Book‐Tax Differences, Corporate Governance Effectiveness and Audit Quality: An Interactive Effects

Does decomposing cost of goods sold entail significant competitive costs? We examine this question using a relaxation of disaggregated manufacturing cost disclosure requirements in Korea. Our survey evidence indicates managers perceive these disclosures to provide a competitive edge to competitors. Using archival data, we find firms with distinctive cost structures and high market shares are less willing to disclose, consistent with a desire to protect cost-leadership advantages embedded in production and sourcing. Firms experience higher gross profits and lower liquidity after withholding manufacturing cost details, suggesting these disclosure decisions involve trading off competitive costs (and not managersâ€™ self-interests) against capital market benefits. At the aggregate level, industries with more nondisclosing firms subsequently experience greater profitability dispersion, suggesting uncertainty about competitorsâ€™ cost of goods sold helps drive the widely studied performance dispersion observed within industries.

Breaking it Down: Competitive Costs of Cost Disclosures

ESG, Dividend Payout Policy and the Moderating role of Audit Quality: Empirical evidence from Western Europe

Using a sample of 22,839 US firm-year observations over the 1991–2012 period, we find that high CSR firms pay more dividends than low CSR firms. The analysis of individual components of CSR provides strong support for this main finding: five of the six individual dimensions are also associated with high dividend payout. When analyzing the stability of dividend payout, our results show that socially irresponsible firms adjust dividends more rapidly than socially responsible firms do: dividend payout is more stable in high CSR firms. These findings are robust to alternative assumptions and model specifications, alternative measures of dividend, additional control, and several approaches to address endogeneity. Overall, our results are consistent with the expectation that high CSR firms may use dividend policy to manage the agency problems related to overinvestment in CSR.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Dividend Policy

The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of corporate governance and ownership structure on the relationship of corporate sustainability performance and dividend policy by using a panel dataset of 79 non-financial companies listed on Borsa Istanbul 100 Index for the years 2014–2020. We employed the panel logit, probit and tobit regression models for the analysis. The results indicate that corporate governance and family ownership significantly and positively moderate the relationship between corporate sustainability performance and dividend policy, while concentrated ownership and institutional ownership do not play a significant moderating role on this relationship. The findings also show that firm-level corporate governance is associated with high dividend payments, suggesting that this institutional mechanism helps reduce agency problems and lead companies to allocate capital more efficiently. The findings provide valuable insights for companies in structuring sustainability activities and shaping dividend policies with regard to ownership structure. It also offers policy prescriptions in emerging markets in the area of corporate financing policies. 

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Moderating role of corporate governance and ownership structure on the relationship of corporate sustainability performance and dividend policy

This study empirically examines the relationship between corporate sustainable management (CSM) and dividend policy. Among the various motivations related to dividends, this study examines the relationship between CSM and dividend policy based on the agency and signaling theory. After examining the relationship between CSM and dividend policy, we investigate whether belonging to a large business group (chaebol group) has a significant effect on the relationship between CSM and dividend policy. The analysis period is from 2011 to 2018, and the ESG ratings of the Korea Corporate Governance Service are used as proxies for CSM. The empirical results show that CSM and dividends have a significant relationship in the positive direction. This means that firms with excellent CSM activities have higher dividend levels than those that do not. Furthermore, the association between CSM and dividends is more negative for firms belonging to a chaebol group. This indicates that the positive relationship between CSM and dividends in a firm that belongs to a chaebol group is weakened. This means that the relationship between CSM and dividends in the group belonging to the chaebol group is weakened. It belongs to the group of conglomerates, meaning that the relationship between the amount of dividends and CSM weakened. Our study focuses on CSM as a determinant of dividends, and examines the effects of belonging to a chaebol group in the relationship between CSM and dividends. Given that resolving the interest incompatibility between investors and managers is the focus of corporate governance, dividend policies can be used as a method for resolving the interest incompatibility between investors and managers.

Corporate Sustainable Management, Dividend Policy and Chaebol

Using data on the firms' voluntary disclosures from the Korea Stock Exchange from 2011 to 2014, we first empirically examine the association between voluntary disclosure and information asymmetry and then investigate the extent to which this association is affected by accruals quality since Korea adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011. We use Comprix et al. (2011) and Shin and Park (2014)'s measures of information asymmetry. They are daily stock return volatility (VOLA) and trading volume turnover (VOL). We use the Dechow et al.'s (1995) revised Jones model and the Kothari et al.'s (2005) performance matched discretionary accrual model to measure the discretionary accruals. The absolute values of discretionay accruals are used as proxies for accruals quality. Final research samples with voluntary disclosure for this study are 1,226 (firms-years) companies.  The research findings generally support our hypotheses. First, the relation between voluntary disclosure and information asymmetry is statistically and significantly positive as we have expected. The Korean companies with high voluntary disclosure would experience higher daily stock return volatility and less trading volume, which implies that companies tend to disclose biased information to the outside, which is consistent with prior studies in Korea. Second, the accruals quality (moderating variable) on the relation between voluntary disclosure and information asymmetry is statistically and significantly negative. Thus, we can conclude that when accruals quality is high, more voluntary disclosure decreases information asymmetry. These findings imply that accruals quality works as a mechanism in reducing the negative effect of voluntary disclosure on information asymmetry after the adoption of IFRS in Korea.  The limitation of this study is such that we might not have considered other omitted variables and other proxies for the accruals quality, voluntary disclosure, and information asymmetry.

