TY - GEN AU - Beyer, Bianca AU - Flagmeier, Vanessa AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37070 TI - Does private firms’ disclosure affect public peers’ information environment? ER - TY - GEN AB - This paper introduces a novel database on the European corporate bond market to analyze the role of transparency regulation and recent developments in bond markets. We use data from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to build a comprehensive database covering daily corporate bond listing information in Europe starting in 2018. We then analyze the different market segments of the European bond market along four key areas: (i) time and cross-sectional trends in bond listings; (ii) composition of firms on the market; (iii) firms’ financial reporting transparency; (iv) bond contract terms. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of recent economic events on these key areas. AU - Franke, Benedikt AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Stoczek, Pia ID - 37131 KW - Transparency regulation KW - Corporate bond KW - European market TI - Current developments in the European corporate bond market ER - TY - GEN AB - We examine variation in mandatory CSR reporting practices based on a large sample of non-publicly listed savings banks in Germany. They do not have typical shareholders but rather are established by municipal trustees and can serve clients only in their distinct operating area. This setting permits us to identify demand for CSR information by their main stakeholder groups – municipal trustees and private and corporate clients. In this way, our analysis focuses on the double-materiality approach to CSR reporting. We find that demand for CSR information by supervisory board chairperson belonging to a left-wing or green party and the presence of more supervisory board members belonging to a left-wing or green party are associated with longer CSR reports and more disclosure on environmental, social, employee and human rights matters. In addition, competition for private clients and the sustainability orientation of corporate clients are associated with longer reports and more disclosure on environmental, employee and human rights matters. These findings suggest that savings banks’ CSR reports cater to their principal stakeholders’ demand for CSR information. AU - Gulenko, Maryna AU - Kohlhase, Saskia AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37088 KW - Corporate social responsibility KW - Mandatory reporting KW - Non-publicly listed banks KW - Double materiality KW - Stakeholder groups KW - Political influence TI - CSR Reporting under the Non-Financial Reporting Directive: Evidence from Non-publicly Listed Firms ER - TY - GEN AB - This research note links the legal framework of the insolvency process of German firms to the information available in the newly-constructed insol database. In particular, the database contains information from documents published by German insolvency courts in period 2005- 2022. This research note first presents the insolvency process with steps and events of the process as determined by the Insolvency Law (InsO). Next, it classifies the documents to specific steps and events, and then presents their information content using textual analysis. Specifically, we identify target phrases via manual document checks and then create regular expressions for the target phrases. Classification of documents allows us to sketch most common paths that insolvent firms go through. AU - Ahlers, Theresa AU - Edossa, Fikir Worku AU - Uckert, Matthias AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37089 KW - insol database KW - insolvency process KW - Germany KW - court fillings TI - Insolvcency Process in Germany and the insol database: A research Note ER - TY - GEN AB - This study examines the relation between voluntary audit and the cost of debt in private firms. We use a sample of 4,058 small private firms operating in the period 2006‐2017 that are not subject to mandatory audits. Firms decide for a voluntary audit of financial statements either because the economic setting in which they operate effectively forces them to do so (e.g., ownership complexity, export‐oriented supply chain, subsidiary status) or because firm fundamentals and/or financial reporting practices limit their access to financial debt, both reflected in earnings quality. We use these factors to model the decision for voluntary audit. In the outcome analyses, we find robust evidence that voluntary audits are associated with higher, rather than lower, interest rate by up to 3.0 percentage points. This effect is present regardless of the perceived audit quality (Big‐4 vs. non‐Big‐4), but is stronger for non‐Big‐4 audits where auditees have a stronger position relative to auditors. Audited firms’ earnings are less informative about future operating performance relative to unaudited counterparts. We conclude that voluntary audits facilitate access to financial debt for firms with higher risk that may otherwise