Mingyi Hung

Accounting standards and value relevance of financial statements: An international analysis ☆

Using 17,743 firm-year observations of industrial companies in 21 countries from 1991 to 1997, this paper finds that the use of accrual accounting (versus cash accounting) negatively affects the value relevance of financial statements in countries with weak shareholder protection. This negative effect, however, does not exist in countries with strong shareholder protection. These findings are consistent with the belief that shareholder protection improves the effectiveness of accrual accounting, and suggest the importance of considering shareholder protection when formulating accounting policies related to accruals.

Home Bias, Foreign Mutual Fund Holdings, and the Voluntary Adoption of International Accounting Standards

We test the assertion that a consequence of voluntarily adopting International Accounting Standards (IAS) is the enhanced ability to attract foreign capital. Using a unique database that reports firm-level holdings of over 25,000 mutual funds from around the world, our multivariate tests find that average foreign mutual fund ownership is significantly higher among IAS adopters. We also find that IAS adopters in poorer information environments and with lower visibility have higher levels of foreign investment, consistent with firms using IAS adoption to provide more information and/or information in a more familiar form to foreign investors. Taken together, our findings are consistent with voluntary IAS adoption reducing home bias among foreign investors and thereby improving capital allocation efficiency.

An empirical analysis of analysts' cash flow forecasts

This study investigates the relatively recent and growing trend in analysts making operating cash flow forecasts. We find that cash flow forecasts are made for companies with accounting, operating and financing characteristics that are likely to make cash flows more helpful in interpreting earnings and assessing firm viability. Specifically, consistent with our expectations, we find that cash flow forecasts are more likely to be made for firms: (1) in industries with greater accounting choice heterogeneity; (2) with forecasted earnings losses;(3) with shorter operating cycles; (4) with greater capital intensity; and (5) with higher leverage. These findings suggest that market participants demand cash flow forecasts when cash flows are relatively more useful in assessing firm value. Supporting this explanation, we also find that analysts make cash flow forecasts when current cash flows have greater ability, and earnings have less ability, to predict future cash flows; when annual earnings have a lower association with stock returns; and when cash flow forecast errors are associated with stock returns around the earnings announcement date, but earnings forecast errors are not.

The Value of Political Ties Versus Market Credibility: Evidence from Corporate Scandals in China

This paper compares the value of political ties and market credibility in China by examining the consequence of corporate scandals. We categorize Chinese corporate scandals by whether the scandal is primarily associated with the destruction of i) the firm’s political networks (political scandals), ii) the firm’s market credibility (market scandals), or iii) both (mixed scandals). Consistent with our hypothesis that scandals signaling the destruction of political ties are associated with greater losses in firm value than scandals signaling the destruction of market credibility, we find that the stock market reacts more negatively to political and mixed scandals than to market scandals. In addition, the greater negative market reactions associated with political and mixed scandals are primarily driven by firms that rely more on political networks. We also find that, compared to market scandals, political and mixed scandals lead to larger decreases in operating performance, greater reduction in loans from state-owned banks, and higher departure of political directors.

The Use of Debt Covenants Worldwide: Institutional Determinants and Implications on Financial Reporting

This study investigates how the use of debt covenants around the world varies with legal institutions. On the basis of syndicated loans in 36 countries, we find that debt covenants are more prevalent in countries with stronger law enforcement and weaker creditor rights, suggesting that law enforcement facilitates, and creditor rights substitute for, the use of covenants. We also find that the substitution effect between covenant use and creditor rights exists mainly in countries with strong law enforcement, and the effect of legal institutions on covenants is primarily driven by covenants that preserve seniority and capital. In addition, timely loss recognition increases with the use of debt covenants and strong creditor rights attenuate this relation. Overall, our study is the first to provide comprehensive evidence on how the use of debt covenants responds to legal institutions and how it bridges the previously documented link between legal institutions and accounting conservatism.

Insider Trading and Corporate Governance Structure:Evidence from Southeast Asia

By examining the flow of the value-relevant information in annual earnings into stock price, we provide evidence that is consistent with the proposition that insiders of Southeast Asian companies controlled by the richest families are particularly aggressive in trading on their proprietary knowledge concerning this information. We find further support for this insider trading proposition based on tests that assume the presence of a strong incentive for insider trading (i) when there is a large change in earnings and (ii) before the first legal case in a country is brought against insider trading. We do not find similar evidence in the relatively well regulated market of Hong Kong or for family-controlled companies overall. Our test results are robust to controls for company-specific size, growth, and risk, as well as to alternative measures of the flow of information into stock price. These findings expand our understanding of how corporate governance structure affects the flow of information into stock price. In addition, these findings are consistent with the notion that insider trading leads to the incorporation of private information into stock price and improves the accuracy of stock price, which suggests that a companys stock price is more informative for companies in which insiders have relatively more opportunities and incentives to trade on their private information.

Board Reforms and Firm Value: Worldwide Evidence

We examine the impact of corporate board reforms on firm value in 41 countries. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that board reforms increase firm value. Reforms involving board and audit committee independence, but not reforms involving separation of chairman and chief executive officer positions, drive the valuation increases. In addition, while comply-or-explain reforms result in a greater increase in firm value than rule-based reforms, the effects of reforms are similar across civil law and common law countries. Further investigation shows that the subsequent change in board independence plays an important role in explaining the effectiveness of the reforms.

The Effect of Mandatory CSR Disclosure on Information Asymmetry: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China

Using a quasi-natural experiment that mandates a subset of listed firms to issue corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, this paper examines the effect of mandatory CSR disclosure on market information asymmetry in China, where we estimate information asymmetry using high frequency trade and quote data. We find that contrary to the criticism that mandatory CSR disclosure lacks credibility and relevance in emerging markets, mandatory CSR reporting firms experience a decrease in information asymmetry subsequent to the mandate. We also find that consistent with the assertion that CSR disclosure is informative about firms’ political and social prospects, the decrease in information asymmetry is more pronounced for firms with lower government ownership, weaker political connections, and smaller corporate donation. In addition, we find that analyst following increases subsequent to the mandatory CSR reporting and firms with less analyst coverage experience a greater decrease in information asymmetry subsequent to the CSR mandate.