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The effect of accruals quality on the association between voluntary disclosure and information asymmetry in Korea

We provide the effects of voluntary disclosure of the schedule of manufacturing cost on analysts’ earnings forecasts. We set up and analyze the disclosure of the schedule of manufacturing cost as a proxy for voluntary disclosure. Specifically, we examine the associations between voluntary disclosure of it and the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts and bias in earnings forecasts. The results of our study are as follows. First, the relationship between voluntary disclosure of the schedule of manufacturing cost and the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts is significant in the positive (+) direction. This means that the accuracy of analysts’ earnings forecasts is higher in the case of the firms that voluntarily disclosed the schedule of manufacturing cost, as compared to other firms. Second, the relationship between voluntary disclosure of the schedule of manufacturing cost and analysts’ bias in earnings forecasts is significant in the negative (-) direction. This means that analysts underestimate earnings in the case of the firms that voluntarily disclose the schedule of manufacturing cost, as compared to other firms. Since the schedule of manufacturing cost is still an interesting item and useful information in the capital market, the results of our study provide important implications not only to managers, but also to investors and supervisory authority. Limitations of our study include the fact that not all diverse variables that affect voluntary disclosure and analysts’ forecasts are considered.

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Effects Of Voluntary Disclosure Of The Schedule Of Manufacturing Cost On Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts: Evidence From Korea

We investigate whether auditors input additional audit hours according to the sizes of book-tax differences (hereinafter BTD) and request additional audit fees for additional audit hours. In addition, the interaction effects of corporate governance on the relationships between BTD and audit hours/audit fees are examined using the total corporate governance (TCG) scores, data from the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS). We predict that since auditors have the incentive and ability to consider BTD, audit hours and audit fees will increase when BTD are larger. Empirical results of our study are as follows. First, BTD and audit hours (LnAH) show a negative (-) association that is not statistically significant. Second, audit fees (LnAF) were shown to increase along with BTD. This can be interpreted as a result of requests for additional audit fees for increased audit risks due to individual firms' BTD. Third, the interaction effect of corporate governance on the relationship between BTD and audit hours (LnAH) showed a positive (+) association, but the association was not statistically significant. Fourth, the interaction effect of corporate governance on the relationship between BTD and audit fees (LnAF) showed a statistically significant positive (+) association. This be understood as meaning that firms with better governance make more efforts for financial reporting in order to maintain their reliability in the market. This study contributes to the literature in several important aspects. First, it empirically demonstrates whether auditors properly reflect BTD on audit risks. Next, our study is analyzes the effects of corporate governance on the relationship between BTD and audit hours/audit fees using the total corporate governance (TCG) scores presented by the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS). Finally, our findings empirically showed social proof function of accounting audits as a strategy to reduce information risks.

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Effect Of Corporate Governance On The Association Between Book-Tax Differences And Audit Quality: Evidence From Korea

This study examined the effect of corporate governance on labor investment efficiency, using 5178 firm-year samples from companies listed on the Korean stock market over the period from 2011 to 2019. In addition, the relationship between corporate governance and labor investment efficiency according to whether the company belongs to a chaebol group was examined. Corporate governance was measured using KCGS’s corporate governance ratings. This study tried to verify whether labor investment inefficiency due to information asymmetry is improved by excellent corporate governance. The results show that in the case of the entire sample, the relationship between corporate governance and labor investment efficiency was significant in the positive (+) direction. That is, it is an empirical result indicating that a company with a sound governance structure is making effective labor investment. The samples were divided into overinvestment samples and underinvestment samples, and the relationship between corporate governance and labor investment efficiency was analyzed separately in the two samples. According to the results, the positive relationship between corporate governance and labor investment efficiency was significant only in the case of underinvestment samples. In addition, the positive relationship between corporate governance and labor investment efficiency was more statistically significant in the case of companies belonging to a chaebol group. This study provided implications for authorities, shareholders, and investors, etc., in that it suggests the role of corporate governance as a mechanism to alleviate the agency problem between managers and investors.

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Hyunmin Oh

Papers

Corporate Sustainable Management, Dividend Policy and Chaebol

The effect of accruals quality on the association between voluntary disclosure and information asymmetry in Korea

Effects Of Voluntary Disclosure Of The Schedule Of Manufacturing Cost On Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts: Evidence From Korea

Effect Of Corporate Governance On The Association Between Book-Tax Differences And Audit Quality: Evidence From Korea

Does Corporate Governance Affect Labor Investment Efficiency?