The revision of the Rating Outlook to Stable from Negative reflects Fitch’s belief that the city may be required by the EPA to move to secondary treatment at its two largest treatment plants at some time in the future. However, the timing and costs associated with this upgrade could be long term, near or beyond the final year of the current large capital plan (2019). Furthermore, negotiations and the final agreement regarding the timing of such regulatory upgrades may not occur quickly. The Stable Rating Outlook reflects Fitch’s expectation that the third rate package will be adopted and become effective in fiscal 2012 as anticipated and that a change in political administrations or New Issues Wastewater System Revenue Bonds (First Bond Resolution), Senior Series 2009A, 2009B, and 2009C Wastewater System Revenue Bonds (Second Bond Resolution), Junior Series 2009A

“公共财政”和“Public Finance”辨析

Principles of Corporate Governance

The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty‐First Century Organization

The purpose of this paper is twofold.First, we provide a discussion of the problems associated with endogeneity in empirical accounting research.We emphasize problems arising when endogeneity is caused by (1) unobservable firm specific factors and (2) omitted variables and discuss the merits and drawbacks of using panel data techniques to address these causes.Second, we investigate the magnitude of endogeneity bias in Ordinary Least Squares regressions of cost-of-debt capital on firm disclosure policy.We document how including a set of variables which theory suggests to be related with both cost-of-debt capital and disclosure and using fixed effects estimation in a panel dataset reduces the endogeneity bias and produces consistent results.This analysis reveals that the effect of disclosure policy on cost-of-debt capital is 200% higher than what is found in Ordinary Least Squares estimation.Finally, we provide direct evidence that disclosure is impacted by unobservable firm-specific factors that are also correlated with cost-of-capital.

The Endogeneity Bias in the Relation Between Cost-of-Debt Capital and Corporate Disclosure Policy

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: In this paper, we examine the determinants of the level of disclosure on corporate governance practices among European listed companies in the time period preceding the adoption of the European Union recommendations and Action Plan. Research Findings/Results: Using ratings on corporate governance disclosure issued by an independent rating agency we find that – ceteris paribus – the level of disclosure: (1) is lower for companies with higher ownership concentration; (2) is higher for companies from common-law countries; and (3) increases with the level of working capital accruals. Theoretical Implications: The results of the study support theoretical arguments that companies disclose corporate governance information in order to reduce information asymmetry and agency costs stemming from the separation between ownership and control, and to improve investor confidence in the reported accounting information. The study suggests various avenues for future research on corporate governance. Practical Implications: To policy makers and practitioners, the results suggest that a mandatory corporate governance disclosure requirement is abundant, and perhaps could even be inefficient. The results also indicate which types of companies can be expected to be least willing to comply with recent corporate governance disclosure requirements, and thus will need extra monitoring.

Disclosure on corporate governance in the European Union: Theory and evidence

PurposeThis study reviews post-2009 literature on public sector internal auditing (IA) and addresses three interrelated research questions (RQ): How is research on the public sector IA being developed? What are the focus and criticisms of the literature on public sector IA? What is the future of public sector IA research?Design/methodology/approachWe adopt a systematic literature review approach and analyze 78 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2010 and 2019. We evaluate five criteria to identify the development of public sector IA research (RQ1), namely level of government, academic discipline, number of countries, geographic areas and MSCI country classification. Similarly, we use four criteria to present the focus and criticisms of the literature (RQ2), namely, type of organizational respondent, research instrument, theories and research theme examined. Finally, we use two criteria to propose new directions for future research (RQ3), namely, the directions resulted from RQ1 and RQ2 and the directions highlighted by the 10 most cited studies in the IA literature (i.e. out of the 78 papers identified).FindingsWe find an increase of publications up to 2017, most of which are single country–focused, particularly on emerging markets. Moreover, we note that IA has been studied at all government levels, most often at the local government level. Although we identify multiple research themes examined in the literature, most studies emphasize “governance” and “operational effectiveness” using quantitative analysis, without reference to any theory. By analyzing these key features, we critically interpret the challenges as well as the skepticism that may surface by researchers. Finally, considering implications from this stream of research and analyzing the most influential studies, we recommend new avenues for investigation such as comparative studies among countries and different markets that provide further evidence on the international and regional levels and studies on the effect of cultural, institutional and demographical characteristics in IA.Practical implicationsOur results will help researchers, practitioners and consultants to identify the key issues related with IA.Originality/valueThis study is the first to provide a systematic literature review on public sector IA. Furthermore, it develops insights, critical reflections and avenues for future research in this field.

