Paul A. Griffin

An Evaluation of Alternative Proxies for the Market's Assessment of Unexpected Earnings

This study examines the association between abnormal returns and five alternative proxies for the markets assessment of unexpected quarterly earnings. We examine the role that measurement error potentially has in multiple regression tests of abnormal returns (occurring around the time of earnings announcements) on an unexpected earnings proxy and other non-earnings variables. The results indicate a potential measurement error interpretation of such multiple regression tests. We examine three procedures which reduce, to an unknown degree, the measurement error problem. Our procedures appear to be more (less) effective at reducing measurement error for small (large) firms and recent (non-recent) forecasts.

Got Information? Investor Response to Form 10-K and Form 10-Q EDGAR Filings

This study examines the investor response to Form 10-K and 10-Q reports filed between 1996 and 2001. The samples comprise essentially the entire body of EDGAR filings, including the small business (SB) versions of each filing type. The study documents that the absolute value of excess return is reliably greater on the day of and on the one or two days immediately following the filing date. The response is stronger around a 10-K date than a 10-Q date, more elevated for delayed filers, and increases significantly over the study period for both filing types. A regression analysis indicates that differences in response due to filing delay and year of filing are not subsumed by other attributes of the information environment, such as changes in industry composition, day of week, market capitalization, and shares held by institutions.

The incremental information content of replacement cost earnings

Abstract The study explores the incremental explanatory power of replacement cost earnings variables (derived from ASR 190 data) with respect to explaining cross sectional differences in security returns. As such, the study is a natural extension of previous research, including analyses of the effect of security returns of ASR 190 data at the time of disclosure, investigations of cross sectional relationships between security returns and historical cost earnings, and studies of multiple signals. The basic finding is that pre-holding gain net income provides no incremental explanatory powerm given knowledge of historical cost earnings. However, the converse does not hold. Taken together, the findings are consistent with the contention that pre-holding gain net income is a garbled version of historical cost earnings. The basic finding is robust under several extensions of the initial research design. The research design incorporates a two-stage approach which permits a determination of the incremental explanatory power of collinear variables. The findings are in contrast to those of a previous study by Easman et al. (1979). The nature of the difference in research design inducing the difference is identified. Potential reasons for the difference in findings are provided.

The information content of SEC accounting series release no. 190

Abstract The study examines the security price behavior of firms at the time of three events: the proposal of the SECs accounting series release (ASR 190) to require replacement cost disclosures, the adoption of ASR 190, and the initial filing of the data with the SEC. The primary analysis focuses upon differential security return behavior among reporting firms. Several extensions, including a comparison with nonreporting firms, are also conducted. The basic findings indicates no security price effects and is consistent with the hypothesis that no information was provided to the market during the three time intervals studied. Alternatively, the inability to find an effect may be due to a misspecification in the research design. However, the basic finding is robust under several additional analyses and specifications.

Corporate Governance and Audit Fees: Evidence of Countervailing Relations

This study derives and tests an economic framework that explains the relation between corporate governance and the fees paid by companies for auditing. Importantly, our framework posits and we find that auditing and governance are co-determined by two countervailing relations, namely, a fee-increasing relation because auditing services provide one means to attain better governance, and a fee-decreasing relation because auditors incorporate the benefits of better governance in pricing their services. The study period provides an interesting setting for testing the framework because it covers the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, which imposed substantial cost on many companies to strengthen governance, including increased spending on auditing and internal control. Yet, after controlling for such increased spending, our results also suggest that better governance reduces the cost of auditing. Our framework explains that this offset occurs because even though better governance (including auditing) is costly, it also enhances the quality of financial statements and internal controls, which enables auditors to decrease the price of audit risk and reduce fees.

Multi-loop twist field correlation functions for ZN orbifolds

Abstract We calculate the correlation functions of bosonic twist fields for Z N orbifolds on Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus.

