Empirical Studies in Financial Accounting

Abstract Financial statements release and announcement earnings convey some information to the capital market and causes changes in price and exchange volume of stocks. Accountants concern with such questions as: is there a relationship between accounting and the stock price changes and the abnormal returns around the date of annual and do convey any information to the capital market? And do announcement earnings have any informational content? Since unexpected stock returns of some companies after the announcement earnings is more than the other companies, it may raise a question that why the market reaction to the good and bad news of some companies is more and greater than if s reaction to other? There are many factors affecting earnings response coefficient. The size of the company is one of these factors and has been examined more frequently in the literature and has been recognized as a powerful factor affecting informational content of financial statements and more specially announcement earnings. So our research has some questions as below: 1-        - Do stockholders respond to announcement earnings news? 2-              Is coefficient of respond to announcement earnings different among the companies of different size? To find the answer of these questions we have studied a sample consisting of l O I companies during a 3 years period stating from 1382 (1382 to l384). The results of our research show that there is a meaningful relation between the annual announcement earnings and unexpected return around the date of declares. But the quantities for R and   R2    show a   direct   weak   relation.   Then to consider   the second question we first classified the companies   in to three classes:    small sized, middle sized and large, based on their total assets book value and then we did separate tests for each class. There results show no meaningful relation between annual announcement earnings and unexpected returns around the declaration date in large companies. But there has been a meaningful relation i n the small and middle sized companies classes so we can conclude that there is a reverse relationship between the company size and informational context of two announcement earnings. Then there should be more focus on disclosure in small and middle sized companies because they are more important to users.

Abstract Men have always been interested in predicting different events, such as financial distress in different firms. In this research also has been tried to answer if it is possible to predict financial distress on the base of financial ratios, and if the answer is yes, to present a model in order to distinguish these two groups on the base of the Tobin's Q. By applying Multiple Discriminant Analysis (M.D.A.) and SPSS for data analysis, the conclusion shows that the following five financial ratios can do this distinguishment. -      Earning before tax to current debt -      Market valve to debt -      Return on asset -     Retained profit to asset -     Long debt to asset

Abstract An important qualitative attribute of financial statements is timeliness of their information. The recognition that the length of the audit may be the single most important  determinant  affecting  the timeliness of reporting, has motivated recent research on audit delay. The present study investigates the determinants of audit delay in Iran. We examine the determinants of "audit delay," the number of calendar days from fiscal year-end to the audit report date. The sample comprises233 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange during the period 1382-1384. Descriptive statistics indicate the average audit delay to be 84 days for the three years under study. Five hypotheses relating audit delay to company size, company profitability, company risk (financial risk), auditor and year-end are tested in this study. Univariate and multivariate analyses and t-test of differences are performed to test the hypotheses of the study. The results for the sample of 233 listed Iranian companies showed that audit delay was significantly related to the companies that have 29 Esfand year-end. Other four hypotheses found not to be significantly associated with audit delay.

Abstract A   fundamental   assumption   in  cost  accounting   is  that   the  relation between   costs  and  volume  is  symmetric  for  volume  increases  and decreases.  In  this  study,  we  investigate  whether  costs  are  "sticky"­ that   is,  whether  costs  increase  more  when   activity  rises  than   they decrease  when  activity  falls  by  an  equivalent  amount.  We find, for 77firms over 9 years, that selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs increase on average 0.41 % per 1% increase in sales but decrease only 0.16 % per I % decrease in sales.  We  find,  for  77firms  over 9 years, that cost of goods sold increase on average 0.97 % per I % increase  in  sales  but  decrease  only  0.77  %  per   I %  decrease  in sales according to our investigation SG&A costs and cost of goods sold are sticky.

Abstract The financial statements accompanied by independent auditors’ unqualified report which presents to capital market are used by interested beneficiary users. According to rules and regulations of the capital market, acceptance of the companies in the stock exchange list and its continuity requires transparent financial reports free of material misstatements. Therefore name of those companies that have adverse or disclaimer audit opinion on their financial reports will be deleted from stock exchange list resulting unfavorable consequences for the company and its beneficiary users. In capital market of  many  countries  including  China,  in  case of qualified audit report that includes serious explanatory paragraphs affecting financial statements, the companies would have specific period of time to remove the deficiencies and  to have the opportunity to issue  corrected  (restated)  financial reports. In Iran’s capital market, issuing adjusted audit reports is more common, hence in this research we study the factors affecting desirability of financial reporting in the frame work of giving them credibility through issuance of unqualified audit report. In this study, 143 companies listed in stock exchange are selected through a statistical process and examined for a period of seven years, and thus the factors and variables affecting the companies’ financial reporting are determined in the capital market. The  research  findings  show  that  during  the  period  under  review the financial  reporting have  improved  and benefited  a favorable trend  in  the  capital  market.