Cooking the books : recipes and costs of falsified financial statements in China

Michael Arthur FIRTH; Oliver Meng RUI; Wenfeng WU

doi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2010.09.002

Cooking the books : recipes and costs of falsified financial statements in China

Michael Arthur FIRTH
, Oliver Meng RUI
, Wenfeng WU

Department of Finance and Insurance

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

183 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine the causes and consequences of falsified financial statements in China. Using bivariate probit regression analysis, we find that firms with high debt and that plan to make equity issues are more likely to manipulate their earnings and thus have to restate their financial reports in subsequent years. We also find that corporate governance structures have an effect on the occurrence and detection of financial fraud. There are significant negative consequences to fraudulent financial statements. Restating firms suffer negative abnormal stock returns, increases in their cost of capital, wider bid-ask spreads, a greater frequency of modified audit opinions, and greater CEO turnover. We also find that firms located in highly developed regions suffer more severe consequences when they manipulate their accounts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	371-390
Number of pages	20
Journal	Journal of Corporate Finance
Volume	17
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2010.09.002
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2011

Funding

We thank the editors and the reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of the paper. We also thank Gordon Richardson and workshop participants at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University, Lingnan University, and The Journal of Corporate Finance Special Conference on Emerging Markets for helpful comments on the paper. Michael Firth and Oliver Rui acknowledge financial support from a Hong Kong SAR Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (LU340307). Oliver Rui also acknowledges financial support from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (projects 2070410 , 6902327 , and 6902456) and Wenfeng Wu acknowledges financial support from the National Science Fund Committee of China (Project Number 70672074) and the Shanghai Pujiang Program.

Keywords

Causes and consequences of restatements
Corporate governance
Financial restatements
Fraud
Regional development

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10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2010.09.002

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abstract = "We examine the causes and consequences of falsified financial statements in China. Using bivariate probit regression analysis, we find that firms with high debt and that plan to make equity issues are more likely to manipulate their earnings and thus have to restate their financial reports in subsequent years. We also find that corporate governance structures have an effect on the occurrence and detection of financial fraud. There are significant negative consequences to fraudulent financial statements. Restating firms suffer negative abnormal stock returns, increases in their cost of capital, wider bid-ask spreads, a greater frequency of modified audit opinions, and greater CEO turnover. We also find that firms located in highly developed regions suffer more severe consequences when they manipulate their accounts.",

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AB - We examine the causes and consequences of falsified financial statements in China. Using bivariate probit regression analysis, we find that firms with high debt and that plan to make equity issues are more likely to manipulate their earnings and thus have to restate their financial reports in subsequent years. We also find that corporate governance structures have an effect on the occurrence and detection of financial fraud. There are significant negative consequences to fraudulent financial statements. Restating firms suffer negative abnormal stock returns, increases in their cost of capital, wider bid-ask spreads, a greater frequency of modified audit opinions, and greater CEO turnover. We also find that firms located in highly developed regions suffer more severe consequences when they manipulate their accounts.

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JF - Journal of Corporate Finance

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Cooking the books : recipes and costs of falsified financial statements in China

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