Charles J.P. Chen

Association between independent non- executive directors, family control and financial disclosures in Hong Kong

Abstract Our study examines whether comprehensive financial disclosures, used as a proxy for corporate board’s responsiveness, are positively associated with the proportion of independent non-executive directors (INDs) on corporate boards, and whether family control of the firm has an impact on this association. The findings suggest that the ratio of INDs to the total number of directors on corporate boards is positively associated with the comprehensiveness of financial disclosures, and this association appears to be weaker for family controlled firms compared to non-family controlled firms.

Discretionary Accounting Accruals, Managers' Incentives, and Audit Fees*

This paper examines the linkages between discretionary accruals (DAs), managerial share ownership, management compensation and audit fees. It draws on the theory that managers of firms with high management ownership are likely to use DAs to communicate value relevant information while managers of firms with high accounting-based compensation are likely to use DAs opportunistically to manage earnings to improve their compensation. OLS regression results of 648 Australian firms show that (1) there is a positive association between DAs and audit fees, and (2) managerial ownership negatively affects the positive relationship between DAs and audit fees, and 3) this negative impact is further found to be weaker for firms with high accounting-based management compensation.

Convergence of Accounting Standards and Foreign Direct Investment

Since the development of the eclectic paradigm by Dunning (1977, 1988, 1993), many studies have investigated different forms of location advantages that attract foreign direct investment (FDI). In this study, we consider accounting standards as a component of the institutional infrastructure of a location and hypothesize that the convergence of domestic and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) promotes FDI as it reduces information processing costs for foreign investors.22For simplicity, we refer to both International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as IFRS throughout. We also hypothesize that the effect of reduced information costs is stronger for partner countries whose accounting systems showed greater pre-convergence differences because they magnify the facilitating role of accounting standard convergence for FDI. Using bilateral FDI data from 30 OECD countries between 2000 and 2005, we find evidence generally consistent with these hypotheses.