This paper introduces the Tax Complexity Index (TCI). The TCI comprehensively measures the complexity of countries’ corporate income tax systems faced by multinational corporations. It builds on surveys of highly experienced tax consultants of the largest international tax services networks. The TCI is composed of a tax code subindex covering tax regulations and a tax framework subindex covering tax

This paper examines the impact of tax authority monitoring and enforcement on earnings informativeness. Using a staggered difference-in-differences design, I exploit the introduction of a new tax administration information system as a proxy for increased tax enforcement. The results imply that the informativeness of earnings improves with an increase in tax authority enforcement. Furthermore, I find

This study examines whether foreign cash holdings increase the complexity of analysts’ forecasting tasks, thereby affecting their earnings forecasts’ properties. In forecasting future earnings, analysts face uncertainty in understanding the firm’s economic situation, especially if cash is held by foreign subsidiaries – given that it may be subject to investment inefficiencies. The lack of disclosure

This paper extends qualitative research on sell-side analysts by investigating how analysts compete against each other in the market for investment advice. The paper challenges the assumption that analysts must utilize private information in such competition, and investigates the role of a public setting – the quarterly earnings presentation – for analysts’ analytical work and client communication

This study investigates whether shareholders are willing to pay for higher levels of corporate financial, social, and environmental disclosure. We conduct a choice-based conjoint experiment wherein 65 shareholders are asked to make 12 choices, choosing each time between two predetermined randomized combinations of different levels of investment returns, financial disclosure, environmental disclosure

We study how the relationship between a firm’s growth opportunities and its dividend policies shifts in response to a reduction in information asymmetry between investors and firms. Existing literature suggests a negative relationship between growth opportunities and dividend payouts in the presence of information asymmetry. Using the mandatory adoption of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards)

(2021). New Directions in Auditing Research: Conceptual Repair, Technological Disruption(s), Local Professional Governance and the Battle for Inclusivity. European Accounting Review: Vol. 30, New Directions in Auditing Research, pp. 439-444.

Is audit capable of evolving into something that is more consistently valued and socially purposeful? We address this fundamental question, utilizing Sennett’s (2008). The Craftsman. New Haven: Yale University Press) notion of ‘dynamic repair’ to present four key ways of thinking differently about the statutory financial audit and its core conceptual foundations. First, we highlight the capacity for

In this study, I review the empirical literature on the real effects of corporate taxation. I define real effects broadly as firms' investment responses, corporate risk taking, capital structure choices, and aggregate outcomes such as GDP growth. I base my analysis on 79 empirical studies on the investment effects of corporate taxation and contrast these results to theoretical predictions. Consistent

We investigate to what degree employee representatives contribute to the board’s monitoring of earnings quality. We argue that employee representatives have incentives to prevent earnings manipulations motivated by negotiation considerations. Furthermore, they seek risk reducing policies, have a long-term interest in their firm and possess firm-specific knowledge, which in turn can result in improved

The ability to reduce current and future taxable income with prior years' taxable losses is highly relevant for explaining firms' effective tax rates. Compustat data on the tax loss carryforward (TLCF) are, however, often missing. We propose a method to estimate values for the missing TLCF data instead of the common practice in the literature of imputing zero values. In order to assess the accuracy

This study investigates the effect of corporate derivatives usage on stock price crash risk. We test two competing hypotheses. Under the transparency hypothesis, derivatives usage reduces information opacity and lowers crash risk. Under the speculation hypothesis, derivatives usage exacerbates managerial short-termism and increases crash risk. We find evidence supporting the transparency hypothesis

Although the literature on carbon accounting is growing, studies on the valuation impact of firms’ carbon abatement investment (CAI) are scarce, and the influence of country-specific climate policies is largely underexplored. Drawing on both the benefit and cost perspectives of the resource-based view, we predict that investors’ perceptions of the net benefits of CAI are contingent on national climate

This review analyzes the role of emotions in accounting research. Drawing on an analytical framework that differentiates between joy-, fear-, anger- and sadness-based emotions, we disentangle the bidirectional dynamics between emotions and accounting, and show how accounting both conditions and is conditioned by emotions. In this way, we demonstrate how an emotional turn in accounting scholarship challenges

We investigate how the design of audit processes influences employees’ reporting decisions. We focus specifically on detective employee audits for which several employees are randomly selected after a defined period to audit their ex-post behavior. We investigate two design features of the audit process, namely, employee anonymity and process transparency, and analyze their impact on misreporting.

