Audit Quality
Mandana Taheri; Ghasem Blue; Ramin Parvarpour
Abstract
Information asymmetry and economic uncertainty are features of the capital market in today's complex business environment, which increase audit risk and litigation risk, and can be effective in explaining audit fees. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of legal claims risk, information ...
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Information asymmetry and economic uncertainty are features of the capital market in today's complex business environment, which increase audit risk and litigation risk, and can be effective in explaining audit fees. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of legal claims risk, information asymmetry and economic uncertainty in explaining audit fees. The time domain of the research is the period from 2013 to 2021 and the research sample includes 120 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Research findings, based on analysis using multivariable regression models on combined data, show that among the macroeconomic variables investigated (including economic growth rate, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate), both economic growth rate and inflation rate have a direct and significant relationship with the audit fee. Additionally, there is a direct and significant relationship between the risk of lawsuits and information asymmetry with the audit fee. The results indicate that the risk of lawsuits, economic uncertainty and information asymmetry play an effective role in explaining auditors' fees. IntroductionAudit fees indicate the amount of auditors' effort to reduce the audit risk to the reasonable level. It is a measure to control financial risk and some legal claims that are threatening audit firms. According to litigation risk, auditors try to control this risk by increasing their efforts and audit fees. Chen (2019) and Frino et al. (2022) state that information asymmetry and economic uncertainty increase audit risk and litigation risk, and can influence audit fees. In other words, audit services are necessitated by the conflict between shareholders and managers. Information asymmetry and economic uncertainty increase agency costs, thereby heightening the necessity for auditing to control and manage these costs. Consequently, auditors increase audit fees to manage audit risks and ensure the thoroughness of their audit work. Therefore, this research aims to explain the effect of litigation risk, information asymmetry, and economic uncertainty on audit fees. MethodologyOur data were collected using financial statements, notes, and audit reports in CODAL[1] database and Rahavard-e-Novin[2] software. The final sample for a period of 2013-2021 consists of 1080 firm-year observations. In addition, the GARCH models were employed to measure the independent variables. To test the first and second hypotheses of this research, model 1 is used:Afeet= litig riskt+ Asymmetryt+ Sizet+ INVRECt +Levt + ROAt+ losst+ CHANGEt +Adu sizet + Specialistt+ LIQUIDt + SALEt +Year Effects+ Industry Effects (1)To test the third hypothesis of research, model 2 is used:Afeet= Economic Growtht-1+ Inflation Ratet-1+ Exchange Ratet-1+ Interest Ratet-1+ Sizet+ INVRECt +Levt + ROAt+ losst+ CHANGEt +Adu sizet + Specialistt+ LIQUIDt + SALEt +Year Effects+ Industry Effects (2)Where, SIZE represents the natural logarithm of total assets; INVREC denotes the amount of inventory and receivables divided by total assets; Lev indicates total liabilities divided by total assets; ROA signifies net profit divided by total assets; LOSS is assigned 1 if a firm has experienced a loss in any of the last three years, and 0 otherwise; CHANGE is assigned 1 if a firm has changed its auditor, and 0 otherwise; LIQUID represents current assets divided by total assets; SALE represents the ratio of sales to assets; Adu size is a dummy variable that equals 1 if the audit firm was either the Iran Audit Organization (IAO) or Mofid Rahbar (an audit firm belonging to IACPA), and 0 otherwise. SPECIALISR is assigned 1 if the auditor is an industry specialist, and 0 otherwise. Audit Fee (AFEE): is the natural logarithm of the audit fee.Information Asymmetry (Asymmetry): According to the model of Venkatesh and Chiang (1986).Economic Uncertainty (RM): Economic uncertainty is the inability of agents to accurately predict the outcomes of decisions. In this research, it has been measured by four indicators, including the fluctuation of economic growth, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate. In addition, a GARCH model was used to index these criteria. For this purpose, a volatile measure of changes in the Gross National Product (GNP) index was considered to be an indicator of the risk of macroeconomic factors that the firm faces in its financial and production decisions. The results of the estimation of the GARCH model led to conditional variances, which ultimately lead to the standard deviation or the concept of uncertainty upon taking the square root.Litigation Risk (Litig risk): We measure this variable based on Lowry and Shu (2002), Krishnan and Zhang (2005), and Sun and Liu (2011). ConclusionThe results of testing the first and second hypotheses indicate that the risk of lawsuits and information asymmetry have a positive and significant relationship with