Do PCAOB Inspections Improve the Quality of Internal Control Audits?

We investigate whether Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspections affect the quality of internal control audits. Our research design improves on prior studies by exploiting both cross-sectional and time-series variation in the content of PCAOB inspection reports, while also controlling for audit firm and year fixed effects, effectively achieving a difference-in-differences research design. We find that when PCAOB inspectors report higher rates of deficiencies in internal control audits, auditors respond by increasing the issuance of adverse internal control opinions. We also find that auditors issue more adverse internal control opinions to clients with concurrent misstatements, who thus genuinely warrant adverse opinions. We further find that higher inspection deficiency rates lead to higher audit fees, consistent with PCAOB inspections prompting auditors to undertake costly remediation efforts. Taken together, our results are consistent with the PCAOB inspections improving the quality of internal control audits by prompting auditors to remediate deficiencies in their audits of internal controls.</p

L'impérialisme humanitaire: l'instrumentalisation de la dynamique globale humanitaire au service de l'expansionnisme capitaliste

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle entre le Centre de recherche en droit prospectif de l'Université de Montréal (Canada) et le Centre d'études et de recherches internationales et communautaires de l'Université d'Aix-Marseille (France).La présente thèse entend démontrer un phénomène d’instrumentalisation tant du champ conceptuel que de l’ingénierie humanitaires, servant les intérêts de l’impérialisme capitaliste. Nous montrerons en effet que les concepts, les normes et les outils de l’humanitaire sont utilisés par divers acteurs comme un cheval de Troie visant à ouvrir de nouveaux marchés de manière à satisfaire les impératifs expansionnistes du capitalisme. Convoquant une approche à la fois critique, pragmatique et interdisciplinaire, la thèse analyse le rôle et les interactions d’un triptyque d’acteurs humanitaires – civils, militaires et financiers – à travers une déconstruction en deux temps du champ conceptuel puis de l’ingénierie humanitaires. Cette analyse révèle, in fine, un phénomène d’instrumentalisation de la dynamique globale humanitaire, visant à satisfaire la dynamique fondamentalement expansionniste du capitalisme et les besoins impérieux propres au maintien de ce modèle économique hégémonique.The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to demonstrate, in the light of the analysis of the global humanitarian dynamics, that both the conceptual field of humanitarian and the engineering of humanitarian are instrumentalized in order to serve the interests of capitalist imperialism. Indeed, it will be demonstrated that humanitarian concepts, norms and tools are used by various actors as a Trojan horse to open new markets in order to satisfy the expansionist imperatives of capitalism. The pragmatic deconstruction of the humanitarian conceptual field and the humanitarian engineering reveals the instrumentalization of the global humanitarian dynamics, serving the fundamentally expansionist dynamics of capitalism and the imperative needs for maintaining this hegemonic economic model.La presente tesis pretende demostrar un fenómeno de instrumentalización tanto del campo conceptual como de la ingeniería humanitaria, al servicio de los intereses del imperialismo capitalista. En efecto, demostraremos que los conceptos, normas e instrumentos humanitarios son utilizados por diversos actores como un Caballo de Troya para abrir nuevos mercados con el fin de satisfacer los imperativos expansionistas del capitalismo. Convocando un enfoque crítico, pragmático e interdisciplinario, la tesis analiza el papel y las interacciones de un tríptico de actores humanitarios -civiles, militares y financieros- a través de una deconstrucción en dos etapas del campo conceptual humanitario y luego de la ingeniería humanitaria. Este análisis revela, en fin, un fenómeno de instrumentalización de la dinámica humanitaria mundial, con el fin de satisfacer la dinámica fundamentalmente expansionista del capitalismo y las necesidades imperiosas de mantener este modelo económico hegemónico

Bibliothèques universitaires et intégrité scientifique : quels apports, quelles limites ?