have no access to this form of financing. The price paid is reflected in higher interest rates charged to firms with voluntary audits – firms with higher information and/or fundamental risk. AU - Ichev, Riste AU - Koren, Jernej AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Sitar Sustar, Katarina AU - Valentincic, Aljosa ID - 37136 KW - private firms KW - voluntary audit KW - cost of debt KW - self‐selection bias KW - risk TI - Cost of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection of Risk ER - TY - JOUR AB - We study the historical development of Slovenian Accounting Standards (SAS) and their association with accounting quality (AQ). We focus on private firms where the financial reporting process is characterised by low demand for high-quality reporting. We investigate three distinct editions of SAS since 1994 and test how their development towards international standards is related to AQ. Aggregate earnings management measures indicate that the use of accounting discretion decreases with less earnings smoothing over time. The main features of AQ have been consistent throughout historical development. Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, the ability of earnings to predict future cash flows, and the ability of accruals to mitigate mismatching are all present throughout. We also document typical departures from properties of high AQ. For example, accruals do not (always) facilitate timely recognition of losses. However, these can be attributed to the overwhelming influence of reporting incentives (e.g. taxation, debt, size) rather than to the (lower) quality of accounting standards.  Full Article  Figures & data References  Citations Metrics  Reprints & Permissions  PDF Abstract We study the historical development of Slovenian Accounting Standards (SAS) and their association with accounting quality (AQ). We focus on private firms where the financial reporting process is characterised by low demand for high-quality reporting. We investigate three distinct editions of SAS since 1994 and test how their development towards international standards is related to AQ. Aggregate earnings management measures indicate that the use of accounting discretion decreases with less earnings smoothing over time. The main features of AQ have been consistent throughout historical development. Asymmetric timeliness of earnings, the ability of earnings to predict future cash flows, and the ability of accruals to mitigate mismatching are all present throughout. We also document typical departures from properties of high AQ. For example, accruals do not (always) facilitate timely recognition of losses. However, these can be attributed to the overwhelming influence of reporting incentives (e.g. taxation, debt, size) rather than to the (lower) quality of accounting standards. AU - Valentincic, Aljosa AU - Novak, Ales AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 3542 IS - 3 JF - Accounting in Europe KW - private firms KW - accounting quality KW - development of accounting standards KW - IFRS-like standards KW - Slovenia TI - Accounting quality in private firms during the transition towards international standards VL - 14 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We examine whether the credit relevance of financial statements, defined as the ability of accounting numbers to explain credit ratings, is higher after firms are required to report under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find an improvement in credit relevance for firms in 17 countries after mandatory IFRS reporting is introduced in 2005; this increase is higher than that reported for a matched sample of US firms. The increase in credit relevance is particularly pronounced for higher risk speculative-grade issuers, where accounting information is predicted to be more important; and for IFRS adopters with large first-time reconciliations, where the impact of IFRS is expected to be greater. These tests provide reassurance that the overall enhancement in estimated credit relevance is driven by accounting changes related to IFRS adoption. Our results suggest that credit rating analysts’ views of economic fundamentals are more closely aligned with IFRS numbers, and that analysts anticipate at least some of the effects of the IFRS transition. AU - Florou, Annita AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Pope, Peter F ID - 4034 IS - 1 JF - Accounting and Business Research KW - IFRS KW - debt markets KW - credit ratings KW - credit relevance TI - Are international accounting standards more credit relevant than domestic standards? VL - 47 ER - TY - CONF AU - Valentincic, Aljosa AU - Novak, Ales AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37098 TI - Accounting quality in private firms during the transition to international standards ER - TY - JOUR AB - We examine whether the mandated introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is associated with the propensity to access the public rather than private debt market and the cost