audit fees. In the third hypothesis, the effect of lack of economy on remuneration was investigated. In this research, four indicators including economic growth, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate have been used to measure the economic uncertainty of macroeconomic variables. In this regard, the results of the hypothesis testing show that economic uncertainty based on inflation and economic growth criteria has a positive and significant relationship with audit fees. Additionally, economic uncertainty based on interest rate criterion has a negative and significant relationship with audit fees. However, the exchange rate indicator does not have a significant effect on audit fees. Therefore, it can be seen that audit risk as an indicator of determining audit fees is influenced by some economic variables such as inflation and economic growth.In order to strengthen the results and address potential endogeneity in the research models, we redefined the dependent variable as imaginary (bivariate) and re-estimated the initial models of all three hypotheses. The results of these re-estimations confirmed the findings of the least squares regression in the first model for the first and second hypotheses. In the third hypothesis regarding economic uncertainty, economic growth and inflation rate criteria, as well as exchange rate, lead to an increase in the audit fee, while interest rate causes a decrease in the audit fee. Additionally, new control variables were added to the initial models based on the information provided in previous sections. The results of these additions confirm the findings of the initial estimation of the hypotheses.
Accounting and various aspects of finance
Rafik Baghoomian; Hossein Rajabdorri; amirreza khanizolan
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between financial report readability and stock return synchronicity with the moderating role of institutional ownership and information asymmetry in companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). This research is in terms of its purpose. ...
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The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between financial report readability and stock return synchronicity with the moderating role of institutional ownership and information asymmetry in companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). This research is in terms of its purpose. Its period is from 2015 to 2019, and the selected sample consists of 171 companies listed in TSE. To test the research hypotheses through panel data, the ordinary least squares regression method in Eviews software was used. The findings of the research hypothesis test show that there is a negative and significant relationship between financial report readability and the stock return synchronicity. Also, institutional ownership as a moderating variable negatively correlates the illusion of financial report readability and the synchronization of stock prices. Additionally, the moderating effect of the information asymmetric variables on the relationship between the financial report readability and the price synchronization is positive and significant. According to the findings, on the one hand, it is necessary to examine the implications of financial report readability. On the other hand, in order to improve the market, more attention needs to be paid to the issues affecting the stock return synchronicity.
Financial Accounting
Ali Rahmani; Gholamreza Solimani; Mandana Taheri
Abstract
Interest groups, especially shareholders have demand for Disclosure and Reporting in the capital market and they change their expectations of risk and return based on disclosure of information. Therefore, disclosure has economic consequence for companies that according to the empirical literature, cost ...
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Interest groups, especially shareholders have demand for Disclosure and Reporting in the capital market and they change their expectations of risk and return based on disclosure of information. Therefore, disclosure has economic consequence for companies that according to the empirical literature, cost of capital, information asymmetry and stock liquidity, there are three important consequences of disclosure and reporting. One of the disclosures of companies is risk disclosure in the capital market, especially for banks and financial and credit institutions which it require in the form of financial statements and the Report of the Board to the Stock Forum based on complies with the regulations of the Stock Exchange and the Central Bank of Iran. In this paper, we survey the effect of risk disclosure in bank listed in stock market on cost of capital, information asymmetry and stock liquidity as three important of risk disclosure consequences. For this aim, by using the annual data of 18 banks listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 1390 to 1395 we estimate simple regression with panel data. The results show the main hypothesis (there is a consequential risk disclosure of the banks listed in the stock market), confirms. In addition, risk disclosure has a positive and significant relationship with cost of capital and information asymmetry, but there is no significant relationship between risk disclosure and stock liquidity.
