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Article
Publication date: 3 October 2016

Cecília Rendeiro Carmo, José António Cardoso Moreira and Maria Cristina Souto Miranda

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt for private companies in a “code-law” country (Ball et al., 2000). The analysis…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt for private companies in a “code-law” country (Ball et al., 2000). The analysis controls for company size, debt level and audited information.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the ordinary least squares regression technique to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt.

Findings

The collected empirical evidence shows a negative relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt and controls for company size and debt level. Such a relationship is stronger when the company information is audited.

Research limitations/implications

Similar to other studies, this paper has two main limitations. There was no access to specific data on the interest rates charged on bank loans, implying that the cost of debt is measured by the ratio of the interest expense to interest-bearing debt. The research only uses earnings quality measures based on abnormal accruals.

Practical implications

The collected evidence suggests that earnings quality have economic consequences for private companies by affecting their cost of debt, similar to those observed in previous studies for listed companies. This evidence can be seen as an incentive for private companies to increase their financial information quality. For debt providers, namely, financial institutions, the findings can be of interest to help them price properly the loans they make available to private companies. In general, the findings of this research can be of interest for company managers and financial institutions in countries with an institutional environment similar to that of Portugal.

Originality/value

The relation between earnings quality and the cost of debt has been so far studied for listed companies in “common law” countries. This paper provides new and complementary evidence about such relation for private companies and “code-law” country.

Details

Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1985-2517

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Article
Publication date: 5 May 2022

Juan Felipe Duque

This paper aims to analyze how the legitimacy of the policy of external quality assurance (EQA) in Colombian higher education has evolved over the past 30 years through an…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze how the legitimacy of the policy of external quality assurance (EQA) in Colombian higher education has evolved over the past 30 years through an examination of its two main instruments: the compulsory control of minimum quality standards for academic programs and institutions (registro calificado) and accreditations of excellence for programs and institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the methodology of process-tracing, this paper offers a review of the main sequences of the policy of EQA in Colombian higher education: the origins (1990–1998), the expansion (1998–2011) and the contestation (2011–2021). In each sequence, the sources of the substantive and procedural legitimacy of the policy are analyzed. This analysis is based on qualitative data comprising semi-structured interviews with key informants, online information from the 2011 and 2018 student protests and official documentation.

Findings

The policy of EQA in Colombian higher education had relatively high levels of substantive and procedural legitimacy during the first two sequences. However, the situation has become more ambivalent since 2011. On the one hand, internal contradictions and student movements’ growing criticism of neoliberal policies have undermined some of the foundations of this policy. On the other hand, higher education institutions and the Colombian Government still have a positive perception of EQA and have recently revisited the policy to address some of its shortcomings.

Originality/value

From a conceptual standpoint, this paper advances our understanding of how quality assurance in higher education gains, sustains or loses legitimacy by discussing and testing typologies of legitimacy in the analysis of a national system of EQA. From an empirical perspective, this paper provides a diachronic analysis of EQA in Colombian higher education, a case that has primarily been studied through a technical-rational perspective.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 30 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0968-4883

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