Bosonization of ZN parafermions

Abstract We develop a general method of solving non-trivial conformal field theories by coset imbeddings into free boson models. In particular, we consider ZN parafermion models represented by the coset model constructions su(N1)⊕su(N)1/su(N)2, and bosonize the su(N)1 models. The calculation of correlation functions of these parafermion theories is formulated so that detailed information from the diagonal su(N)2 theory is not required. A differential equation for the four-point functionof order operators σ1 is derived as an example. We also derive differential equations with respect to the modular parameter τ for the parafermion characters in terms of the su(N)1 characters only. In particular, the equations for the Z2 and Z3 characters are first and second order respectively.

Are All Individual Investors Created Equal? Evidence from Individual Investor Trading Around Securities Litigation Events

This study examines the trading behavior of a large sample of individual (retail) investors around securities litigation events. We test the hypothesis that the response of these investors around the end of the litigation class period (at the time of a corrective disclosure) and the start of the class period (at the time of disclosure of allegedly false positive information) differs on the basis of the informedness of the investors. Our tests reject the hypothesis that more informed investors exhibit the same trading behavior as less informed investors. These results contribute to the literature by documenting differences in individual investor trading around events that reveal the start and end of an alleged financial fraud. These events can be relatively difficult to interpret and, so, it is not unreasonable that we should observe differences on the basis of informedness. We also examine individual investor trading within the class period and adduce that trading intensity is higher earlier in the class period, and higher overall relative to a control period. These findings are inconsistent with the often-applied proportional trading model for the calculation of class action damages, which assumes all shares trade with equal probability.

Non‐Audit Fees and Auditor Independence: New Evidence Based on Going Concern Opinions for U.S. Companies Under Stress

This paper reexamines the long-standing issue of whether the consulting fees earned by auditors affect their independence. The evidence in the United States is far from settled in this regard and continues to vex academics, professionals, and policy makers alike. Our model predicts a negative relation between auditor supplied non-audit fees and auditor independence. We test this model by examining auditors’ propensity to issue a going concern opinion for a sample of U.S. companies experiencing financial stress. Using a grouping approach to reduce potential measurement error in the variables, we document a reliable negative relation between non-audit fees and our proxy for auditor independence, which is consistent with our theory. This new evidence, based on an alternative procedure, may explain why some previous studies on U.S. companies have failed to find a negative relation. We also find that SOX and associated influences on auditor independence, but not auditor tenure, may have moderated this negative relation.

Voluntary corporate social responsibility disclosure and religion

Purpose This study examines the relation between voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and the local religious norms of firms’ stakeholders. Little is known about how these local norms (measured at the county level) affect firms’ disclosure practices and firm value, especially voluntary disclosure on climate change and environmental and social responsibility. Design/methodology/approach Poisson regression models test for a significant relation between firms’ voluntary CSR disclosure intensity and the local religious norms of firms’ stakeholders. Also, an event study tests whether the local religious norms affect investment returns. The data analyzed are extracted from the archive of CSRwire, a prominent news organization that distributes CSR news to investors and the public worldwide. Findings The study finds that firms in high adherence (high churchgoer) locations disclose CSR activities less frequently, and firms in high affiliation (a high proportion of non-evangelical Christian churchgoers) locations disclose CSR activities more frequently. The study also finds that managers make firm-value-increasing CSR disclosure decisions that cater to the religious and social norms of the local community. Practical implications The results imply that managers self-identify with the local religious norms of stakeholders and appropriately disclose less about CSR activities when religious adherence is high and when religious affiliation (the ratio of non-evangelicals to evangelical Christians) is low. The authors find this noteworthy because religious bodies often call for greater CSR involvement and disclosure. Yet, at the firm level, it would appear that local community religious norms also prevail, as it is shown that they significantly explain firms’ CSR disclosure behavior, implying that managers cater to local religious norms in their disclosure decisions. Social implications The findings suggest that managers vary the timing and intensity of voluntary CSR disclosure consistent with stakeholders’ local religious and social norms and that it would be costly and inefficient if the firms were to expand CSR disclosure without considering the religious norms of their local community. Originality value This is the first large-sample study to show that local religious norms affect CSR disclosure behavior. The study makes use of a unique and novel data set obtained exclusively from CSRwire.