Seyed Ali Hosseini; Afsaneh Bahiraei
Abstract
Voluntary disclosure is a surplus information on the legal requirement that includes financial and non-financial information for the more clarity of the company's processes. Voluntary disclosure as a kind of informed mechanism may be associated with different processes in the company. As a result, companies, ...
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Voluntary disclosure is a surplus information on the legal requirement that includes financial and non-financial information for the more clarity of the company's processes. Voluntary disclosure as a kind of informed mechanism may be associated with different processes in the company. As a result, companies, based on the composition of their board of directors, make decisions about the voluntary disclosure of information and may vary according to the type of political and non-political directors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of political connection on the information voluntary disclosure in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. In this regard, numbers of 124 companies were selected for the period from 2012 to 2017. To measure voluntary disclosure, the Botosan (1997) checklist and for measuring political connections, political cost index from Faccio (2006) has been used. The panel data approach was also used to test the research hypotheses. The results showed that political connection has a negative and significant effect on the voluntary disclosure of information. In fact, companies that have more political connection are more inclined to voluntarily disclose information.
Robab Shakeri; Mohammad Marfou
Abstract
In this study, the effect of business strategy on the Company's Information Environment (Information Asymmetry, stock returns Volatility, Earning Forecast Errors), is studied. Also to determine the type of companies' selected strategy (prospective or defensive), the Ittner and Larcker )1997) scoring ...
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In this study, the effect of business strategy on the Company's Information Environment (Information Asymmetry, stock returns Volatility, Earning Forecast Errors), is studied. Also to determine the type of companies' selected strategy (prospective or defensive), the Ittner and Larcker )1997) scoring system is used. For statistical analysis, multivariate regression used and control variables (firm size and financial leverage) is also used in models. The study period, is the period (2011) to (2015) and a sample of 168 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange is used. The results indicate that a positive and significant relationship exists between the company's business strategy and Information Environment (Information Asymmetry, stock returns Volatility, Earning Forecast Errors) so that the more prospective business strategy, brings more information asymmetry, more stock returns Volatility and more Earning Forecast Errors
Gholamreza karami0F; Maryam farajzadeh1F
Abstract
AbstractThe purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals in Tehran Stock Exchange. Hence, we hypothesize that there is a significant positive relationship between the level of information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals. ...
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AbstractThe purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals in Tehran Stock Exchange. Hence, we hypothesize that there is a significant positive relationship between the level of information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals. We implement Mishkin test and classification of portfolios method to respectively investigate whether there is any mispricing of accruals and its relationship with information asymmetry. Furthermore, the indirect balance sheet approach and bid-ask spread have been utilized to measure respectively accruals and information asymmetry. Thus, information of 82 entities during the time span of 5 years between 2008 to 2012 have been analyzed to test our hypothesis. The results depict that as the level of information asymmetry enhances, the difference between coefficients of predictions and evaluation of accruals in the Mishkin test increases. In other words, as the level of information asymmetry increases, the mispricing of accruals intensifies.
ameneh bazrafshan
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Audit Committee Quality (ACQ) on achieving Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICOFR) in short run. So, the current paper investigates the impact of ACQ on Financial Reporting Quality (FRQ) including Reliability, Relevance and Timelines of ...
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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Audit Committee Quality (ACQ) on achieving Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICOFR) in short run. So, the current paper investigates the impact of ACQ on Financial Reporting Quality (FRQ) including Reliability, Relevance and Timelines of financial reporting That is Information Asymmetry (IA) as the final goal of financial reporting. Regarding the latent of ACQ and FRQ, this paper use structural modeling with OLS approach by Smart-PLS software. Findings indicate that ACQ reduces IA. However, there is no relationship between ACQ and FRQ. It was also revealed that FRQ reduces IA.
