Irene Karamanou

The Association between Corporate Boards, Audit Committees, and Management Earnings Forecasts: An Empirical Analysis

We study how corporate boards and audit committees are associated with voluntary financial disclosure practices, proxied here by management earnings forecasts. We find that in firms with more effective board and audit committee structures, managers are more likely to make or update an earnings forecast, and their forecast is less likely to be precise, it is more accurate, and it elicits a more favorable market response. Together, our empirical evidence is broadly consistent with the notion that effective corporate governance is associated with higher financial disclosure quality.

Disclosure and the Cost of Capital: Evidence from the Market's Reaction to Firm Voluntary Adoption of IAS

Using a unique international setting where the effects of disclosure on firm value can be measured in a constant regulatory environment and in isolation of other confounding factors, this paper shows that firms can increase their value through their choice of accounting standards. Specifically, we document strong positive abnormal returns at the announcement of voluntary adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS / IFRS) by a sample of international firms and an economically significant reduction in long-run returns, consistent with a reduction in the cost of capital. Consistent with these results we also document evidence of an upgrade in analyst recommendations after the IAS / IFRS adoption announcement and a reduction in the implied cost of capital. Finally, we find strong evidence that the documented abnormal returns are consistent with signaling and bonding benefits stemming from the reduction in asymmetric information. Our results highlight the importance of increased disclosure on minority shareholder protection and on corporate governance in general. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

On the Determinants of Optimism in Financial Analyst Earnings Forecasts: The Effect of the Market's Ability to Adjust for the Bias

This paper examines whether the documented bias in analyst earnings forecasts is intentional by examining whether it is related to the markets ability to adjust for this bias. For intentional bias to exist it is not enough for analysts to face incentives but rather, analysts should also be willing to respond to these incentives. As the markets ability to adjust for the bias increases, its market effects decrease while analyst reputation costs increase reducing analyst willingness to bias their forecasts. The paper utilizes a firm-specific design that allows for both the bias component of the forecast error and the markets ability to adjust for the bias to be computed at the firm level. Results suggest that even though forecast error is positive in the latter part of the period under review reflecting overall analyst pessimism, the bias embedded in the forecasts is optimistic throughout the period. More importantly, I find that analyst forecast bias is decreasing in the markets ability to adjust for it. This result provides further evidence that analysts knowingly bias their forecasts and provides support for the existence of reporting bias, in particular. Thus, the evidence provides justification for recent regulatory efforts to increase the objectivity of analyst research reports.

A Study of the Economic Consequences of Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure)

In this paper we examine the market reaction to the events that led to the adoption of Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD). The new regulation requires that if and when a firm discloses material nonpublic information to select individuals like analysts and institutional investors, it must make public announcement of that information immediately if the disclosure was intentional and promptly if it was unintentional. The rule has triggered a tremendous amount of debate as opponents raise the concern that the rule will result in a reduction in the amount and quality of information disseminated to the market. The SEC maintains that the rule will result in fairer markets. The stock market reaction around significant FD events supports the SECs position. In particular, firms with poor information environments and greater propensity to selectively disclose information exhibit significantly positive abnormal returns on the first date that major provisions of the expected regulation are made public.

Who Are the Losers of IFRS Adoption in Europe? An Empirical Examination of the Cash Flow Effect of Increased Disclosure

Unlike prior studies that examine the denominator effect, this study investigates the cash flow effect of disclosure as captured by firms exhibiting increases in default risk (DR) around the 2005 mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in Europe. Using the Merton (1973, 1974) option-based probability of default measure (DR) on a data set of 415 winner firms (with decreases in DR) and 295 loser firms (with increases in DR), we show that loser firms exhibit the same or better financial characteristics in the pre-IFRS adoption period compared with the winner sample. However, after IFRS, loser firms exhibit deteriorating characteristics, with smaller increases in their Tobin’s q valuations, greater increases in leverage, and poorer return performance. Logistic analysis suggests that even though in the pre-IFRS period loser firms exhibit greater profitability and analyst following and lower leverage, in the post-IFRS period their profitability is less than that of winner firms while exhibiting similar leverage and analyst following characteristics. Through an examination of the determinants of the change in DR, the results suggest that loser firms incur a greater increase in DR the poorer their home country’s legal enforcement environment, the lower their analyst following, and the greater their propensity to manage earnings. In general, our results are consistent with the existence of a significant cash flow effect for the loser sample.

The Role and Current Status of IFRS in the Completion of National Accounting Rules – Evidence on Cyprus

Abstract The case of Cyprus with respect to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is unique given the country’s strong reliance on international business and accounting-related services. As such, Cyprus has required the use of IFRS since 1981 not only for publicly listed firms but also for private companies regardless of their size. Cyprus’ reluctance to fully transpose Directive 2013/34/EU into national law cannot be unrelated to its long-standing requirement of financial statements that are not only prepared under IFRS but are also audited for all types of corporations registered in the Republic. We conclude that transposing the new Accounting Directive in its entirety into national law could have adverse effects on the Government tax revenue, the GDP of the services sector and the credibility of Cyprus as an international business and financial services center.

Sleeping with the Enemy: Should Investment Banks Be Allowed to Engage in Prop Trading?

This paper investigates whether conflicts of interest exist between the research and proprietary trading departments of full-service investment banks. Using a data set of 11,590 analyst stock recommendations over the period 1999-2007, we find that in the period preceding the Global Research Analyst Settlement (GRAS) sanctioned banks traded ahead of their research reports. Results in the post-GRAS period indicate that sanctioned banks continue to trade ahead of their research reports as institutional ownership in the stock increases and as return volatility increases. The latter result holds only if they also intend to trade against their recommendations after their release. We also find that banks trade against their recommendations for affiliated stocks. Finally, we do not find that the recommendation revision is related to changes in holdings of other investment banks, alleviating concerns that the observed relation is related to common information available to both departments and not to information leakages. Overall, the evidence supports the recent concerns of regulators regarding conflicts of interest that can arise between bank proprietary trading and research departments, highlighting the need for stricter regulation; it is not yet clear whether the Volcker Rule will be successful in addressing this issue.

The determinants and valuation effects of classification choice on the statement of cash flows

In this paper we exploit the choice allowed by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) regarding the presentation of interest payments on the cash flow statement to answer two related questions: First, whether the classification choice is explained by firm reporting incentives and second, whether it is value relevant. Using a UK sample, we find that firms reporting losses, with a greater proportion of their debt stemming from public sources, with CFO-based covenants and greater increases in leverage in the year of adoption are less likely to report interest payments in cash flows from operating activities (CFOA). Results also suggest that the incentive to meet or beat analyst CFO forecasts decreases, but strong corporate governance increases the probability of including interest payments in CFOA. Based on the assumption that the decision not to classify interest payments in CFOA captures lower disclosure quality or poor future expected performance, we posit that these firms should also exhibit lower valuations. Results obtained after correcting for self-selection bias confirm this assertion. We conclude that managers’ decision not to classify interest payments in CFOA is consistent with the opportunistic use of the choice allowed by IFRS.