JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE
Year:2016 | Volume:7 | Issue:26|Papers Count:7

In this paper, headline earnings reporting and it’s value relevance components have been studied, using data from companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). To test the relative and incremental value relevance, regressions for price and return levels within Ohlson (1995) model were used.The data from a sample of 72 companies listed in the TSE, in the period 2003 to 2014, was used. The results of price levels regression showed that the headline earnings, in contrary to the headline earnings exclusions, have incremental value relevance. Also, the results of return levels regression, indicated that the headline earnings, in contrary to headline earnings exclusions, lack incremental value relevance. For relative value relevance, the test results of Vuong (1989) in price levels regression showed that the headline earnings have not relative value relevance more than basic earnings. This test in return levels regression showed that the headline earnings have relative value relevance more than basic earnings.

The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between tax management and earnings management in business groups in the companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange, (TSE). To test the study hypotheses, the multiple linear regression model was used. The results from 126 companies listed in the TSE in the period 2007 to 2014 showed that there exists a significant negative relationship between earnings management and tax management.Findings of this study indicated that the firms in business groups, compared with independent firms, concentrate on management of their earnings, more. Also, firms in diversified business groups, compared with independent firms, have more earnings management. Moreover, it seems that the increase in ownership share in main company in subsidiary results in more earnings management. With regard to motivation for earnings management, the results indicated that strategic earnings management in business groups, diversified and non-diversified, is in response to tax incentives. In particular, it seems that discretionary accruals in firms in business groups significantly depends on the effective tax rate. Finally, the results showed that earnings management are carried out specifically through the intra-group transactions.

This study examines the impacts of the existence of audit committee and its characteristics on audit report lag. The characteristics consist of audit committee’s financial expertise, experience, gender, size, and independence. The impact of audit committee on audit report lag was investigated before and after the adoption of internal control guideline in the period from 2008 to 2014.Using a sample of 54 firms in a combined panel data, the results showed that there is no significant relationship between the existence of audit committee and audit report lag. Furthermore, the impact of audit committee characteristics on audit report lag in the period after the adoption of internal control guideline, during the years from 2012 to 2014, were examined. The results from studying 142 firms in a model of combined panel data showed that there is a significant negative relationship between audit committee financial expertise and experience with audit report lag. The examination for the other audit committee characteristics showed no significant relationship between them and audit report lag.

This paper is aimed to investigate liquidity effects on unsystematic risk pricing to explain the reasons of unsystematic volatility puzzle, and test liquidity as the origin of unsystematic risk and stock return. In order to examine the liquidity effect, portfolio study and Fama-MacBeth regression were implemented. A sample consisted of listed firms in the Tehran Stock Exchange, TSE, was selected and examined in the period 1999 to 2010.The results of this study confirmed the existence of unsystematic volatility puzzle, and indicated that the explanatory power of unsystematic risk in illuminating cross sectional changes in stock returns could be supported by liquidity effects. Nevertheless, the effects of unsystematic risk on stock returns in the TSE were not determined by liquidity variation, and that there was no evidence of attributing the origin of changes in unsystematic risk pricing to liquidity variation. This finding was not sensitive to unsystematic risk measurement, thin trading and weighting scheme of portfolio return calculation.

Since investors react to delay in presentation of financial statements by firms, and this leads to reconsidering their investment locations, this study concentrated on empirical investigation of the role of mediator of abnormal audit report delay in explaining the relationship between earnings quality and firm value. In this study a sample of 98 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange, in the period 2004-2014, was selected.This study is an applied research and uses the structural equation model to test the hypotheses. The results, after passing tests, suggested that there is significant negative relationship between earnings quality and abnormal audit report delay. Also, the results indicated that there is significant negative relationship between abnormal audit report delay and firm value. Additionally, the role of mediator of abnormal audit report delay was confirmed in explaining the relationship between earnings quality and firm value. Therefore, it could be concluded that poor quality of earnings leads to increase in audit report delay, and this leads to a negative adjustment (decrease) in firm value by investors.

Management by tax avoidance may follow appropriate reporting that presents the firm with more profit than reality, and to show a good delineation of firm proceeds. However, able managers are less involved in tax avoidance action because of its opportunity cost. The aim of this study is examining the effects of management ability on tax avoidance. A sample of 91 firms accepted in the Tehran Stock Exchange from 1384 to 1392 was selected.In this study management ability criterion was considered a part of firm efficiency which was not affected by inherent factors, and was calculated by data envelopment analysis method. Also, the average of cash payment in the next three years divided to the average of taxes in the same period was regarded as tax avoidance criterion. Finally, test of hypothesis was carried on by synthetic regression. The result showed that management ability has significant negative relationship with tax avoidance.

This research investigates the relationship between conditional/ unconditional accounting conservatism and the amount of financing through banks and financial institutions, in a sample of 138 firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange, from 2005 to 2013. This study also compares the impacts of conditional/ unconditional conservatism on the amount of loans received from banks and financial institutions. To measure the conditional and unconditional conservatisms, the criteria introduced by Khan and Watts (2009) and Beaver and Ryan (2000), respectively, were used.The results showed that increasing the degree of conditional/ unconditional conservatism leads to increasing in the volume of loans received from banks and financial institutions. In other words, banks and financial institutions are more eager to grant loans to the firms that accept higher degree of conservatism. Also, the results indicated that, compared with the unconditional conservatism, conditional conservatism has higher impact on the volume of loans received from banks and financial institutes.