Applying Benford’s law to detect accounting data manipulation in the banking industry

We utilise Benford’s Law to test if balance sheet and income statement data broadly used to assess bank soundness were manipulated prior to and also during the global financial crisis. We find that all banks resort to loan loss provisions to manipulate earnings and income upwards. Distressed institutions that have stronger incentives to conceal their financial difficulties resort additionally to manipulating loan loss allowances and non-performing loans downwards. Moreover, manipulation is magnified during the crisis and expands to encompass regulatory capital

Financial Characteristics of Companies Audited by Large Audit Firms

Purpose “ The purpose of this paper is to examine how financial characteristics associated with the choice of a big audit firm with further investigation on the agency costs of free cash flows.Design/methodology/approach “ The sample used for this work includes industrial listed companies from Germany and France. To test our hypothesis, we used a number of logit models, extending the standard model selection audit firm, to include the variables of interest. Following previous work, our dependent dummy variable is Big4 or non-Big4.Findings “ We observed that most independent variables in the German companies show similar results to previous work, but we did not have the same results for the French industry. Moreover, our findings suggest that the total debt and dividends can be an important reason for determining the choice of a large audit firm, reducing agency costs of free cash flows.Research limitations/implications “ This study has some limitations on the measurements of the cost of the audit fees and also generates opportunities for additional searching.Originality/value “ The paper provides only one aspect to explain the relationship between the problems of agency costs of free cash flow and influence in choosing a large auditing firm, which stems from investors\u27 demand for higher quality audits

Philosophy as political technē: The tradition of invention in Simondon’s political thought

Gilbert Simondon has recently attracted the interest of political philosophers and theorists, despite he is rather renowned as a philosopher of technics – as the author of Of the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects – who also elaborated a general theory of complex systems in Individuation in the Light of the Notions of Form and Information. A group of scholars has developed Gilles Deleuze’s early suggestion that Simondon’s social ontology might offer the basis for a re-theorisation of radical democracy. Others, following Herbert Marcuse, have instead focused on Simondon’s analysis of the relationship between technology and society. However, only a joint study of Simondon’s two major works can reveal their implicit political stakes. As I will argue, Simondon’s anti-Aristotelianism and his anti-Heideggerian understanding of the Greek origins of philosophy, allow us to conceive philosophical thought as a ‘tradition of invention’, that is, a pedagogical technē endowed with the political task of maintaining the openness of the social system and allowing normative invention to emerge from within

Obtention de clones de violettes (Viola odorata) indemnes de virus par culture d'apex méristématique

National audienceThe production of sweet violet (Viola odorata var victoria) on the French Riviera is severely and increasingly damaged by a frequent complex of three viruses: cucumber mosaic virus, bean yellow mosaic virus and viola mottle virus. In this paper a complete scheme for obtaining virus free plants from meristem tip culture is described: - the formulation of a medium containing kinetin, gibberellic acid and indolylacetic acid for the isolation of the meristem tips, the best growth being observed in stirred liquid conditions; - the subsequent propagation through axillary budding by using agar solidified medium containing N6-benzylaminopurin; - the final rooting of plantlets with a low auxin level and their acclimatization in a perlite-peat mixture. Biological and serological tests allowed the identification of two virus free clones which are intensively multiplied. They will be later transferred to a greenhouse protected against the aphid vectors.Les plantations locales de violettes (Viola odorata var victoria) sont fréquemment contaminées par plusieurs virus : virus de la mosaïque du concombre, de la mosaïque jaune du haricot, viola mottle virus, dont les dommages croissants menacent la qualité de la production et sa pérennité. Nous décrivons dans cette étude une méthode complète de « régénération » des clones de violette virosés par culture d’apex méristématique : isolement et développement des explants primaires en conditions liquides agitées avec des milieux de culture renfermant de la kinétine, de l’acide gibbérellique et de l’acide indol-acétique ; multiplication végétative par bourgeonnement axillaire dans des milieux de culture solides enrichis en N6-benzylaminopurine ; enracinement en présence de faibles concentrations d’auxine et acclimatation des vitroplants obtenus dans un substrat tourbe-perlite. Des épreuves d’état sanitaire, biologique et immunologique, appliquées aux clones obtenus ont permis l’isolement de deux clones apparemment indemnes de virus qui sont actuellement rapidement multipliés en vue de la reconstitution des plantations. Cette démarche est indissociable des mesures prophylactiques pour limiter la recontamination des plants par les insectes vecteurs

Obtention de clones de violettes (Viola odorata) indemnes de virus par culture d'apex méristématique

Les plantations locales de violettes (Viola odorata var victoria) sont fréquemment contaminées par plusieurs virus : virus de la mosaïque du concombre, de la mosaïque jaune du haricot, viola mottle virus, dont les dommages croissants menacent la qualité de la production et sa pérennité. Nous décrivons dans cette étude une méthode complète de « régénération » des clones de violette virosés par culture d’apex méristématique : isolement et développement des explants primaires en conditions liquides agitées avec des milieux de culture renfermant de la kinétine, de l’acide gibbérellique et de l’acide indol-acétique ; multiplication végétative par bourgeonnement axillaire dans des milieux de culture solides enrichis en N6-benzylaminopurine ; enracinement en présence de faibles concentrations d’auxine et acclimatation des vitroplants obtenus dans un substrat tourbe-perlite. Des épreuves d’état sanitaire, biologique et immunologique, appliquées aux clones obtenus ont permis l’isolement de deux clones apparemment indemnes de virus qui sont actuellement rapidement multipliés en vue de la reconstitution des plantations. Cette démarche est indissociable des mesures prophylactiques pour limiter la recontamination des plants par les insectes vecteurs.The production of sweet violet (Viola odorata var victoria) on the French Riviera is severely and increasingly damaged by a frequent complex of three viruses: cucumber mosaic virus, bean yellow mosaic virus and viola mottle virus. In this paper a complete scheme for obtaining virus free plants from meristem tip culture is described: - the formulation of a medium containing kinetin, gibberellic acid and indolylacetic acid for the isolation of the meristem tips, the best growth being observed in stirred liquid conditions; - the subsequent propagation through axillary budding by using agar solidified medium containing N6-benzylaminopurin; - the final rooting of plantlets with a low auxin level and their acclimatization in a perlite-peat mixture. Biological and serological tests allowed the identification of two virus free clones which are intensively multiplied. They will be later transferred to a greenhouse protected against the aphid vectors