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Nineteenth century US railroads were the first ‘big businesses’ and had profound influence on society. This paper addresses one source of talent for the early US public accounting profession—railroads. Following the end of the US Civil War (1861–65), industrial expansion was a revolutionary experience, with large trusts appearing in the wake of the railroad's maturing influence on the development...
We analyze the effect of business and financial market cycles on credit ratings using a sample of firms from the Russell 3000 index that are rated by Standard and Poor's over the period 1986–2012. We also examine investor reaction to credit rating actions in different stages of business and financial market cycles. We document that credit rating agencies are influenced by business and financial market...
The function that accountants fulfil in the economic system is dependent on their ability to maintain the perception of high ethical standards. Building on the idea that birth cohorts, otherwise known as generations, are a useful proxy for the socio‐cultural environment of different time periods, we focus on the so‐called ‘GenMe’, that is, students and young workers born in the 1980s and 1990s. In...
We analyze the impact of IFRS 8 on the usefulness of segment reports from an investor's perspective. The analysis comprises three steps. First, we compare the value relevance of segment reports before and after the introduction of IFRS 8. Second, we analyze a treatment group of firms that had to change their segmentation upon IFRS 8 adoption and a control group that was unaffected by its introduction...
Integrated reporting (<IR>) is an emerging international corporate reporting initiative to address limitations to extant corporate reporting approaches, which are commonly criticized for being both voluminous and disjointed. While <IR> is gaining in popularity, current momentum has been limited due to a lack of clear evidence of its benefits. Utilizing the most suitable setting currently...
This study focuses on the operation of the Level 1, 2, and 3 measurement uncertainty hierarchy embedded in the SFAS 157 accounting for financial assets. Prior studies conclude the SFAS 157 fair value measurement model and prevailing financial market conditions are causal factors for the lower value relevance of the Level 3 financial assets. The contribution of our paper is to provide evidence on an...
This study investigates the effect of extreme uncertainty on disclosure behaviour by analyzing the quality and quantity of forward‐looking disclosures during the global financial crisis and pre‐crisis periods, controlling for other determinants of disclosure behaviour. Prior research has struggled to distinguish between the quality and quantity dimensions of forward‐looking disclosures. Also, the...
Managers can improve real risk‐adjusted firm performance by matching nominal assets with nominal liabilities, thereby reducing the sensitivity of real risk‐adjusted returns to unexpected inflation. The net asset value of US equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) serves as a good proxy for nominal assets and, accordingly, we use a sample of US REITs to test our hypothesis. We find that for the...
We investigate the relation between managerial incentives and the decision to cross‐list by comparing Canadian firms cross‐listed on US stock exchanges to industry‐ and size‐matched control firms. After controlling for firm and ownership structure characteristics, we find a positive association between substantial holdings of vested options held by CEOs prior to cross‐listing and the decision to cross‐list...
This paper uses bibliographic mapping techniques to map the research conversation in four Pacific Basin accounting journals listed on the Social Sciences Citation Index (Abacus, Accounting and Finance, Australian Accounting Review, and the Australian Journal of Management). We identify the main research streams in these journals as Accounting Standards, Environmental Accounting, Earnings Management,...
This paper models the effects of foreign investment in real estate on housing prices in Australia. We use a variety of panel data models that account for cross‐sectional heterogeneity across Australian cities and find that increases in investment are significant predictors of rises in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Residential Property Price Index. Our results are generally robust and suggest...
We explore the interdependence of investment and financing choices in US listed Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the period 1973–2011. We find that the investment and financing choices of REITs are interdependent, but they are not made simultaneously. Our results suggest that investment determines leverage, but leverage has no apparent effect on investment decisions. Conversely, the debt‐overhang...
This paper will analyze the risk return profile of real estate debt. Using a Monte Carlo simulation model, different debt layers (mezzanine and senior) are analyzed and compared to real estate investments. The results clearly show that senior debt is not heavily correlated to real estate and therefore behaves more like fixed income and should be valued accordingly. Mezzanine, however, is correlated...
This paper examines why overconfident CEOs issue more debt than equity within US Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and the value implications of this debt preference. Consistent with a demand‐side story, the paper finds that overconfident CEOs choose to issue more debt than equity than their non‐overconfident counterparts. The findings also rule out the supply‐side story that overconfident CEOs...
Using modern portfolio theory, the traditional asset allocation process employs measurements of risk and return delivered by asset classes—for example, stocks, bonds, and real estate—to build efficient portfolios. To build efficient portfolios in practice using this type of analysis requires that the risk and return characteristics of the asset class can be replicated in real portfolios. This may...
Comparability indices summarize the level of comparability between companies at a national and international level, an issue of importance to investors, regulators, and standard setters. Comparability indices can identify areas where comparability is low and where comparability is deteriorating. Furthermore, they can be used to quantify the extent to which initiatives such as International Financial...
How to measure a project's implied rate of return has long been an unresolved problem, except for some special cases. This paper derives return on present cost (ROPC) as the correct measure of an investment project's implied rate of return. The IRR is a biased measure except for projects classified as simple projects, and this bias is likely to be substantial in many real‐world applications. Thus...
Non‐financial reports alert investors to operational risks associated with issues such as insufficient access to natural resource inputs and related costly interruptions to production, while segment‐level reports alert investors to operational risk distribution across a firm. An important issue, to date unexplored, is how segment‐level non‐financial reporting has an impact on earnings predictions...
In this study, we revisit the relationship between analyst firm coverage and forecast accuracy. In contrast to the proposed negative association in Clement (1999) owing to the portfolio complexity effect, we hypothesize an ‘economy‐of‐scale effect’ that is likely to dominate when analysts rely mostly on public information. In support of the latter effect, we find a positive association between firm...
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