of debt. We use a global sample of public bonds and private loans and find that mandatory IFRS adopters are more likely, post-IFRS, to issue bonds than to borrow privately. We also find that mandatory IFRS adopters pay lower bond yield spreads, but not lower loan spreads, after the mandate. These findings are consistent with debt providers responding positively to financial reporting of higher quality and comparability, but only when there is a greater reliance on publicly available financial statements than private communication. Lastly, we document that the observed debt market benefits are concentrated in countries with larger differences between domestic GAAP and IFRS and are present even for EU countries that did not experience concurrent financial reporting enforcement or other institutional reforms. Overall, our study documents positive economic consequences around the mandated IFRS adoption for corporate debt financing and, in particular, for bond financing. AU - Florou, Annita AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 4035 IS - 4 JF - Review of Accounting Studies KW - Accounting regulation KW - IFRS KW - Accounting quality KW - Public and private debt markets KW - Cost of debt TI - Does mandatory IFRS adoption facilitate debt financing? VL - 20 ER - TY - CONF AU - Florou, Annita AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37107 TI - Does mandatory IFRS adoption facilitate debt financing? ER - TY - GEN AU - Koren, Jernej AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Valentincic, Aljosa ID - 37090 TI - Cost of Debt for Private Firms Revisited: Voluntary Audits as a Reflection of Risk ER - TY - JOUR AB - This study examines the determinants of financial firms' lobbying behaviour in the replacement process of International Financial Reporting Standard 4 (IFRS 4) Insurance Contracts. Based on comment letters in response to International Accounting Standards Board's (IASB) Exposure Draft 2010/8, we investigate firms' lobbying decisions and their long-term lobbying intensity. Using an international sample of publicly listed financial firms, we show that insurance companies and financially constrained IFRS firms are more likely to lobby the IASB. We also examine the long-term lobbying activity in the IFRS 4 replacement process during the years 2007–2010. We find that insurance companies and firms with dispersed ownership lobby more. Our results are stronger for IFRS firms compared to US generally accepted accounting principles users. Overall, we document intense lobbying by financial firms and present results that are largely consistent with economic consequences of anticipated accounting changes being the main driver of firms' lobbying behaviour. These results are in line with prior findings for non-financial firms. AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Reither, Antonia ID - 4037 IS - 1 JF - Accounting in Europe KW - standard setting KW - IASB KW - corporate lobbying KW - financial firms KW - IFRS 4 TI - Determinants of corporate participation in the IFRS 4 (insurance contracts) replacement process VL - 11 ER - TY - JOUR AB - This study examines the effect of audit on private firms’ cost of debt. We use a sample of 1,949 small private firms operating in the period 2006-2010 with optional financial statement audit. High quality data allows us to construct a more precise interest rate measure than existing studies employ. After controlling for obvious sources of demand for voluntary audits (ownership complexity, subsidiary status, bank relations), we find a robust central result that voluntary audits increase rather than decrease the cost of debt financing, contrary to several existing studies. This finding indicates that voluntary audits are generally treated as “adopting a label” and penalised by creditors, regardless of the perceived auditor quality as a result of the lemon problem in the audit market. Even Big-4 audits increase the cost of debt, likely as a result due to the lemon problem in the audit market, although the increase is smaller than for non-Big-4 audits. The results are sensitive to the estimation method used (OLS, Heckman’s two-step, PSM) and (sub-)sample selection. We show that disregarding the underlying assumptions of these estimation methods may lead to incorrect inferences. Additional analyses show that audited firms’ reported earnings are less informative about future operating performance than earnings of their unaudited counterparts. Our results also indicate that results are sensitive to cost of debt definition and this might have affected the results reported in the existing literature. AU - Koren, Jernej AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Valentincic, Aljosa ID - 4879 JF - SSRN Electronic Journal TI - Does Financial Statement Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt of Private Firms? ER - TY - CONF AB - This study examines the effect of audit on private firms’ cost of debt. We use a sample of 1,949 small private firms operating in the period 2006-2010 with optional financial statement audit. High quality data allows us to construct a more precise interest rate measure than existing studies employ. After controlling for obvious sources of demand for voluntary audits (ownership complexity, subsidiary status, bank relations), we find a robust central result that voluntary audits increase rather than decrease the cost of debt financing, contrary to several existing studies. This finding indicates that voluntary audits are generally treated as “adopting a label” and penalised by creditors, regardless of the perceived auditor quality as a result of the lemon problem in the audit market. Even Big-4 audits increase the cost of debt, likely as a result due to the lemon problem in the audit market, although the increase is smaller than for non-Big-4 audits. The results are sensitive to the estimation method used (OLS, Heckman’s two-step, PSM) and (sub-)sample selection. We show that disregarding the underlying assumptions of these estimation methods may lead to incorrect inferences. Additional analyses show that audited firms’ reported earnings are less informative about future operating performance than earnings of their unaudited counterparts. Our results also indicate that results are sensitive to cost of debt definition and this might have affected the results reported in the existing literature. AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Koren, Jerney AU - Valentincic, Aljosa ID - 37109 KW - private firms KW - voluntary audit KW - cost of debt KW - self-selection bias KW - lemon problem TI - Does Financial Statement Audit Reduce the Cost of Debt of Private Firms? ER - TY - CONF AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Florou, Annita AU - Pope, Peter F. ID - 37115 TI - Does Mandatory IFRS Adoption Improve the Credit Relevance of Accounting Information? ER - TY - JOUR AB - Private firms are likely to use the financial reporting process more for other objectives, such as tax savings, than for communicating performance. However, observing firms choosing accounting policies for tax-minimisation purposes is not straightforward due to (i) tax and non-tax costs of reporting lower income (ii) accounting policies that result in lower reported income and no tax savings but generate non-tax benefits (iii) preparers' multiple incentives and (iv) econometric issues. We observe a large sample of 20,505 private firms writing off assets in two separate regimes, one that generates tax savings and one that does not. Firms significantly decrease, but continue to use, write-offs after the adverse change in tax treatment of write-offs. The exogenous tax change should not affect other reporting incentives. This allows us to disentangle the tax-minimisation incentive from other (un-observable) incentives, including debt contracting, dividends and employee relations that contribute to the observed anomalous positive relationship between write-offs and profitability. We show that for private firms (i) obtaining tax savings is important overall (ii) non-tax costs and benefits are probably also important and (iii) earnings informativeness for future cash flows increases after the adverse tax legislation change. AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Valentincic, Aljosa ID - 3549 IS - 1 JF - European Accounting Review TI - Write-offs and profitability in private firms: Disentangling the impact of tax-minimisation incentives VL - 22 ER - TY - CONF AU - Florou, Annita AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37110 TI - Does mandatory IFRS adoption facilitate debt financing? ER - TY - GEN AU - Kosi, Urska ID - 37135 IS - 4 T2 - The International Journal of Accounting TI - International corporate reporting: A comparative approach, by Clare Roberts, Pauline Weetman and Paul Gordon (fourth edition) VL - 44 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Using a large sample of small private companies, we show incremental influence ofeconomic incentives over prescriptions from accounting standards by financial statementpreparers in a code‐law setting with high alignment between financial and tax reportingand no agency problems. Contrary to predictions from standards, more profitable companiesare more likely to write‐off and the write‐off magnitude is greater, reflecting taxminimisation. Larger companies are more likely to write‐off, but the magnitude decreaseswith size, reflecting increasing political costs due to greater visibility to taxauthorities. Previous write‐off patterns and magnitudes are persistent, reflectinginstitutional learning linked to regulatory changes. AU - Garrod, Neil AU - Kosi, Urska AU - Valentincic, Aljosa ID - 3546 IS - 3-4 JF - Journal of Business Finance and Accounting TI - Asset Write-Offs in the Absence of Agency Problems VL - 35 ER - TY - CHAP AU - Tekavic, Metka AU - Peljhan, Darja AU - Kosi, Urska ED - Sevic, Zeljko ID - 37123 T2 - Accounting and Finance in Transition TI - Advances in performance measurement: evidence from Slovenian companies ER -