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This paper investigates distortions in financial statements that arise from employing capital assets. Use of historical cost depreciation tends to overstate earnings because of inflation effects, which in turn misrepresents firms' capacities to expand operations or to distribute dividends. We argue that the financial statement effects of inflation can be traced to two main sources: understated depreciation, and interest expense. Depending on a firm's capital structure choices, the distortion from historical cost depreciation is heightened or mitigated. Measurement errors in accounting numbers obscure the relation between price and earnings. We develop value relevant adjustments that enhance the informativeness of earnings. We also show that the effects of measurement errors from using historical cost depreciation are most pronounced in firms that carry lower levels of debt.

Automatic classification of Web pages is an effective way to organise the vast amount of information and to assist in retrieving relevant information from the Internet. Although many automatic classification systems have been proposed, most of them ignore the conflict between the fixed number of categories and the growing number of Web pages being added into the systems. They also require searching through all existing categories to make any classification. This article proposes a dynamic and hierarchical classification system that is capable of adding new categories as required, organising the Web pages into a tree structure, and classifying Web pages by searching through only one path of the tree. The proposed single‐path search technique reduces the search complexity from θ(n) to θ(log(n)). Test results show that the system improves the accuracy of classification by 6 percent in comparison to related systems. The dynamic‐category expansion technique also achieves satisfying results for adding new categories into the system as required.

Summarizes three explanations put forward in previous research for the deviation of closed‐end fund (CEF) share prices from their net asset values and tests the theories based on market sentiment (noise trading) and market segmentation (market frictions). Analyses 1991‐1997 data on 18 UK CEFs (13 investing in the UK and 5 in the USA) to explore the pattern of cointegration and error corrected Granger causality between the fund discounts and indices which proxy for UK and US investor sentiment. Discusses the results, which support both theories for UK CEFs and show some evidence of cointegration and information transmission. Briefly considers consistency with other research and the implications of the findings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore dynamics of stock price movements of an emerging market, Bangladesh with that of USA, Japan and India.

The long‐term relationships among the markets are analyzed using the Johansen and Juselius multivariate cointegration approach. Short‐run dynamics are captured through vector error correction models. Further investigation on short‐run dynamics is carried out through impulse response analysis.

There is evidence of cointegration among the markets demonstrating that stock prices in the countries studied here share a common stochastic trend. Impulse response analysis shows that shocks to the US market do have an impact on the Bangladesh market. The evidence of Bangladesh stock market responding to shocks in the Indian market is weak. Shocks to the Japanese market do not generate a response in the Bangladesh market.

As these markets share a common stochastic trend no diversification benefit is possible from cross‐border investments. Investors could further enhance their understanding of market behaviour by comparing the observations here with those of studies that adopt technical analysis, fundamental analysis and consider financial anomalies.

The evidence of cointegration and the short run dynamic relationship help investors in making efficient investment decisions in the Bangladesh stock market.

The primary objective of the paper is to examine the short and long run price linkages between Malaysian unit trust funds and the stock market index as proxied by the Kuala Lumpur composite index (KLCI) over the period 1996‐2000.

Cointegration analyses are used to identify the long run relationship between unit trust funds and the stock market index while Granger causality tests are used to measure the short run price linkages.

Cointegration results show that the long run pricing performance of the unit trust funds differs significantly from that of the KLCI. Interestingly, the findings also reveal that two index funds are found not to be cointegrated with the stock market index. In the short run, one‐way Granger causality test shows that changes in the KLCI Granger causes changes in the unit trust funds. This suggests that fund managers are responding to the past changes in the stock market index over the short run.

The findings of non‐cointegration between passively managed funds and the KLCI are restricted to only two index funds in the sample among other actively managed funds. Since there were not enough index funds available over the study period, future research should include more index funds in the analysis.

In the short run, investors may gather information on the changes in their portfolio composition by observing the movement in the KLCI.

