We investigate whether the use of a high quality auditor and increased regulatory monitoring of Ramp;D reporting influence both the level of Ramp;D expenditure capitalized by Australian companies from 1992 to 2002 and the market's perception of the reliability of these figures. The results...

The association of a country's investor protection regime with the quality of reported earnings is examined for a large sample of firms from 42 countries. Three attributes of earnings are evaluated: the magnitude of abnormal accruals, the likelihood of reporting losses, and earnings conservatism...

The purpose of this study is to investigate into the discretionary accruals of the client companies of sanctioned auditors before sanction enforcements and changes thereafter. We find that signed discretionary accruals of the sanctioned auditors' client companies are significantly more favorable...

Market regulators, commissions and accountancy bodies have recommended the establishment of audit committees as an important step in improving corporate governance. In 2002 the Kenya Capital Markets Authority required all listed companies to establish audit committees. This study examined the...

We examine the issue of auditor independence in a unique setting. Specifically, we test for auditor independence impairment among (1) private client firms, for which the risk of auditor reputation loss is lower than for publicly traded firms, and (2) in a low litigation environment (i.e.,...

This study examines whether auditor opinions are affected by political and economic influences from governments. We use auditor locality (local versus non-local) to capture such influences from local governments in China. Based on data from China's stock markets for the period 1996-2002, we find...

In this paper we investigate the incremental information content of a sample of 1751 quarterly financial reports, issued in Portugal between 1994 and 2004. Specifically, we examine price and volume reactions to financial reports issued in: (1) the first and third quarters, which are unaudited; (2)...

This paper describes and summarizes the USAID Accounting Reform Project in Armenia. After a brief introduction that discusses the history and culture of Armenia, the paper goes into a discussion of the major aspects of accounting reform, which included assisting the Finance Ministry adopt and...

In this paper, I investigate the association between increased accounting disclosures and bid-ask spreads in an emerging market (China). I hypothesize that the implementation of new auditing standards in emerging markets would result in increased disclosures and a subsequent reduction in...

The Russian Finance Ministry has announced that Russia will adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as of January 1, 2004, one full year ahead of the European Union. This move is intended to give Russian financial statements more credibility in international capital markets. The...