This paper examines the reliance on ESG metrics in executive compensation contracts. In our sample of international publicly traded firms, a rapidly growing fraction incorporate ESG metrics in the compensation schemes of their top executives. Our analysis links the reliance on these metrics to...

We investigate the impact of uneven transparency regulation across countries and industries on the location of economic activity. Using two distinct sources of regulatory variation-the varying extent of financial-reporting requirements and the staggered introduction of electronic business...

We investigate how managers smooth volatility in balance sheets, using the pension accounting change IAS 19R as a shock to balance sheet volatility. This shock increases pension plans' funding transparency, which is the source of volatility, without targeting actual plan funding. We find that...

The loan impairment rules recently introduced by IFRS 9 require banks to estimate their future credit losses by using forward-looking information. We use supervisory loan-level data from Germany to investigate how banks apply their reporting discretion and adjust their lending upon the...

Together with the development of knowledge-based economy, investment in intangibles has been dramatically increasing. Although intangibles are widely recognized as primary value drivers for more firms, as evidence of many studies related to the value relevance or the market valuation of...

This paper examines the distinct types of modified auditor opinions and the non-compliance with the legal certification of accounts, to assess whether they provide different relevant informational content on the risk of impending bankruptcies. The study also addresses the signalling effects when...

This study investigates whether the provision of non-audit services (NAS) is associated with accounting quality and whether political connection moderates the relationship between the NAS and accounting quality. The sample includes 2,245 firm-year observations from Malaysia during the period...

This study analyses the cost of financial distress of non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan stock exchange. Furthermore, it considers the moderating role of concentrated ownership in the relationship between debt and expected financial distress costs. We used the panel data of 214 firms...

Recently, South Africa has suffered from several large financial statement frauds. To assist stakeholders in identifying fraud, this study investigated the ability of the Beneish M-score and the Dechow et al. F-score to identify fraud in South Africa. The study also explored similarities in...

The role that corporate governance (CG) plays in contributing to firm performance enhancements has been widely acknowledged. However, the conduit through which CG is able to affect firm performance is an emergent theme. This paper re-examines the relationship between corporate governance (CG)...