Byungjin Kwak

Executive pension, default risk, and earnings management*

Abstract The value of executive pension plans depends significantly on the incidence of bankruptcy because executive pension plans have characteristics similar to unsecured debt. These unique characteristics lead us to investigate whether managers change their firms’ accounting policy to protect their pension plans when their firms face imminent default risk. Identifying a firm’s default risk with various proxies, we find that managers with executive pension plans are more likely to engage in income-increasing earnings management during a year of high default risk as compared to managers without such pension plans. The result remains robust with the use of propensity score matching and two-stage least squares regression analysis to alleviate the endogeneity issues in our hypothesized relationships. In addition, we find that the results are more pronounced for ex-post bankrupt firms.

Audit committee accounting expertise, CEO power, and audit pricing

Abstract The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) mandates that all listed firms disclose whether they have a financial expert on the audit committee, highlighting the committee’s expertise. However, some argue that non-accounting financial experts, compared to accounting financial experts, are not sufficient to ensure audit committee effectiveness because the former lack accounting knowledge. Accounting experts on audit committees may require higher audit efforts, while auditors may assess audit committees with accounting financial experts as effective, decreasing audit efforts. This paper first inspects the effect of audit committee accounting expertise on audit fees as a proxy for audit efforts, and then investigates whether the effect is moderated by powerful CEOs. Using post-SOX period data, our results show that, on average, firms with accounting experts on audit committees are more likely to pay higher audit fees, and the effect is less pronounced when a powerful CEO manages a firm.

CEO and Outside Director Equity Compensation: Substitutes or Complements for Management Earnings Forecasts?

Abstract This study examines how the equity compensation of chief executive officers (CEO) and that of outside directors affect management earnings forecasts (MFs) and the relationship between these two positions in terms of compensation. Our evidence reveals that CEO (director) equity compensation is positively associated with MF likelihood, frequency, and accuracy when director (CEO) equity compensation is not high. However, an increase in director (CEO) equity compensation is not effective in improving disclosure quality when the level of CEO (director) equity compensation is already high. These results suggest that the two incentive mechanisms act as substitutes when both are intensively used in the context of MF disclosure.

Manager Retention and Post-Bankruptcy Performance: Evidence from South Korea

ABSTRACT This study uses a sample of bankrupt firms in South Korea to reexamine the effect of manager retention on a firm’s post-bankruptcy performance, with a particular focus on the attributes of retained managers. Prior studies did not clarify whether a lack of ability of the retained manager or their self-serving behavior contributes more to a firm’s poor post-bankruptcy performance. Our results show that firms that retain their pre-bankruptcy managers are more likely to experience poor post-bankruptcy firm performance than those that replace incumbent managers, possibly because of the lack of ability of the retained managers rather than their self-serving behavior.