S. A. Khalifeh Soltani; S. Khajavi
Abstract
On the basis of Pecking Order Theory, when firms need resourcesthey usually rely on debts since capital is considered expensive due toinformation asymmetry. Moral hazard is a kind of informationasymmetry; therefore, it is expected that it has relationship withcapital structure. The purpose of this study ...
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On the basis of Pecking Order Theory, when firms need resourcesthey usually rely on debts since capital is considered expensive due toinformation asymmetry. Moral hazard is a kind of informationasymmetry; therefore, it is expected that it has relationship withcapital structure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impactof moral hazard on capital structure. In order to conduct the research132 firms were selected from listed firms in Tehran Stock Exchangebetween years 2006_2012.research hypothesis was tested usingstructural equation model. The results show that moral hazard hassignificant negative impact on capital structure, and the negative effectof moral hazard on capital structure is moderated by control variables
Mahdi Moradzadehfard; Maryam Farajzadeh; Shima Karami; Morteza Adlzadeh
Volume 11, Issue 44 , March 2015, , Pages 97-116
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine both the relationship between accounting conservatism and level of investment under the need or no need of financing conditions and the impact of ultimate ownership on this association. The statistical society of the present research contains 103 companies selecting ...
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The purpose of this research is to examine both the relationship between accounting conservatism and level of investment under the need or no need of financing conditions and the impact of ultimate ownership on this association. The statistical society of the present research contains 103 companies selecting from all companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange using removal method over the time span of 2006-2010. Combined data method with fixed effect has been used in order to test the research hypothesis. The result depicts that the association between conservatism and investment is significantly negative when a firm do not need external financing. Nonetheless, this association is significantly positive in companies which need external financing. Furthermore, we find that the relationship between conservatism and investment in the companies whose ultimate ownerships controller is governmental or semi governmental firms is significantly negative. Thus, when the agency problem is enhancing, conservatism acts as a mechanism to decrease this problem and engenders reduction in investment cost
Mahdi Moradzadeh Fard; Maryam Farajzadeh; Shima Karami
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine both the relationship between accounting conservatism and level of investment under the need or no need of financing conditions and the impact of ultimate ownership on this association. The statistical society of the present research contains 103 companies selecting ...
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The purpose of this research is to examine both the relationship between accounting conservatism and level of investment under the need or no need of financing conditions and the impact of ultimate ownership on this association. The statistical society of the present research contains 103 companies selecting from all companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange using removal method over the time span of 2006-2010. Combined data method with fixed effect has been used in order to test the research hypothesis. The result depicts that the association between conservatism and investment is significantly negative when a firm do not need external financing. Nonetheless, this association is significantly positive in companies which need external financing. Furthermore, we find that the relationship between conservatism and investment in the companies whose ultimate ownerships controller is governmental or semi governmental firms is significantly negative. Thus, when the agency problem is enhancing, conservatism acts as a mechanism to decrease this problem and engenders reduction in investment cost.
maryam farajzadeh
Abstract
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals in Tehran Exchange Market. hence, we hypothesize that there is a significant positive relationship between the level of information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals. we implement ...
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The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals in Tehran Exchange Market. hence, we hypothesize that there is a significant positive relationship between the level of information asymmetry and mispricing of accruals. we implement Mishkin test and classification of portfolios method to respectively investigate whether there is any mispricing of accruals and its relationship with information asymmetry. Furthermore, the indirect balance sheet approach and bid-ask spread have been utilized to measure respectively accruals and information asymmetry. Thus, information of 82 entities during the time span of 5 years between 2008 to 2012 have been analyzed to test our hypothesis. The results depicts that as the level of information asymmetry enhances, the difference between coefficients of predictions and evaluation of accruals in the Mishkin test increases. In other words, as the level of information asymmetry increases, the mispricing of accruals intensifies.
Mahdi Moradzadehfard; Morteza Adlzadeh; Maryam Farajzadeh; Sedigheh Azimi
Volume 10, Issue 39 , October 2013, , Pages 125-145
Abstract
Information uncertainty has been an old topic in finance literature. Information uncertainty means ambiguity about a firm’s fundamental value, which may arise from two conventional sources: 1) characteristics of the business or industry, and 2) the company’s disclosure policy. The first source ...
