Money shouts! How effective are punishments for accounting fraud?

Yang Wang, John Ashton () and Aziz Jaafar ()

The British Accounting Review, 2019, vol. 51, issue 5

Abstract: This study examines the impact of different punishments for Chinese accounting fraud on shareholder valuation of firms between 2007 and 2016. From an examination of both monetary and non-monetary ‘name and shame’ penalties, it is reported all punishments have a negative and significant impact on the shareholder wealth of fraudulent firms. Investors perceive punishments involving monetary penalties far more severely than non-monetary punishments used to combat accounting fraud. Stock market reactions are also sensitive to the type of fraud committed with manipulation of recognition and disclosure fraud viewed more negatively by investors than fraud related to disclosure. Information leakage to capital markets prior to the announcement of punishments is also observed. It is proposed fines have been relatively more effective, than ‘name and shame’ punishments in addressing Chinese accounting fraud during the last decade, due not least to information leakage.

Keywords: Accounting fraud; Event study; Information leakage; Punishment; Stock market reaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G3 K2 K4 M40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bracre:v:51:y:2019:i:5:s0890838919300307

DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2019.02.006

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