We examine the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the financial reporting quality of US firms over 1999-2015. We use accruals-based earnings management as a proxy for financial reporting quality and the index of Baker et al. (Quart J Econ 131:1539-1636, 2016 as an EPU measure to show that they exhibit a positive and significant association. We also find a causal effect by employing three political polarization instruments for EPU. In a cross-sectional analysis, we further show that the positive relationship between EPU and earnings management strengthens for firms operating in politically sensitive industries, for firms in more financial distress, and during recessionary periods. We also provide evidence that increased financial constraints facilitate the positive relationship between EPU and earnings management. These findings are robust to the use of alternative measures of economic policy uncertainty and when we employ real earnings management as a dependent variable. These results indicate that managers aim to provide outsiders with an improved financial position of the company when EPU is high. Our findings suggest that investors, analysts, creditors, and regulators should be wary of firms' financial reporting quality in periods of high economic policy uncertainty.

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Research question:We consider trading players' trading as one of the distinctive features of football clubs' business models and how these models have been influenced since the implementation of FFPR. Considering the Italian financial and economic context in the football sector, we investigate whether Serie A football clubs adopt earnings manipulation as a result of trading players' economic rights. Research methods: The empirical analysis includes the football clubs competing in the ItalianSerie A from 2005 to 2018. Our sample consists of an unbalanced panel dataset composed of 275 club-year observations (38 different clubs). Our estimations are run by using fixed effects OLS models. Clubs' net capital income from football players' sale are used as a proxy of earning manipulation. We control for clubs' football performance, size and reputation. Results and Findings:By applying Bartov's model based on asset sales, our results confirm that the adoption of asset manipulation behaviours in the football industry wherein players' economic right sales are a preponderant financial item affecting economic performance.Specifically, net income from players' trading is significant and positively linked with Serie A clubs' profitability, while leverage is significant after the introduction of FFPR and especially for the most blazoned Serie A clubs.Implications: Our results confirm that Italian Serie A has been chronically dependent on players' trading to maintain their financial sustainability. UEFA's regulations could be assessed and modified in order to enable them to prevent and reveal the real activities and dynamics behind the player transfer market (profit smoothing behaviours).

The present study investigates the evolution of accounting history research in Italy throughout the analysis of the historical works appeared on the most important generalist accounting journal-the "Italian Accounting Review" ("Rivista Italiana di Ragioneria") (IAR). Following the studies on the patterns of the publications on the accounting history research (

This study compares the profitability of cooperatives and investor-owned firms in the Italian wine sector. From a review of the financial ratios that have traditionally been applied in previous studies, we identify the key factors that affect firm profitability (proxied by sales growth) and analyse them for the five-year period from 2008 to 2012. Italian wine cooperatives offer a particularly suitable environment in which to apply our study because they have benefitted from EU regulation and several supporting measures since 2008, allowing them to invest in infrastructure and improve efficiency in order to produce quality wine, grow their brands, and penetrate export markets. In particular, this study expands the body of knowledge on this topic by focusing on the factors that affect the profitability of cooperatives and investor-owned firms and by considering time series data. We find that the EU support measures for cooperatives have led to an increase in their financial performance since 2008. Moreover, cooperatives typically have lower liquidity levels and significantly high debt as a proportion of net equity compared with investor-owned firms. Hence, consistent with the findings in the literature, the influence of financial performance on profitability is clearly related to business type.