2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The Effect of Controlling Shareholders on the Properties of Earnings

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23730448
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Accounting
Research Institution	Seijo University (2012-2013) Nagoya University of Commerce & Business (2011)
Principal Investigator	AOKI Yasuharu 成城大学, 経済学部, 准教授 (50553137)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	支配株主 / コーポレートガバナンス / 利益情報の有用性 / 保守主義 / 配当政策
Research Abstract	This research examines the effect of controlling shareholders on (1) earnings informativeness, (2) accounting conservatism, and (3) dividend policy. The first study suggests that earnings informativeness is positively associated with ownership by the largest shareholder on the whole, but an inverted U-shaped relationship is observed for the firms whose largest shareholder is an outsider. The second paper reveals a negative relationship between ownership by the largest shareholder and accounting conservatism, whose strength increases with the existence of director overlap and the relative size of the investee firm to the largest shareholder firm. The third paper finds that the level of dividend payments and the relationship between ownership concentration and dividends depend on whether the largest shareholder is a company manager or another corporation.