The Institutional and Individual Contributors to Research in Financial Education: 1991-2002

This paper provides an account of the contributors in financial education research during 1991-2002. We present the top institutions and individuals in financial education research that were published in Financial Practice and Education and Journal of Financial Education. In terms of institutional and individual contributors, doctoral programs faculty and institutions contribute significant large number of articles in financial education research. Similarly AACSB accredited academic programs also contribute significantly to the financial education literature. The findings in this study provide information to the potential college bound students, donors, and job applicants

Solicited and Unsolicited Credit Ratings: A Global Perspective

We conducted a global study of the long-term issuer ratings of nonfinancial firms from Standard and Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) for the period 1998–2003. Specifically, we focused on the solicited versus unsolicited ratings and sample-selection bias in the analysis. Unlike the literature, we adopted an improved method using Wooldridge’s instrumental-variable approach to mitigate the concern of specification errors in Heckman’s model. We found that the probability of seeking a long-term issuer rating is positively related to the size and profitability of the firm, and negatively related to the growth opportunities and debt levels of the firm. The credit rating is positively related to the sovereign rating, size, and profitability of the issuer, and negatively related to the debt ratio of the issuer. Consistent with the literature, we found sample-selection bias in credit ratings. Our findings suggest that the firms with solicited ratings seem to be more profitable, more liquid, and have lower leverage than the issuers with unsolicited ratings. After controlling for sample-selection bias and some key financial ratios, we found that unsolicited firms, on average, seem to have lower long-term issuer ratings.corporate long-term issuer ratings; solicited and unsolicited

Changes In Stock Returns And Trading Volume Of American Depositary Receipts Around Their U.S. Stock Exchange Listing Switches

This study examines the change in stock returns and trading volume of American Depositary Receipts when foreign firms switched their listings from a major U.S. stock exchange to a more prestigious U.S. stock exchange; namely from the NASDAQ or American Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange or from the American Stock Exchange to the NASDAQ since year 2000. We find that the stock returns of these American Depositary Receipts changed from better-than-market performance before the listing changes to just market performance after the listing changes. This evidence is consistent with a timing behavior of the management. We also find significant increase in their trading volume after the listing changes. This leads us to conclude that switching to a more prestigious stock exchange was able to create more investor interest

The Internationalization of Real Estate Research

The contributions of international researchers and institutions to real estate literature for the 1990 to 2006 period are assessed. Both the Asia-Pacific and European regions increase their influence on the top tier of real estate literature. The North American region, while still the dominant source of real estate research, sees its weighted share of publications in the top tier of academic real estate journals decline. Universities from Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands are leaders in their respective regions. Individual researchers domiciled outside of North America are also gaining influence, but few individuals rank high when compared to North American authors. It is anticipated that these trends will continue given the global growth in real estate as an asset class, the importance of real estate investment in countries posting substantial economic growth, and the allocation of resources and human capital within these growing regions to real estate research.

Audit Firm Rotation Concerns And Considerations

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued a concept release in 2011 which proposes a mandatory audit firm rotation. However, PCAOB indicates that there is a limited amount of empirical data and research evidence on the potential costs and benefits of such mandatory audit firm rotation. This study provides some empirical evidences related to PCAOBs concerns. Specifically, we find that the largest clients audited by Big 4 accounting firms have few material internal control weaknesses and accounting restatements. In addition, accounting restatements are often reported within four years after the beginning of accounting errors and are reported by the same auditor during the restatement period. These findings cast doubt on the benefit of mandatory audit firm rotation. We also find that the largest audit clients on average represent over 20% of the audit revenues of local offices of Big 4 accounting firms. Thus, mandatory audit firm rotations could significantly disrupt the normal operations of public accounting firms if audit clients are required to change auditors periodically

Century Bonds: Debt Or Equity Securities?

In this study, we examine the characteristics of firms that have issued century bonds and the debt-versus-equity classification of these bonds.  Although it is commonly assumed that such bonds are issued for tax-avoidance purpose, an examination of firm characteristics suggests that firms have non-tax related motives in issuing century bonds.  The formal structure of century bonds also suggests that century bonds are similar to debt.  On the other hand, our analysis of the systematic risk of issuing firm's equity shows that century bonds are more similar to equity than to debt.  Thus, ultimately, the relative importance of these three factors will have to determine whether they are to be considered debt or equity.&nbsp

Trends Of Accounting Restatements During The Period 2000-2007 And Big Four/Five Auditors

The objective of this study is to provide further analysis on the trends of accounting restatements during the period 2000-07 and the role of Big four/five auditors. Given the changes in regulatory environment after the enforcement of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we find that there is a significant increase in restatements in recent years. We also find that restatements being disclosed in recent years are more serious, however, they are disclosed on a more timely basis. Consistent with the general belief that Big four/five auditors are better quality auditors, we find that they are associated with shorter restatement disclosure lags. In addition, restatements with positive financial statement effects are more likely to be disclosed sooner than those with negative effects

China Financial Research: A Review and Synthesis

We review the financial research on China as a transitional economy over the past fifteen years or so. This review sheds light on several important issues that are pertinent for an emerging financial market - how regulation can affect the prices of different financial assets; how and why markets are segmented; corporate governance effects between major and minor shareholders in an emerging market; the importance of a bank-based financial system; interactions between the financial market and the goods market; how market participants can complete the market; and how an emerging financial market emulates established markets and evolves over time. Many unexplored financial issues remain unexplored, and more research is warranted into, what theories are at work, and what are missing

Membership on Editorial Boards and Rankings of Schools with International Business Orientation

Using four-year data (1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002), we have provided a ranking of schools with international business (IB) orientation based on the membership on editorial boards of 30 leading international business journals. Participation on editorial boards of quality journals is highly selective, and should provide a quality indication of the schools. Both quality unadjusted and adjusted board membership based ranking are calculated in this study. Several interesting findings are worth noting. First, U.S. schools play a significant leadership role among the leading IB programs. Second, the findings of this study also show the major contribution of non-U.S. schools, which confirm the importance of the global nature of the IB discipline. Third, the top-ranked schools share a number of characteristics. Finally, the correlation among different ranking criteria can be low, particularly for the top-ranked schools, suggesting that care should be exercised in interpreting school ranking

Firm Performance Following Auditor Changes For Audit Fee Savings

This study examines stock and earnings performance subsequent to auditor changes by firms specifically for audit fees savings without any other apparent regulatory or disclosure issues. Results show that there is mild evidence of positive stock return and earnings performance after changing auditors. There is also no significant difference in company performance among different types of auditor changes when looking at auditor changes among and between Big 4 and non-Big 4 auditors. Finally, we find that the positive firm performance is mainly among auditor changes made before 2003