The paper represents the first evidence on the pricing relationships between unit trust funds and the local stock market index and the findings are important to investors in terms of their investment strategies.

Several studies focus on asymmetric impact of shocks on conventional stocks. However, only few studies explore Islamic stocks, but none has examined the asymmetric impact of shocks on Islamic stocks. This study aims to fill the gap by investigating the asymmetric impact of shocks on Islamic stocks. Specifically, it identifies the effect of good and bad news on Islamic stock market. The study also aims to examine the returns and volatility spillover effects across different Islamic markets.

To carry out the empirical analysis, the authors have applied the exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH) model on daily Islamic stock indices of 18 countries. The study covers the period from July 2009 to July 2016. The authors have started their empirical analysis by examining the time series properties and testing the presence of ARCH effects. Further, the authors have applied several post-estimation tests to ensure the robustness of the results.

The results indicate that there is significant leverage effect in Islamic stocks traded in the sampled countries. That is, negative shocks or bad news have stronger effects on Islamic stock returns’ volatility as compared to positive shocks or good news. The authors also found that there are significant mean spillover effects for the examined countries. This finding implies that increased Islamic stock returns in country have significant and positive effects in Islamic stocks’ returns in another other. Similarly, the results regarding the volatility spillover effects suggest that there are significant volatility spillover effects across all examined countries. However, the authors found both positive and negative volatility spillover effects. It should also be noted that in some cases, the authors did not find any significant volatility spillover effect.

The findings of this study have several important policy implications for both investors and policymakers. As the findings suggest that Islamic stock indices are integrated across countries both in terms of returns (mean) and risk (volatility), they are useful for investors to design well-diversified portfolios. The significant volatility spillovers suggest policymakers to design such policy that may help in reducing the adverse effects of increased volatility of Islamic stock of other/foreign countries on the Islamic stocks of the home countries. The significant evidence of the presence of leverage (asymmetric) effects suggest investors to use effective and active hedging instruments to hedge risk, particularly, in bad times.

Unlike other studies on Islamic stocks, this study takes into account the asymmetric effects of positive and negative shocks. Further, the study examines the mean and variance spillover effects for a large panel of countries having Islamic stocks. Finally, several pre- and post-estimation tests are applied to ensure the robustness of the results.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate governance characteristics impact the voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions.

This empirical research was carried out in two stages. Initially, the carbon disclosures data were sourced from the annual and stand-alone sustainability reports of Turkish non-financial companies listed on Borsa Istanbul during 2011-2015. Later, the corporate governance characteristics that influence carbon disclosures were examined using panel data regression models.

The empirical findings of this study suggested that entities with a higher number of independent directors on their boards were more likely to respond to the Carbon Disclosure Project. In addition, board nationality diversity and the existence of a sustainability committee had a significant positive impact on the propensity to disclose carbon emissions and the extent of those disclosures.

This research provides empirical evidence of the determinants of carbon emission disclosures, which could be useful for organizations and regulatory bodies. Such an understanding is crucial to specify necessary policies that will provide emission reduction practices and policies for entities. This paper fills some of the gap in the literature by concentrating on the association between corporate governance characteristics and disclosures of a more specific environmental issue, being carbon emissions.

The study aims to empirically understand individuals' tendency to disclose private information online following different forms of data breach (i.e. reversible and irreversible victimization).

Survey methodology is applied to measure the perception of victims of data breaches on key indicators of information disclosure.

Analysis of responses from 309 victims of data breaches show that while victims' irreversible data breach victimization experience influences both dimensions of privacy concerns, reversible data breach victimization experiences influenced only peer privacy concerns (PPCs). Furthermore, only institutional privacy concerns impacted online disclosure and fully mediate the relationship between victimization experience and online disclosure.

The findings contribute to the privacy literature by expanding the dimension of victimization and considering their differential effect on privacy concerns. Additionally, the study uncovers the efficacy of privacy dimension on privacy recalibration following a data breach announcement.