Organizations often promote procedural justice by increasing the transparency of managerial decisions and encouraging employees’ voice in the decision process. We experimentally investigate how implementing these control policies in hierarchical organizations (owners vs. managers vs. employees) affects managers’ resource-allocation decision and employee effort. We predict and find that managers allocate

ABSTRACT Although an increasing number of companies have publicly declared environmental targets (ETs), scant research has been conducted in this area. This study, therefore, investigates the extent of corporate environmental targets disclosure (ETD) and empirically examines whether environmental governance and performance influence the ETD of companies in the U.K. during the 2005–2013 period. We find

ABSTRACT We examine analytically the strategic path auditors take towards becoming industry specialists in terms of their investments in the acquisition of industry specific knowledge and their pricing behavior. We identify characteristics of the competitive environment that provide incentives to improve audit quality as accounting firms strive to achieve industry specialization. These characteristics

Intuition suggests that shareholders benefit from active boards. We present a model to show that if contract renegotiation is possible, then an active board might not always be desirable from the shareholders' perspective. This happens because low board activity may partially offset the distortion in the manager's incentives caused by the renegotiation option. While the value of low board activity

(2021). Thank you to Associate Editors, Editorial Board Members, Ad hoc Associate Editors, Guest Editors, and Reviewers 2020. European Accounting Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 222-235.

ABSTRACT This study explores the rhetorical strategies underlying the discursive construction of the German controller social-identity in the mid-1970s. Previous research has shown how management accounting professionals struggle with different role models for the management accountant. This study complements this work by using the case of the German controller to investigate how broader ideas about

This paper examines professional associations’ local responses to global demands of accounting standardisation. Our longitudinal study from 1998 to 2018 analyses how professional associations of the German audit profession engaged in an intense framing contest over the adoption of external quality controls. Drawing on the concept of strategic action field and the literature on framing, we unpack how

This paper examines how a firm’s employment policy, particularly employee cash profit-sharing plans, affects its financial reporting. We find that firms with employee cash profit-sharing programs are more likely to engage in downward earnings management to reduce labor costs, especially with decreasing performance. This effect is more evident in firms with higher labor costs and human-capital reliant

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the recent development in audit technologies, i.e., the rise of Big Data and Analytics (BDA) tools, and how auditors make use of them in audits. While prior audit studies have acknowledged that audit technologies shape and re-construct the market for audit services, they have not devoted much attention to the performative nature of such technologies and how their properties

This study provides the first comprehensive literature review on interim reporting based on 112 papers published between 1961 and 2020. The review focuses on both the firm-specific consequences (capital market-based and real effects) and externalities of interim reporting. We analyze three primary interim reporting characteristics: (1) frequency, (2) contents, and (3) assurance. The review allows us

This study provides the first comprehensive literature review on interim reporting based on 112 papers published between 1961 and 2020. The review focuses on both the firm-specific consequences (capital market-based and real effects) and externalities of interim reporting. We analyze three primary interim reporting characteristics: (1) frequency, (2) contents, and (3) assurance. The review allows us

ABSTRACT This paper offers insights into the accounting profession’s recent trend of establishing young-professionals boards. Our study uses rich fieldwork data to provide an in-depth analysis of how a committee of young accountants (the Young Profs), embedded in the Dutch professional institute, attempts to achieve relevance in professional debates. Taking two distinct perspectives, we first study

ABSTRACT This paper offers insights into the accounting profession’s recent trend of establishing young-professionals boards. Our study uses rich fieldwork data to provide an in-depth analysis of how a committee of young accountants (the Young Profs), embedded in the Dutch professional institute, attempts to achieve relevance in professional debates. Taking two distinct perspectives, we first study

We examine the implications of auditor education for audit quality and audit pricing. We exploit a novel institutional setting in the UK, where auditors major in many different degrees at university and signing auditors are identifiable. Using hand-collected data for a large sample of signing auditors, we establish two main findings. First, auditors whose degrees have a quantitative orientation are

Insights and technologies from neuroscience research can help accounting scholars more deeply understand how decision-makers physically and cognitively process and react to accounting information and controls. We conduct a systematic review of accounting literature to evaluate whether and how accounting scholars are incorporating neuroscience research into their work and building a field of ‘neuroaccounting

ABSTRACT We provide a comprehensive review and synthesis of behavioral experimental literature that examines persuasion in auditing. We organize our review by applying the five Components of Persuasive Communication from the Communication-Persuasion Matrix. Our synthesis identifies two primary contexts in which persuasion attempts occur in the auditing setting: (1) auditors and clients engaging in