Is Financial Reporting Shaped by Equity Markets or By Debt Markets? An International Study of Timeliness and Conservatism

We hypothesize debt markets – not equity markets – are the primary influence on “association” metrics studied since Ball and Brown (1968). Debt markets demand high scores on timeliness, conservatism and Lev’s (1989) R2, because debt covenants utilize reported numbers. Equity markets do not rate financial reporting consistently with these metrics, because (among other things) they control for the total information incorporated in equity process. Single-country studies shed little light on the relative influences of debt and equity, because their firms operate under a homogeneous reporting regime. International data are consistent with our hypothesis. This is a fundamental issue in accounting

Econometrics of the Basu Asymmetric Timeliness Coefficient and Accounting Conservatism

A substantial literature investigates conditional conservatism, defined as asymmetric accounting recognition of economic shocks (“news”), and how it depends on various market, political, and institutional variables. Studies typically assume the Basu [1997] asymmetric timeliness coefficient (the incremental slope on negative returns in a piecewise-linear regression of accounting income on stock returns) is a valid conditional conservatism measure. We analyze the measure's validity, in the context of a model with accounting income incorporating different types of information with different lags, and with noise. We demonstrate that the asymmetric timeliness coefficient varies with firm characteristics affecting their information environments, such as the length of the firm's operating and investment cycles, and its degree of diversification. We particularly examine one characteristic, the extent to which “unbooked” information (such as revised expectations about rents and growth options) is independent of other information, and discuss the conditions under which a proxy for this characteristic is the market-to-book ratio. We also conclude that much criticism of the Basu regression misconstrues researchers’ objectives

An Experiential Approach to Mentoring Academic Leaders: Review, Practice, Report

This session presents a leadership development program where new department chairs discuss best practices and realistic challenges with seasoned chairs, helping all to improve their leadership skills through a supportive group process. The program includes a summer book study, monthly meetings, a department chair handbook, and leadership resources

Enhancing breadth of knowledge within multidisciplinary doctoral research: reflections from the Cambridge Generic Nutrition Training course for non-nutritionist postgraduates and professionals

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Interim Leadership Positions: The Kobayashi Maru of Academia?

Leading a department through a transition such as reorganization or restructuring is difficult. When the unit leader is in an interim position, this is even more complicated. This presentation will be led by faculty who were all in interim leadership positions during major transitions in leadership, restructuring, and staff layoffs

Proceedings of the inaugural International Summit for Medical Nutrition Education and Research

© 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health Medical Nutrition Education (MNE) has been identified as an area with potential public health impact. Despite countries having distinctive education systems, barriers and facilitators to effective MNE are consistent across borders, demanding a common platform to initiate global programmes. A shared approach to supporting greater MNE is ideal to support countries to work together. In an effort to initiate this process, the Need for Nutrition Education/Innovation Programme group, in association with their strategic partners, hosted the inaugural International Summit on Medical Nutrition Education and Research on August 8, 2015 in Cambridge, UK. Speakers from the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and India provided insights into their respective countries including their education systems, inherent challenges, and potential solutions across two main themes: (1) Medical Nutrition Education, focused on best practice examples in competencies and assessment; and (2) Medical Nutrition Research, discussing how to translate nutrition research into education opportunities. The Summit identified shared needs across regions, showcased examples of transferrable strategies and identified opportunities for collaboration in nutrition education for healthcare (including medical) professionals. These proceedings highlight the key messages presented at the Summit and showcase opportunities for working together towards a common goal of improvement in MNE to improve public health at large

tert-Butyl 3-[N-(tert-butoxy­carbonyl)methyl­amino]-4-methoxy­imino-3-methyl­piperidine-1-carboxyl­ate

The title compound, C18H33N3O5, was prepared from N-tert-butoxy­carbonyl-4-piperidone using a nine-step reaction, including condensation, methyl­ation, oximation, hydrolysis, esterification, ammonolysis, Hoffmann degradation, tert-butoxy­carbonyl protection and methyl­ation. The E configuration of the methyl­oxime geometry of the compound is confirmed

Proceedings of the inaugural International Summit for Medical Nutrition Education and Research

AbstractMedical Nutrition Education (MNE) has been identified as an area with potential public health impact. Despite countries having distinctive education systems, barriers and facilitators to effective MNE are consistent across borders, demanding a common platform to initiate global programmes. A shared approach to supporting greater MNE is ideal to support countries to work together. In an effort to initiate this process, the Need for Nutrition Education/Innovation Programme group, in association with their strategic partners, hosted the inaugural International Summit on Medical Nutrition Education and Research on August 8, 2015 in Cambridge, UK. Speakers from the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and India provided insights into their respective countries including their education systems, inherent challenges, and potential solutions across two main themes: (1) Medical Nutrition Education, focused on best practice examples in competencies and assessment; and (2) Medical Nutrition Research, discussing how to translate nutrition research into education opportunities. The Summit identified shared needs across regions, showcased examples of transferrable strategies and identified opportunities for collaboration in nutrition education for healthcare (including medical) professionals. These proceedings highlight the key messages presented at the Summit and showcase opportunities for working together towards a common goal of improvement in MNE to improve public health at large

On Estimating Conditional Conservatism

The concept of conditional conservatism (asymmetric earnings timeliness) has provided new insight into financial reporting and stimulated considerable research since Basu (1997). Patatoukas and Thomas (2011) report bias in firm-level cross-sectional asymmetry estimates that they attribute to scale effects. We do not agree with their advice that researchers should avoid conditional conservatism estimates and inferences from research based on such estimates. Our theoretical and empirical analyses suggest the explanation is a correlated omitted variables problem that can be addressed in a straightforward fashion, including fixed-effects regression. Correlation between the expected components of earnings and returns biases estimates of how earnings incorporate the information contained in returns. Further, the correlation varies with returns, biasing asymmetric timeliness estimates. When firm-specific effects are taken into account, estimates do not exhibit the bias, are statistically and economically significant, are consistent with priors, and behave as a predictable function of book-to-market, size, and leverage

Gallium-doped Zinc Oxide: Nonlinear Reflection and Transmission Measurements and Modeling in the ENZ Region

Strong nonlinear materials have been sought after for decades for applications in telecommunications, sensing, and quantum optics. Gallium-doped zinc oxide is a II-VI transparent conducting oxide that shows promising nonlinearities similar to indium tin oxide and aluminum-doped zinc oxide for the telecommunications band. Here we explore its nonlinearities in the epsilon near zero (ENZ) region and show n2,eff values on the order of 4.5x10-3 cm2GW-1 for IR pumping on 200-300 nm thin films. Measuring nonlinear changes in transmission and reflection with a white light source probe in the near-IR while exciting in the near-IR provides data in both time and wavelength. Three films varying in thickness, optical loss, and ENZ crossover wavelength are numerically modeled and compared to experimental data showing agreement for both dispersion and temporal relaxation. In addition, we discuss optimal excitation and probing wavelengths occur around ENZ for thick films but are red-shifted for thin films where our model provides an additional degree of freedom to explore. Obtaining accurate nonlinear measurements is a difficult and time-consuming task where our method in this paper provides experimental and modeled data to the community for an ENZ material of interest.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure