This study examines the relationship between firm-level political connections and stock price crash risk in Indonesia. It employs the difference-in-difference design to deal with the self-selection bias issue regarding the choice of the firms to become a politically connected firm. We use the sudden resignation of the former President of Indonesia, Suharto, to show that politically connected firms are associated with lower stock price crash risk and that the risk for these politically connected firms increased after Suharto resigned. Furthermore, we found evidence that these negative associations are more pronounced in firms with more complex firm structures.

This study analyzes the relationship between the pessimistic tone in earnings announcements and CSR disclosures interacted by CEO busyness. This study used 191 observations from 74 firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) database from 2016–2019. Grounded in signaling theory, we hypothesize that a pessimistic tone in earning announcements will increase CSR disclosure. We also hypothesize that busy CEOs strengthen this relationship. We use the ordinary least squares to analyze and answer our hypotheses. This study showed that the use of a pessimistic tone in the income statement in the discussion report and management analysis (MD&A) is related positively and significantly to CSR disclosure. This study also found that busy CEOs strengthen those relationships. Our implication is that CSR disclosure in our sample is only measured based on the information presented in the sustainability report. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the relationship between the pessimistic tone in earning announcements and CSR disclosures interacted by CEO busyness. In addition, this study provides insight into current performance disclosure practices in MD&A reports and CSR reports that managers can use to safeguard the firm’s reputation.

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The interpretation of stock price synchronicity in relation to price informativeness is controversial in the literature. We examine how firm‐specific variation relates to the quality of a firm's information environment by considering two auditor characteristics—audit firm size and audit firm tenure. Using a sample of U.S. listed firms from 2000 to 2018, we find that Big N audits and longer audit firm tenure are associated with higher stock price synchronicity and lower idiosyncratic risk. Our findings suggest that firm‐specific variation captures noise rather than firm‐specific news, supporting the emerging view that stock price synchronicity is a direct measure of price informativeness.

Firms pay their fair share of taxes because they want to be perceived as good corporate citizens. However, managers might engage in tax-avoiding activities if such activities are value-maximizing. Using firms in China, this study focuses on the relation between social trust and corporate practice of tax avoidance for the period 2012 to 2016. It investigates whether firms with headquarters in societies with higher level of social trust are less likely to engage in tax-avoiding activities. It also investigates whether this negative relation is more pronounced for firms in industries that are less competitive. Results show that firms located in provinces with higher social trust level engage less in tax-avoiding activities, and the negative relation is more pronounced for firms in industries that are less competitive. Since corporate tax avoidance leads to significant loss of tax revenues, tax authorities in China should engage the services of forensic accountants to identify those corporations that practice aggressive tax avoidance. Furthermore, China needs to provide more forensic accounting training for practicing accountants and auditors. Educational institutions need to offer more forensic accounting courses in order to fill the gap between forensic accounting practices and education.