Managers increase the frequency and magnitude of bad news announcements during the 1-month period prior to repurchasing shares. To a lesser extent, they also increase the frequency and magnitude of ...good news announcements during the 1-month period following their repurchases. These results are consistent with Barclay and Smith's 1988. Corporate payout policy: Cash dividends versus open-market repurchases. Journal of Financial Economics 22, 61–82. conjecture that share repurchases, unlike dividends, create incentives for managers to manipulate information flows. We further show that managers provide downward-biased earnings forecasts before repurchases and that managers’ propensity to alter information flows prior to share repurchases increases with their ownership interest in the firm.
The rising incidence of obesity is a major public health issue worldwide. Recent human and animal studies suggest that parental diet can influence fetal development and is implicated with risk of ...obesity and type 2 diabetes in offspring. The hypothalamus is central to body energy homoeostasis and appetite by controlling endocrine signals. We hypothesise that offspring susceptibility to obesity is programmed in the hypothalamus in utero and mediated by changes to DNA methylation, which persist to adulthood. We investigated hypothalamic genome-wide DNA methylation in Psammomys obesus diet during pregnancy to the offspring's risk of obesity.
Using methyl-CpG binding domain capture and deep sequencing (MBD-seq), we examined the hypothalamus of offspring exposed to a low-fat diet and standard chow diet during the gestation and lactation period.
Offspring exposed to a low-fat parental diet were more obese and had increased circulating insulin and glucose levels. Methylome profiling identified 1447 genomic regions of differential methylation between offspring of parents fed a low-fat diet compared with parents on standard chow diet. Pathway analysis shows novel DNA methylation changes of hypothalamic genes associated with neurological function, nutrient sensing, appetite and energy balance. Differential DNA methylation corresponded to changes in hypothalamic gene expression of Tas1r1 and Abcc8 in the offspring exposed to low-fat parental diet.
Subject to parental low-fat diet, we observe DNA methylation changes of genes associated with obesity in offspring.
In this paper, we examine audit quality for Big 4 and Second-tier auditors during 2003–2006. We utilize the auditor’s propensity to issue a going concern audit report for distressed clients as a ...measure of audit quality. In addition, since the purpose of an audit is to improve financial reporting quality, we utilize abnormal accruals as an observable proxy for audit quality. Further, we utilize the client- and year-specific ex ante equity risk premium as a proxy for audit quality as
perceived by investors. We control for auditor self-selection bias using the matched-pairs sample approach discussed by
Francis and Lennox (2008). We find weak evidence that the Big 4 have a
higher propensity to issue going concern audit opinions for distressed companies. However, the level of performance-adjusted abnormal accruals for Big 4 and Second-tier audit firm clients appears to be similar. With respect to investor perceptions, we find the client-specific ex ante equity risk premium to be
lower for Big 4 clients than for Second-tier audit firm clients. Overall, our findings suggest little difference in
actual audit quality but a more pronounced difference in
perceived audit quality. Collectively, the evidence we provide informs the current discourse on audit quality, auditor choice, and the viability of Second-tier auditors as an alternative to the Big 4.
There were four sessions in this workshop. In the first session, Sunita Narain, Digvijay Singh and Anna Hazare made presentations. This session was chaired by A Vaidyanathan. The main objective of ...the workshop was to highlight the role of community based water management in dispelling the myth that there is water shortage and that the current water crises being experienced in various parts of the world was more due to mismanagement rather than actual water scarcity. To bring the message to the World Water Forum were a number of practitioners who had managed water by harvesting the rains by involving communities. Experiences included activists and politicians as well as the bureaucracy. The importance of evolving participatory democracy systems was explained and the role of politicians outlined.
Prior research suggests that Big 4 auditors provide higher quality audits in the U.S. in order to protect the firm's brand name reputation and to avoid costly litigation. In this study, we examine ...whether the perceived higher quality of a Big 4 audit is related to auditor litigation exposure or to reputation concerns. Specifically, we utilize an estimable proxy for financial reporting credibility-the ex ante cost of equity capital-to examine whether Big 4 auditors are perceived as providing higher quality audits (relative to non-Big 4 auditors) in the U.S., and in the less litigious (but economically similar) environments in other Anglo-American countries during the 1990-99 period. We find that a Big 4 audit is associated with a lower ex ante cost of equity capital for auditees in the U.S. but not in Australia, Canada, or the U.K. Our findings suggest that it is litigation exposure rather than brand name reputation protection that drives perceived audit quality.
Prior research predicts that firms reliant on external financing are more likely to undertake a higher level of disclosure, and a higher disclosure level should, in turn, lead to a lower cost of ...external financing. This paper tests these predictions outside the United States where alternative legal and financial systems could mitigate the effectiveness of such disclosures and, comprehensively, examines both disclosure incentives and disclosure consequences on cost of capital for a common set of firms. Using a sample from 34 countries, we find that firms in industries with greater external financing needs have higher voluntary disclosure levels, and that an expanded disclosure policy for these firms leads to a lower cost of both debt and equity capital. Cross-country differences in legal and financial systems affect observed disclosure levels in predicted ways. However, a surprising result in the study is that voluntary disclosure incentives appear to operate independently of country-level factors, which suggests the effectiveness of voluntary disclosure in gaining access to lower cost external financing around the world.
Highlights • Post-partum venous thrombosis prophylaxis is an important and under studied area • Recruitment of women in post-partum venous thrombosis prophylaxis trials is challenging and limits ...feasibility of these trials • Post-partum low molecular weight heparin may cause clinically relevant bleeding
