Economic shocks affect how a CEO is evaluated

Firms use subjective evaluation after a shock, when little is known about post-shock performance measures, writes Claudine Mange

Effects of financial constraints and earnout payment on acquirer’s earnings management

Esta dissertação examina manipulação de resultados em aquisições. Em particular, avalia se empresas adquirentes, com restrições financeiras, manipulam mais em comparação com empresas adquirentes sem restrições financeiras. Adicionalmente, esta dissertação avalia o uso do earnout e a sua eficácia na redução da manipulação dos resultados. Os resultados empíricos, usando dois tipos de modelos de manipulação de resultados (accruals e real activity management), demonstam que os adquirentes com restrições financeiras não parecem manipular mais do que os adquirentes sem restrições financeiras no período anterior à aquisição. Os resultados sugerem ainda que os adquirentes que utilizam earnout como forma de pagamento estão associados a um menor nível de manipulação de resultados por via de accruals. Os resultados sugerem também que os adquirentes que adquirem empresas estrangeiras ou empresas noutro setor através de earnout, estão associados a um menor nível de manipulação de resultados por via de real activity management. Conclui-se assim que a utilização de earnout como método de pagamento reduz o nível de manipulação de resutados dos adquirentes e, consequentemente, aumenta a qualidade dos resultados.This work examines whether and how constrained acquirers are showing higher levels of earnings management in the past financial statements compared to unconstrained acquirer. Further, this paper contributes to the growing literature on the use of earnout and its effectiveness to reduce earnings management. The empirical results, using both accruals management and real activity management models, show that constrained acquirers do not experience higher levels of earnings management in the period before the acquisition. Further, the results demonstrate that bidders using earnout as method of payment are associated to lower level of earnings management in their past financial statement via discretionary accruals. Also, the results suggest that bidders that enter in foreign and diversifying acquisitions involving earnouts report lower levels of real earnings manipulation. Moreover, earnout as method of payment reduces the level of earnings management from a bidder’s perspective, thus increasing earnings quality

Implications of economic shocks for CEO performance evaluation

I study the implications of economic shocks for objective and subjective CEO performance evaluation. A shock perturbs pay-setting parties’ information about the firm and the CEO. I argue that pay-setting parties then lack information they need for evaluating the CEO objectively, and de-emphasize objective CEO performance evaluation in favour of subjective CEO performance evaluation; over time, pay-setting parties become better informed about the firm as well as the CEO, and increasingly use again objective CEO performance evaluation. My evidence, which uses data on objective and subjective CEO performance evaluation in U.S. executive pay between 1992 and 2013, is consistent with my argument

KUL SHAE MIZEAN—MOROCCAN RHETORIC OF RACISM: Obscured Moroccan Racism and Its Effects on Sub-Saharan African Refugees’ Integration in Rabat

This paper aims to examine the overarching rhetoric surrounding racism against the Black community in Morocco, specifically targeted toward refugees and migrants, and how the presence of racism—and the absence of a public conversation about its manifestation in Morocco—impacts the extent to which Sub-Saharan African[1] refugees feel they have been able to integrate. This is an attempt to find how the blindness of the majority of Moroccans to racism promotes its perpetuation and hinders refugees’ integration, and to understand how, by acknowledging and speaking out against racism, the human rights of refugees can be better advocated for by NGOs and the Moroccan government at large. The research in this paper is primarily based on interviews conducted with the Ministry in Charge of Moroccans Living Abroad and Migration Affairs, the UNHCR[2], the UMT[3], AMAPPE[4], refugees living in Rabat, as well as extensive background research on Morocco’s historical relationship with racism, slavery, and nationalism. This work is supplemented by a survey distributed to Moroccans living in Rabat in which I ask about the presence of racism and whether or not the participants see it as an ongoing problem in Morocco and how this diverges from the perspectives of those subject to racism’s effects. Further, as part of my research, I present a rhetorical analysis of King Mohammed VI’s speech on King and People’s Revolution Day last year. In this analysis, I examine how the king’s rhetoric consistently promotes a problematic and inherently racist perspective of “enlightenment,” and recurrently situates Morocco outside Africa, perpetuating a principle of hierarchical racial classification delineating Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans. The conclusions of this research suggest that, while there is certainly a legacy of anti-Blackness alive and well in Morocco, Moroccan nationalism has dangerously shrouded it—most Moroccans deny the existence of racism, and thus a very essential public dialogue about racism is being neglected both by the Moroccan people and the Moroccan government. Though the interviews were limited in scope, they provide an important narrative that appears common amongst sub-Saharan African refugees: racism in Morocco is present, growing, and inhibiting their integration into the Moroccan workforce and society. In order to improve refugees’ quality of lives in Morocco, this research indicates that the Moroccan government must fight racism; however, it must first start listening to the narratives of sub-Saharan African refugees when they assert that Moroccan racism is, indeed, unquestionable. [1] The term Sub-Saharan is contested, and that the experiences of Africans from the multitude of countries South of the Sahara cannot be generalized; however, for the purposes of my study which focused on Africans of a similar age and “race,” but no common nationality, the term is useful and more accurate than other possible descriptors. [2] The United Nations’ Refugee Agency representation in Morocco, located in Rabat. [3] Acronym for the Union Marocaine Du Travail (Moroccan worker’s union). [4] Acronym for L’Association Maroncaine d’Appui à la Promotion de la Petite Entreprise. (Moroccan Assocation for the Promotion and Support of Small Business)

