Inc
Total Pages: 97
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1601981147

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.

Detecting Earnings Management

Detecting Earnings Management
Author: Gary Giroux
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

ESSENTIAL TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR DETECTING MANIPULATION. As recent corporate scandals prove, corrupt companies can maintain a façade of financial success through manipulation and fraud almost to the day they file for bankruptcy. Fortunately, tools exists to detect aggressive earnings management. This timely book reviews the current environment, explains the tools that can be used to detect a manipulative financial environment, and introduces techniques for recasting financial information to get a truer economic picture. Brief cases reflecting a variety of companies provide a feel for evaluating public data and how earning management potential can be analyzed. In addition, an appendix features a complete earnings management detection checklist that can be used to conduct a thorough analysis of any corporation. Detecting Earning Management will help readers: Identify the incentive of management to manipulate earning to promote their own short-term interests. Evaluate the effectiveness of corporate governance to limit short-term manipulation and promote long-term success. Consider whether recent regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, will limit future abuse. Review the major fraud techniques used in the recent and not-so-recent scandals. Identify the potential areas of manipulation and other sources of distortion and develop appropriate detection strategies. Understand the challenging areas that can distort financial reality such as acquisitions, derivatives, and special purpose entities.

Corporate Governance Around the World

Corporate Governance Around the World
Author: Ahmed Naciri
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2008-02-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134087888

The last Asian financial crisis, coupled with the western series of corporate scandals, has caused investors and citizens to doubt mangers ability to guarantee credible financial information about organizations. Consequently, legislators all over the world have come to realise the necessity of legislating in the area of corporate governance.

Earnings Management and Corporate Finance

Earnings Management and Corporate Finance
Author: Joanna Lizińska
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2024-07-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1040104150

In today's dynamic landscape of accounting, corporate finance, and business management, earnings management has assumed paramount importance. Transparent and reliable accounting information is crucial for accurate corporate performance forecasting and financial decision-making. This book uniquely discusses practical earnings management methods within the accounting and taxation realms. It is supported by extensive international evidence linking informativeness of financial reports to companies’ financial decisions. Delving into the earnings management process, this book provides profound insights into how profits can be influenced through accounting choices and real business transactions. Real-life case studies will undoubtedly facilitate the understanding of accounting and taxation methods. Additionally, it unravels key elements of corporate finance puzzles related to the transparency of financial reports, including the macroeconomic environment, profit thresholds, cash management, audit quality, financing decisions, and financial health. With broad empirical evidence from various European countries, it multidimensionally explores the important link between the quality of information in financial statements and trade-offs behind financial decisions. The book serves as a valuable reference for international researchers in corporate finance, accounting, and corporate governance. It is also a powerful tool for business practitioners, including owners, lenders, auditors, regulatory and professional bodies, business partners, or other market participants. For those seeking the latest insights on earnings management, those producing or assessing accounting information, and those using financial reports in their research or business practice, this book is a must-read.