学术前沿讲座-What factors may influence the financial report readability?

报告题目

What factors may influence the financial report readability?

报告人

(单位)

Ruixue Du

（ University of Wisconsin Stevens Point）

点评人（单位）

吴芃

（东南大学）

时间地点

时间：2019年6月17日（周一）   上午10点

地点：九龙湖经管楼B201

报告内容摘要

报告内容：

Recent studies in accounting have identified some influencing factors on readability, such as firm-level factors and managerial-level factors. Most of the studies testing managerial-level factors focus on managerial pay incentives or career concerns and make arguments under the framework of agency theory. Upper echelons theory, on the other hand, suggests that managers’ demographic factors may be used to capture their cognitive values, and have impact on corporate strategies and outcomes. This study investigates how the CEO/CFO’s formal education in business is associated with firm’s annual report readability. Using a sample of historical S&P 1500 CEOs and CFOs, we find that the CEO (CFO) with a business degree is associated with better (worse) readability of annual reports and the positive (negative) relation is strengthened (moderated) by corporate governance and analyst following. Furthermore, we explore the interaction between CEO’s and CFO’s education background and provide additional evidence for the conflict of interest between CEOs and CFOs on corporate governance. Our findings suggest business education, although has no direct impact on financial reporting quality, is beneficial to CEOs for strengthening their monitoring role in firm’s financial reporting activities. Also, we consider that the ethical topics in business education can enhance financial executives’ awareness to conduct practice under the ethical codes.

报告人简介：

Ruixue Du is currently an Associate Professor of Accounting at University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (UWSP). She graduated from Nankai University with a bachelor’s degree in Finance. Then she went to United States to pursuit her master’s and doctorate degrees at Virginia Tech. She has been actively conducting research in financial reporting, intangible assets valuation, auditing, as well as accounting education. She has published in Review of Economics & Finance, Journal of Accounting and Financial Reporting, Journal of Accounting and Finance, Journal of Accounting and Free Enterprise, etc. She has taught introductory financial accounting, intermediate financial accounting, managerial accounting and strategic management cap stone courses.