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Information uncertainty has been an old topic in finance literature. Information uncertainty means ambiguity about a firm’s fundamental value, which may arise from two conventional sources: 1) characteristics of the business or industry, and 2) the company’s disclosure policy. The first source related to growth options and second source related to information asymmetry. From investors’ perspective the mechanisms and outcomes of every source are quite different. In this research we use from earning forecast dispersion as a proxy for measuring information uncertainty. We use stock turnover and price impact as proxies for information asymmetry. To control firm’s growth options, we use firm age, market-to-book ratio, and capital expenditure over total assets and Tobin’s Q. We use panel data regression model to analyze information. Our results indicate that information uncertainty has a positive relationship with information asymmetry and growth options.
Ahmad Khodamipoor; Mostafa Deldar; Mohsen Choopani
Volume 10, Issue 38 , July 2013, , Pages 143-167
Abstract
If the information asymmetry exists، some investors have private and confidential information about companies more and better than other investors .Information asymmetry cause inefficient information flow which can influence company's future returns. This study investigates the impact of information ...
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If the information asymmetry exists، some investors have private and confidential information about companies more and better than other investors .Information asymmetry cause inefficient information flow which can influence company's future returns. This study investigates the impact of information asymmetry and the company's life cycle on future stock returns. With a sample of 670 firms - year regarding 67 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 1380-1389, we tested the hypothesis using multivariate linear regression model based on panel data. The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant negative relationship between information asymmetry and futures stock returns. In fact, with increasing asymmetry of information, future returns of stocks of companies decreased. Another result of study shows there is a significant positive relationship between year life cycle and future stock returns. In other words, with the increase in corporate life, the future stocks returns also increases.
Mehdi Moradzadeh Fard; Mina Aboohamzeh
Volume 8, Issue 32 , January 2011, , Pages 73-102
Abstract
Regarding the critical role of liquidity in asset price discovery, sharing of financial risk, increasing of expected return and transaction costs reduction, it is important to know about the effective factors. This study examines the effects of the quality of corporate disclosure on stock ...
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Regarding the critical role of liquidity in asset price discovery, sharing of financial risk, increasing of expected return and transaction costs reduction, it is important to know about the effective factors. This study examines the effects of the quality of corporate disclosure on stock liquidity. Because increasing disclosure quality reduces information asymmetry and reducing information asymmetry increases market liquidity, so the main hypothesis of this study is that disclosure quality has effect on stock liquidity. In this study, for separating various details impacts of disclosure quality, we used timeliness and reliability and to determine stock liquidity, we used 15 different trading and information liquidity measures. 112 Tehran Security Exchange listed companies, from 1384 to 1388 are chosen and research hypothesis was tested by linear multivariable regression in pre and post-test. The results indicate that disclosure quality has positive effect on stock liquidity. Also, they show positive effect of reliability on stock liquidity.
Mohsen Khoshtinat; Fereshteh Yoosefi
Volume 5, Issue 20 , January 2008, , Pages 37-59
Abstract
This paper studies the relationship between information asymmetry and accounting conservatism in financial statements. Information asymmetry between informed and uninformed equity investors creates an agency cost that ...
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This paper studies the relationship between information asymmetry and accounting conservatism in financial statements. Information asymmetry between informed and uninformed equity investors creates an agency cost that increases the equilibrium return on the firm's equity. This effect gives parties to the firm an incentive to generate a mechanism that reduces information asymmetry. In the other hands Conservatism reduces the manager's incentives and ability to manipulate accounting numbers and then reduces the agency costs.
Our empirical tests express that information asymmetry among equity investors is significantly positively related to conservatism. Further our tests confirm that changes in information asymmetry between equity investors lead changes in conservatism but conservatism doesn't lead to information asymmetry.
This result rejects the FASB proposition that conservatism produces information asymmetry among investors.
