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This study examined the characteristics of internal accounting control system based on size of human resources assigned to the system to verify whether downward stickiness of total cost and selling and administrative expenses differentially appears according to the level.An entrepreneur who wishes to maximize one's utility has an incentive to externally grow the enterprise beyond the optimal size or to possess idle resources, creating cost sticking phenomenon by possessing surplus resources even when sales volume decreases. Previous studies verified the effect of control system intended to resolve the agency problem on asymmetry of cost. This study expanded the scope of previous studies to consider internal accounting control system as a monitor of the agency problem. Enterprises that effectively operate internal accounting control system are expected to show limited opportunistic incentive of the entrepreneurs because of reduced agency cost.The main purpose for enterprises to establish and operate internal accounting control system is to provide accurate and reliable financial information to investors by preventing or uncovering accounting scandals of the management and possibility of errors. Internal accounting control system of Korea was first introduced in September 2001 through 'Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act', and Financial Supervisory Service announced the regulation on public announcement in September 2002 as a series of relevant measures. The regulation requires enterprises to publicly announce the number of workers in each department in charge of internal accounting control system on the internal accounting control system report. Under the presumption that internal accounting control can be more effectively done by increasing the number of workers in charge of internal accounting control system, the intent of such public announcement is to provide external interested parties with information that can be used to determine whether internal accounting control system of an enterprise is being effectively managed. Accordingly in this study, enterprises with large size of human resources assigned to internal accounting control system were predicted to show relaxed downward stickiness of cost.As a result of verifying 2,532 enterprise-year samples listed on Korea Stock Exchange between 2003 and 2008, enterprises with larger size of human resources assigned to internal accounting control system were found to show relaxed downward stickiness of cost. This means that an enterprise with large number of workers assigned to internal accounting control system can effectively monitor the enterprise, which can efficiently control opportunistic decisions of the entrepreneur such as downward stickiness of cost. As an additional analysis, human resources were classified into departments to which persons in charge of internal accounting are affiliated to examine the effect on downward stickiness of cost. As a result of verification, high ratio of internal accounting personnel assigned to accounting department resulted in relaxed downward stickiness of cost. Accounting departments in charge of preparing for financial statements were more effectively performing monitoring work compared to other departments.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of quality of management discussion and analysis (MD&A) disclosure on stock price crash risk. The MD&A can be seen to reflect the management's intention on public announcement and reveals directly what the management says to communicate with outside investors. A firm's high-quality MD&A implies the management's commitment to communicating with the market, not allowing the managers to have incentives to hoard unfavorable news, which if revealed to the public, may lead to downward stock price corrections, damaging corporate values. The high-quality MD&A is, thus, likely to reduce the stock price crash risk. We use a logistic regression to test whether MD&A influences crash risk using listed companies in the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE) stock market between 2010 and 2013. Findings of the empirical test show that the higher the quality of MD&A, the less likely crash risk appears, implying that the MD&A disclosed adequately can be one of the factors mitigating firm's stock price crash risk. This study has implications as it presents the MD&A disclosure as a factor influencing stock price crash risk and suggests voluntary disclosure as well as mandatory disclosure acts as a variable that explains the risk of stock price crash.

This study in the Korean context investigates the effect of book-tax conformity on the use of accruals. In a sample of 4,331 Korean firms, we divide total accruals into book-tax accruals and book-only accruals. Book-tax accruals are defined as those that affect both taxable income and reported earnings. Book-only accruals are defined as those that affect only reported earnings and are unrelated to taxable income. We anticipate that managers will decrease taxable income by recording book-tax accruals that conform relatively closely to taxable income in order to reduce their tax liability. They are expected to attempt to increase book income through book-only accruals. We also examine the market response to firms that use these two types of accruals in different ways. Our evidence demonstrates increased use of income-decreasing book-tax accruals to decrease taxable income and increased use of book-only accruals to increase financial income. Use of book-only accruals also compensates for potential costs unrelated to tax, such as financial reporting costs. In addition, our results show that the market correctly assesses the management of accruals even when the uses of book-tax and book-only accruals offset each other. Copyright by author(s); CC-BY 756The Clute InstituteThe purpose of Hypothesis 2 is to test the ability of investors to recognize accrual components correctly even when they are used in two different ways. For this purpose, the earnings response coefficient is used. In financial economics, the earnings response coefficient, or ERC, is the estimated relationship between equity returns and the unexpected portion of (i.e., new information in) companies' earnings announcements.In an efficient market, equity prices are generally expected to reflect all relevant information at a given time. Market participants with superior information are expected to exploit that information until share prices have effectively impounded it. Therefore, some changes in a company's share price are expected to result from changes in