Mémoire de fin d\u27étude du diplôme de conservateur, promotion 27, portant sur l\u27intégrité scientifique et les bibliothèques universitaires

Reflections on the 20-year anniversary of worldwide IFRS adoption

At the Ninth International Conference of the Journal of International Accounting Research, Editor Steve Lin organized a plenary session titled “20 Years of IFRS Research” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the worldwide adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). During the session, each panelist presented their views on what we have learned from researching IFRS for the past 20 years and where we should go from here. This article presents a short essay from each panelist summarizing their comments, as well as related issues that were not fully explored at the conference

SFAS 133 and income smoothing via discretionary accruals: The role of hedge effectiveness and market volatility

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd This study investigates whether the Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 133 (SFAS 133) influences firms’ income smoothing via discretionary accruals decisions. Moreover, we investigate whether the level of hedge effectiveness and market volatility affects the impact of SFAS 133 on firms’ income smoothing via discretionary accruals decisions. Consistent with our predictions, we find a significant increase in income smoothing via discretionary accruals activity after the adoption of SFAS 133. We also find that income smoothing via discretionary accruals after the adoption of SFAS 133 increases with the level of hedge ineffectiveness. By contrast, we find that perfect hedgers do not engage in more income smoothing via discretionary accruals after the adoption of SFAS 133. Finally, we find that the higher the market volatility is the larger the income smoothing is via discretionary accruals after the adoption of SFAS 133. This implies that higher market volatility makes it more difficult for firms to meet hedge accounting requirements, thereby increasing unmanaged earnings volatility and income smoothing. Prior studies suggest that regulators are expressing concern about the effect of earnings management on the quality of reported earnings and the functioning of capital markets (e.g., Barton,). In this regard, our findings imply that accounting standard setters should take into account the trade-off between transparency and income smoothing

Do PCAOB Inspections Improve the Quality of Internal Control Audits?

We investigate whether Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspections affect the quality of internal control audits. Our research design improves on prior studies by exploiting both cross-sectional and time-series variation in the content of PCAOB inspection reports, while also controlling for audit firm and year fixed effects, effectively achieving a difference-in-differences research design. We find that when PCAOB inspectors report higher rates of deficiencies in internal control audits, auditors respond by increasing the issuance of adverse internal control opinions. We also find that auditors issue more adverse internal control opinions to clients with concurrent misstatements, who thus genuinely warrant adverse opinions. We further find that higher inspection deficiency rates lead to higher audit fees, consistent with PCAOB inspections prompting auditors to undertake costly remediation efforts. Taken together, our results are consistent with the PCAOB inspections improving the quality of internal control audits by prompting auditors to remediate deficiencies in their audits of internal controls.</p

Disproportionate Insider Control and the Demand for Audit Quality

We examine the relationship between disproportionate insider control, enabled through dual-class share structures, and the demand for audit quality. Using a comprehensive hand-collected sample of U.S. dual-class firms, we find that, consistent with outside shareholders’ increased demand for external monitoring, as well as self-bonding by entrenched insiders, disproportionate insider control is positively associated with the propensity to hire a Big 4 or industry specialist auditor, auditor independence, and audit fees. Corroborating a self-bonding explanation, additional analyses show that audit quality mitigates the negative association of disproportionate insider control and firm value. In expanded analyses, we also investigate the separate effects of insider voting and cash flow rights on the demand for audit quality in dual-class firms. Consistent with general agency theory, we find a decreased (increased) demand for audit quality from incentive-alignment (entrenchment) effects of ownership

Does Board Independence Reduce the Cost of Debt?

Using the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the associated change in listing standards as a natural experiment, we find that while board independence decreases the cost of debt when credit conditions are strong or leverage low, it increases the cost of debt when credit conditions are poor or leverage high. We also document that independent directors set corporate policies that increase firm risk. These results suggest that, acting in the interest of shareholders, independent directors are increasingly costly to bondholders with the intensification of the agency conflict between these two stakeholders