How does the market price pension accruals?

We use a cross-sectional valuation model that distinguishes between the operating and financial activities of the firm to examine the repercussions of three main alternative measures of pension expense. The GAAP Method recognizes a smoothed net pension expense, the NETCOST Method includes the excess of interest cost over the actual return on pension plan assets, if and only if this number is positive, and the FV Method substitutes the fair value in place of the smoothed pension expense. Three alternative fair value estimates of pension expense are examined: the first includes the expected return on plan assets and fair value other costs; the second includes the actual return on plan assets and net fair value other costs; the third includes the expected and the unexpected return on plan assets, along with net fair value other costs. Results from OLS regressions are consistent with the GAAP Method being relevant while the market appears to value the unexpected return included in the FV Method. Additional analyses from jack-knife (out-of-sample) regressions confirm the OLS findings. Further, we show that the multiples assigned to the alternative measures of pension expense differ based on the funding status of pension plans. The results are robust to various sensitivity checks

The use of the R2 as a measure of firm-specific information: A cross-country critique

Recent research uses the degree of stock returns co-movement as a measure of the quality of a country’s information environment. It has been argued that stronger property rights, better corporate governance regimes and more efficient enforcement mechanisms lead to prices incorporating more firm-specific information and, therefore, co-moving less with the market. In this paper, we use a much more comprehensive international data set than in prior research, encompassing forty countries over twenty years, to evaluate the reliability of this approach in a crosscountry setting and to analyse the behaviour of the measure used. Our results demonstrate severe limitations in the use of co-movement as measure of information quality. We highlight the instability of the measure and show that it can produce results that are often difficult to reconcile with such an informational explanation.Information; R²; firm-specific information; market-wide information; volatility; disclosures; co-movement; cross-country information environment

The R2 Puzzle

Previous research has argued that the degree of co-movement of stock returns (the R² of a market regression) at country-level can be explained by the interaction of firmspecific and market-wide information. The R² measure has been used to investigate a number of issues of potentially great importance to accounting, such as whether countries with poor corporate governance regimes and weak legal protection of private property rights are more likely to have poor information environments or to assess the informativeness of prices. To date, only limited research has been carried out to assess the reliability of an information interpretation of the R² measure at a firm-level within a country rather than at an aggregate country level. In this paper we now examine the properties of stock returns co-movement at the firm-level within two countries, UK and USA, thereby being able to filter out certain extraneous factors that could arise in cross-country settings. We analyse the performance of this overall measure by triangulating it with other information-related measures which previous research has suggested capture partial aspects of the information environment. We find some serious flaws in the methodology and our findings suggest that when using it at firm-level, it may be being driven by other factors related to uninformed trading.Information; R²; firm-specific information; market-wide information; volatility; disclosures; comovement

The R2 Puzzle

Previous research has argued that the degree of co-movement of stock returns (the R² of a market regression) at country-level can be explained by the interaction of firm specific and market-wide information. The R² measure has been used to investigate a number of issues of potentially great importance to accounting, such as whether countries with poor corporate governance regimes and weak legal protection of private property rights are more likely to have poor information environments or to assess the informativeness of prices. To date, only limited research has been carried out to assess the reliability of an information interpretation of the R² measure at a firm-level within a country rather than at an aggregate country level. In this paper we now examine the properties of stock returns co-movement at the firm-level within two countries, UK and USA, thereby being able to filter out certain extraneous factors that could arise in cross-country settings. We analyse the performance of this overall measure by triangulating it with other information-related measures which previous research has suggested capture partial aspects of the information environment. We find some serious flaws in the methodology and our findings suggest that when using it at firm-level, it may be being driven by other factors related to uninformed trading.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The determinants of the UK Big Firms Premium

Our study attempts to determine whether, and if so why, the large auditing firms are able to earn a premium on their audit work in the UK. We start by confirming the apparent existence of a Big Firm premium during the period 1985-2002. We examine industry specialisation, non audit service fee and monopoly pricing explanations for the premium. The results of our tests of industry specialisation are mixed. There is little evidence that this premium is associated with industry specialisation when specialists are defined at the national level. Significant premium are observed if specialisation is defined at the city level, particularly if the auditor is the industry leader. However, when appropriate allowance is made for endogeneity, by modelling both audit and non-audit fees in a simultaneous equations framework, the Big Firm premium disappears. We find evidence to suggest that non audit fees earned by auditors from their audit clients are positively related to the size of the audit size and vice versa. Finally, when the sample is stratified by the size of audit client, we find no systematic evidence of anti-competitive pricing

The effects of different modes of foreign bank entry in the Turkish banking sector during the 2007-2009 Global financial crisis

This paper provides insights on how foreign bank entry modes (acquisition vs. greenfield investment) in an emerging market (Turkey) influenced bank strategies during the 2007–2009 global financial crisis. Using a comprehensive dataset comprising twenty-nine accounting variables from Turkish banks' financial statements during 2005–2010, we find important differences between foreign-acquired banks and foreign bank branches in lending and sourcing funds. We find that foreign bank branches continued to support international trade by issuing import loans during 2007–2009 global financial crisis, whereas foreign-acquired banks focused on issuing consumer and credit card loans. In terms of bank sourcing funds, we find that foreign-acquired banks were able to continue to use foreign currency deposits of Turkish residents and local interbank funding including participation (Islamic) banks. Foreign bank branches, on the other hand, relied on sourcing funds from international interbank funding and foreign currency deposits of residents abroad, which led to the necessity for them to change their strategies because of funding shortage in international markets. Our results show that the presence of foreign banks in Turkish banking sector enabled the continuity of bank lending activities in host market during the turmoil of 2007–2009 global financial crisis. Our findings on foreign bank entry mode provide new evidence and have important implications for both policy makers and practitioners in emerging markets

UK evidence of auditor brand name and industry specialisation

First draftThere is considerable empirical evidence that after controlling for factors known to affect the level of audit fees, the large international firms earn an audit fee premium. In this paper, we estimate a Big Six premium of 10% to 23% for a large sample of UK clients. Recent studies contend that the development of brand name and industry specialisation reputations is costly and the Big Six firms can expect a return from this investment. We find evidence consistent with brand name returns across most sub-samples of clients. However, the audit fees charged by the Big Six firms are not significantly higher than the fees charged by their non Big Six counterparts for the smallest quartile of clients. An explanation for this finding is that the demand for a firm with a brand name 'bottoms out' below a critical size because of the extra cost. The audit fees charged by the Big Six firms are not significantly higher for the sub-sample where industry specialisation is defined by the size of the non audit fee. An explanation for this result is that there may be an inter-relationship between the pricing of audit and non audit services. Unlike the prior literature, we find scant evidence of returns to industry specialisation. We believe that returns to specialisation are insignificant because the UK Big Six firms are large enough to be considered specialists across all markets

Capitalisation of Interest

The purpose of this paper is to examine the case for capitalising interest on self-constructed and maturing assets. Three perspectives on interest capitalisation- cost matching, opportunity cost, and valuation—are compared and contrasted. The paper's principal contributions are twofold: (i) to show how interest capitalisation can be related to the concept of deprival value; and (ii) to analyse the issues of capital structure, the choice of an appropriate capitalisation rate and the treatment of the resultant credits that have plagued the efforts of accountants in this area