Internal auditing in the public sector: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Purpose The purpose of this study is to: i) review the prior empirical studies that investigate the Corporate Governance (CG) determinants and provide a synopsis and ii) explore the main factors that drive the level of CG disclosure in Greek context. Design/methodology/approach We perform an extensive review of the relevant literature and identify twenty-four papers that use various potential factors. Afterwards, we construct two different GC indices to investigate these potentials and we conduct multiple regression analysis to identify and explain these determinants. Findings The empirical analysis shows that large Greek listed firms are more likely to disclose more CG information in the CG statement (CGS). In addition, the analysis shows statistically significant association with performance related variables (such as Tobin’s q and liquidity) and CG related variables (such as independent members, board meetings and women on board). Research limitations/implications The results of the study support theor...

Going back to go forward: on studying the determinants of corporate governance disclosure

Purpose – This paper provides evidence regarding the efficacy of the “comply or explain” approach in Greece and has three objectives: to improve our knowledge of the concept of this accountability mechanism, to elevate auditors’ potential role in the control of corporate governance (CG) statements and to contribute to the discussion about the reform of this principle; a prolonged dialogue that has been started by European Commission in the light of the recent financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is a content analysis of CG statements and Web sites of a non-probability sample of 144 Greek listed companies on the Athens Stock Exchange for the year 2011. Particularly, 52 variables were evaluated from an audit compliance perspective using a coding scheme. From this procedure, the level of compliance with Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) code, as well as the content of the explanations provided for non-compliance, were rated. Findings – The results show that although the d...

Measuring the quality of the “comply or explain” approach

This paper contributes to our understanding the quality of compliance and non-compliance with best practices of corporate governance. Specifically, the level of compliance with SEV code, as well as the content of the explanations provided for non-compliance, are rated. Using a sample of 144 Greek listed companies on the Athens Stock Exchange, I found that although the degree of compliance is low (the average governance rating is 35.27%), the evaluation of explanations of non-compliance is even lower (from the 64.73% of the non-compliance, the 40.95% provides no explanation at all). These results indicate that companies on the one hand tend to avoid the compliance with these recommendation practices, raising questions regarding the effectiveness of the SEV code; while on the other, they are not in line with the spirit of the CG code, since they do not provide adequate explanations. This pioneering study adds to the body of research by providing a new approach in measuring the quality of ‘comply or explain’ approach in-depth."When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; But when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; It may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of science". Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), British mathematical physicist and engineer.

Measuring the Quality of ‘Comply or Explain’ Approach: Evidence from the Implementation of the Greek Corporate Governance Code

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the recent corporate governance (CG) developments in Greece. The recent economic crisis of Greece has caused very high mobility, both at a state level by imposing a new Greek regulation in capital market and at a level of associations in Greece by recommending new voluntary codes on CG. Both the new economic conditions in the world economy after the global financial crisis of 2007-2010 and the 2009 economic crisis in Greece provide a valuable opportunity to study the CG and regulatory aspects of CG in Greece. Design/methodology/approach – This study has three objectives, namely, to present the reasons which lead the business community in Greece to reconsider existing CG practices and outline the main aspects; to locate the current CG developments and trends in Greece in the last decade (2002-2011), especially in the light of the recent debate between various voluntary codes that have lately been proposed; and, finally, to highlight the efforts that have been made s...

Michail Nerantzidis

Papers

Internal auditing in the public sector: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Going back to go forward: on studying the determinants of corporate governance disclosure

Measuring the quality of the “comply or explain” approach

Measuring the Quality of ‘Comply or Explain’ Approach: Evidence from the Implementation of the Greek Corporate Governance Code

Recent corporate governance developments in Greece