In this study, we examine the relationship between a firm's lobbying activities and financial reporting quality using a U.S. setting where public scrutiny of corporate political activities is high. More importantly, we examine whether and how a firm's visibility shapes the relationship between its corporate lobbying activities and accounting conservatism. Adopting annual lobbying expenditure data to measure firms' lobbying activities, and using a propensity-score-matching methodology to control for differences in firm characteristics between lobbying and non-lobbying firms, we find a positive relationship between a firm's lobbying intensity and the degree of accounting conservatism in its financial reporting. We further find such positive relationship to be more pronounced in lobbying firms with a higher level of visibility. These results are robust after controlling for a firm's political connections, across various conditional conservatism measures, and across a number of visibility measures including firm size, the number of analysts following the firm, the age of the firm, the number of foreign stock exchanges that the firm is cross-listed in, and the level of the firm's media coverage. Together, our findings add to the literature on how firms' political activities shape their accounting practices in general, and accounting conservatism in particular. More importantly, our findings suggest that the heightened public attention paid to political activities in the U.S. yields incentives for firms to be more conservative in their accounting practices.

Firms engage in lobbying activities to shape and achieve their strategic goals. Using corporate lobbying spending data for the years between 2000 and 2004, I examine the association between corporate lobbying activities and accounting conservatism. Firms that lobby intensely are more likely to be subject to public and Congressional scrutiny. As such, I hypothesize and find that corporate lobbying activity is positively associated with accounting conservatism after controlling for the demand for accounting conservatism documented in prior studies; i.e., contracting, litigation, tax, and regulatory demands. In addition, I show that the positive association between lobbying and accounting conservatism is more pronounced for firms with high media exposure, firms operating in states with high levels of lobbying regulations, and firms that hire high-profile professional lobbying firms. Results of this study are consistent with the political cost hypothesis and support the argument that firms engaged in lobbying activities use accounting conservatism to mitigate political costs arising from the increased likelihood of public and Congressional scrutiny.

Explore the interplay between corporate governance and strategic decision-making in this startling new resource In Understanding and Managing Strategic Governance, strategy and management experts Dr. Wei Shi and Robert E. Hoskisson deliver an insightful exploration of the influence that governance actors, like the board of directors, activist investors, institutional investors, and securities analysts, have on important strategic decisions. Based on surveying the latest research and analyzing unique datasets compiled by the authors, the book explains the impact that governance actors have on a firm’s strategic choices and the quality of such choices as well as the unintended consequences of that impact. The authors also describe how executives can manage the conflicting interests of multiple governance actors and leverage the influence of these actors to make effective strategic decisions. In this book, you’ll discover: How to avoid the strategic pitfalls that arise from governance actor influence and harm firms’ long-term competitiveness The effect that governance actors can have on corporate strategy, competitive strategy, corporate innovation strategy, global strategy, stakeholder strategy, and more The latest trends in corporate governance and their implications for managers, regulators, and policy makers in this area Perfect for C-level executives, board of directors, and institutional investors as well as students of corporate governance and strategy, Understanding and Managing Strategic Governance is a revealing and original examination of the interplay between corporate governance and firm strategy and how to manage that interplay to create sustainable competitive advantages.

Transparency in government operations is widely regarded as an important precondition for macroeconomic fiscal sustainability, good governance, and overall fiscal rectitude. Notably, the Interim Committee, at its April and September 1996 meetings, stressed the need for greater fiscal transparency. Prompted by these concerns, this paper represents a first attempt to address many of the aspects of transparency in government operations. It provides an overview of major issues in fiscal transparency and examines the IMF's role in promoting transparency in government operations.

Such diverse thinkers as Lao-Tze, Confucius, and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have all pointed out that we need to be able to tell the difference between real and assumed knowledge. The systematic review is a scientific tool that can help with this difficult task. It can help, for example, with appraising, summarising, and communicating the results and implications of otherwise unmanageable quantities of data. This book, written by two highly-respected social scientists, provides an overview of systematic literature review methods: Outlining the rationale and methods of systematic reviews; Giving worked examples from social science and other fields; Applying the practice to all social science disciplines; It requires no previous knowledge, but takes the reader through the process stage by stage; Drawing on examples from such diverse fields as psychology, criminology, education, transport, social welfare, public health, and housing and urban policy, among others. Including detailed sections on assessing the quality of both quantitative, and qualitative research; searching for evidence in the social sciences; meta-analytic and other methods of evidence synthesis; publication bias; heterogeneity; and approaches to dissemination.

The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.