For practice, the results provide insights for managers on how to manage customer restitution after a data breach. Management of the process of privacy recalibration should not be homogenous but be based on degree of consequence.

This research provides deeper understanding of how the ascendancy of privacy breaches affect privacy management. The findings illuminate why the increasing trend in online activities is observed.

The study is the first to identify two dimensions of data breach victimization experience based on the breach level index (BLI). The two dimensions of victimization (i.e. reversible and irreversible privacy victimizations) were used to understand individuals' tendency to disclose private information online.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of voluntary climate change disclosures in the Turkish banking industry and explore the factors explaining the extent of such disclosures.

The research sample is based upon 24 banks that had been continuously operating in Turkey over the seven-year period from 2010 to 2016. The study uses a disclosure index to investigate the extent of voluntary climate change-related disclosures made in their annual and sustainability reports by banks. The study also investigates factors impacting the extent of disclosures by using multiple regression and fractional regression analysis.

The findings of the research reveal that while the number of banks providing voluntary information on their climate change-related practices substantially increased from 2010 to 2016, there remains a significant number of banks that have not incorporated climate change-related issues into their lending policies or corporate strategies. Further, with regard to the regression analysis, the study documents the significant and positive impacts of bank size, profitability, bank age and listing status upon the extent of the climate change disclosures, in line with political cost and legitimacy theory.

The banking sector crucially impacts climate change indirectly, since banks provide financial backing to companies operating in environmentally sensitive industries. This paper presents empirical evidence of the factors impacting the extent of climate change disclosures by these banks, which might then be referred to by regulatory bodies when developing policies to promote environmentally responsible business practices within the banking industry.

Several parties, which include governments, companies, financial institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) must work together to fight climate change. In this sense, the NGOs and green activists have a crucial role in raising public awareness about climate change, which might then inspire financial institutions to incorporate climate change-related issues into their policies, operations and strategies.

The study extends the prior literature in two ways. This study has concentrated on environmental reporting practices in the banking sector which have been investigated in very few prior studies. Since prior research has focused on developed countries, this paper adds to the current literature by examining the environmental disclosure practices of commercial banks operating in Turkey, which is a rapidly developing country.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss accounting development in Tunisia, which is a developing North African country little known in the international accounting literature.

Methodologically, this paper is based on an exploratory approach. It uses the descriptive tradition of research by collecting and analyzing numerical and narrative data to identify and describe environmental factors that favor or hamper accounting development in Tunisia.

This paper indicates that Tunisian companies have been applying the Enterprise Accounting System (EAS) since 1996. This system, while keeping with the logic of a chart of accounts, represents a first attempt to harmonize with international accounting standards. Accounting harmonization in Tunisia is meant to support the strategy, launched in the early 1990s, to integrate the country into the globalization process. Accordingly, the EAS has helped to achieve macroeconomic benefits (public interests). However, it does not lead to the desired level of financial transparency (private interests), especially that of large companies. Currently, Tunisian Accounting Standards neither reflect the rapid evolution of business activity nor changes in international accounting standards. This unachieved harmonization has led some listed companies to comply with some International Financial Reporting Standards which are not included in the EAS.

The unachieved harmonization in Tunisia is mainly related to the political system, taxation factors, the legal system, the weak state of corporate governance and governmental control over standardization.

This paper provides insights into the problems of developing countries that harmonize with international standards to achieve public interests. These countries may encounter many difficulties in bringing their accounting standards up to date. These difficulties seem to be associated with environmental specificities. Accordingly, international standardization bodies and developing country regulators should take into account environmental factors which are determinant for the harmonization decision to succeed.

This paper contributes to the existing literature on accounting development in developing countries. It implies that recent accounting development, as it is designed in Tunisia, is better suited to the needs of small businesses. Large companies would be compelled to complement local generally accepted accounting principles by standards they choose, voluntarily, among international standards.