"A woman who’s tough, she’s a bitch.”: How labels anchored in unconscious bias shape the institution of gender

This study shows how labels anchored in unconscious bias can contribute to the gender institution. It draws on interviews with women leaders in Canadian for-profit organizations to illustrate how labels relate to unconscious bias towards women leaders, how labels delegitimize or legitimize women leaders, and how women leaders react to labels. Guided by these results, the study theorizes how the micro-level practice of labeling anchored in unconscious bias can uphold or disrupt gender categories and associated gendered social roles, thus shaping the gender institution.  This study shows how labels anchored in unconscious bias can contribute to the gender institution. It draws on interviews with women leaders in Canadian for-profi t organizations to illustrate how labels relate to unconscious bias toward women leaders, how labels delegitimize or legitimize women leaders, and how women leaders react to labels. Guided by these results, the study theorizes how the micro-level practice of labeling anchored in unconscious bias can uphold or disrupt gender categories and associated gendered social roles, thus shaping the gender institution

An Analysis of Changing the Federal Age Requirement for a Commercial Driver’s License

The United States trucking industry has been struggling with a driver shortage for decades (Mittal et al., 2018).Trucks are one of the most important modes of transportation in getting domestic freight from one point to another. The current shortage is expected to continue to grow at an alarming rate if nothing is done to change it (American Trucking Associations, 2017). Having a shortage of drivers will increase transportation costs and lead to delayed shipments. There has been a push to change the public policy to lower the age requirement for a Commercial Driver’s License to 18. This research explores how lowering the federal age requirement can help alleviate some of the truck driver shortage and add economic value to the 18-20 age group. Data was collected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and United States Census Bureau to identify the number of truck drivers that would be added to the profession and benefits to the 18-20-year-old age group. The results from this research can be used to make recommendations for implementing a program or law to lower the age requirement for a commercial driver’s license

Literature and readers' empathy: A qualitative text manipulation study

Several quantitative studies (e.g. Kidd & Castano, 2013a; Djikic et al., 2013) have shown a positive correlation between literary reading and empathy. However, the literary nature of the stimuli used in these studies has not been defined at a more detailed, stylistic level. In order to explore the stylistic underpinnings of the hypothesized link between literariness and empathy, we conducted a qualitative experiment in which the degree of stylistic foregrounding was manipulated. Subjects (N = 37) read versions of Katherine Mansfield's 'The Fly', a short story rich in foregrounding, while marking striking and evocative passages of their choosing. Afterwards, they were asked to select three markings and elaborate on their experiences in writing. One group read the original story, while the other read a 'non-literary' version, produced by an established author of suspense fiction for young adults, where stylistic foregrounding was reduced. We found that the non-literary version elicited significantly more (p \u3c 0.05) explicitly empathic responses than the original story. This finding stands in contradiction to widely accepted assumptions in recent research, but can be assimilated in alternative models of literariness and affect in literary reading (e.g. Cupchik et al., 1998). We present an analysis of the data with a view to offering more than one interpretation of the observed effects of stylistic foregrounding

Complete text of Microsoft's 2004 MD&A

This document is the complete 2004 Microsoft MD&A (Microsoft Corporation, 2004). It supplements the following article. Durnev, Art, and Claudine Mangen. “The Spillover Effects of MD&A Disclosures for Real Investment: The Role of Industry Competition.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 70, no. 1 (2020): 101299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacceco.2020.101299