Manuscript Type Empirical Research Question/Issue Focusing on an environment where ownership concentration is prevalent and where the presence of politically connected directors on the board is the natural form of political connection, we analyze the effect of political connections on earnings informativeness. We also examine a question that has not been considered in previous research, namely, the impact of the level of divergence between the dominant owner's voting and cash flow rights on earnings informativeness for politically connected firms. Research Findings/Insights We find that the presence of politicians on the board negatively affects earnings informativeness. We also find a positive impact of the divergence between the dominant owner's voting and cash flow rights on the informativeness of accounting earnings in politically connected firms. Theoretical/Academic Implications We show that the relationship between political ties and earnings informativeness is explained by an information effect, whereby politicians and shareholders are interested in providing as little information to the market as possible in order to protect political ties from public scrutiny and prevent the leakage of competitive advantages to competitors. Additionally, we show that the positive effect of divergence between the dominant owner's voting and cash flow rights on earnings informativeness in firms that belong to a pyramid is explained both by an alignment effect, whereby political connections promote transparency, as well as by a stewardship effect, whereby the ultimate owner of the pyramid, acting as a steward, places politicians on the board to increase the firm's reputation and reports earnings in good faith. Practitioner/Policy Implications The results of our study may be useful to regulators interested in increasing transparency in order to promote a more efficient allocation of resources. In particular, the results suggest that in countries where recent reforms aim to improve investor protection and market confidence, regulators should encourage the disclosure of firm political ties. The results of our study may also be useful to investors, financial analysts and auditors, as they highlight the importance of considering specific features of the corporate governance system when assessing the credibility of accounting information.

We examine RPTs in one Continental European country, Spain, where ownership concentration is prevalent and state ownership is practically non-existent. Our results show that more than half of listed Spanish firms commit to RPTs over the analyzed period. Furthermore, from the perspective of the related party to the transaction, connected transactions between listed Spanish firms and their blockholders account for 99.84% of the total RPTs carried out by listed Spanish firms. Finally, our findings reveal that financial, operating and investment dimensions of RPTs negatively affect firm value due to the presence of an expropriation effect whereby RPTs are driven by insiders’ opportunism, regardless of the dimension (financial, operating and investment) affected by the existence of RPTs. Thus, in a context where the main concern of corporate governance is the potential expropriation of minority shareholders by controlling owners, RPTs require special regulator's attention in order to improve investor protection and market confidence to promote a more efficient allocation of resources.

The goal of this study is to analyze the incidence of dominant owners in the probability of the presence of political directors and the effect of said presence on firm value. The study uses a sample of non-financial Spanish companies listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange over the period 2003–2012. The results show that around half of the firms have at least one ex-politician on their board of directors. Furthermore, the results indicate that dominant shareholders’ voting rights and family nature have a negative effect on the likelihood of having ex-politicians on the board of directors. Moreover, the results show that the presence of political connections positively affects firm value. Further analyses show that this relationship is dependent upon the nature of the dominant owner, the use of pyramidal structures, the tenure of board members and the political directors’ ownership stake.

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In this paper we analyze whether the extent of timely recognition of unrealized losses into earnings shown by firms with a controlling owner depends on (1) the ownership share of the controlling owner and (2) the divergence between the controlling owner's voting and cash flow rights. Our results document a negative relation between both aspects of the ultimate ownership structure and timely loss recognition. Our results are consistent with two possible explanations. First, as the controlling owner's stake in the company increases, a smaller portion of the firm's financing needs will be provided by minority shareholders. Minority shareholders do not have access to the company's private information, but demand timely recognition of losses into earnings to protect their claim. Reducing the role of minority shareholders implies also lower demand for timely loss recognition. Second, the results are consistent with an increase in the ownership stake of the controlling owner or in the divergence between the controlling owner's voting and cash flow rights leading to an increase in managerial incentives to share information with the controlling shareholder, reducing the demand for timely loss recognition for monitoring purposes.