David M. Power

• BComm MSc (Econ) PhD
• Professor at University of Dundee

One of the biggest changes to financial reporting within the European Union over the last decade has been the growth of country-by-country (CbC) reporting. European legislation has required companies in certain sectors such as banking to publish information either about their performance or their payments to governments for each country where they...

This study examines the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the stock markets of China, India, Pakistan, the UK and the US using Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and Threshold GARCH models with COVID 19 as an exogenous dummy variable in the variance equation. The sample period of 2016–2021 is divided into two sub-per...

This study examines the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the stock markets of China, India, Pakistan, the UK and the US using Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) and Threshold GARCH models with COVID 19 as an exogenous dummy variable in the variance equation. The sample period of 2016–2021 is divided into two sub-per...

The current study examines the association between Earnings Quality (EQ) and Investment Efficiency (IE) using the conditional effect of legal origin. Further, we assess the influence of the Institutional Ownership (IOW) on the relationship between EQ and IE within different legal environments, using a sample of 22,446 firm-year observations from th...

This paper investigates the linkages between the four emerging stock markets of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka after a period of financial liberalisation in South Asia in 2000. The initial analysis was conducted for the period from January 2000 to December 2019 as well as for two sub-periods before and after the Global Financial Crisis o...

Purpose This paper aims to examine how capital investment projects are appraised in Lebanon; whether the risk is incorporated into this process by Lebanese firms and the impact of political risk on the capital budgeting process. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a questionnaire survey to investigate the capital budgeting practices of com...

This paper investigates the relationship between changes in the newspaper-based infectious diseases tracking index (ITI) of Baker et al. (2020) and sectoral stock market returns in the US. Our results spanning the period 1985:01 to 2020:03 reveal the presence of a negative (positive) relationship between returns and ITI at lower (higher) return qua...

This paper documents evidence of changes in the co-movement of stock returns and risk transmission among four South Asian stock markets over periods of regional market reform and global market instability. The sample period (1993–2015) is disaggregated into three sub-periods: before and after the establishment of the South Asian Federation of Excha...

This paper uses Credit Default Swap (CDS) data for Asian reference entities to examine cross-country credit risk spillover effects between sovereigns and firms. Data for three East Asian countries (China, Japan and South Korea) over the period 2009-2018 are analysed. We analyse changes in the CDS spreads of a sovereign debtor and those of a foreign...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of a struggle for power over the regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) within the European Union. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines insights from institutional theory (Lawrence an...

Studies have shown that religious beliefs and practice play an important role in influencing share price behaviour. Evidence of a Ramadan effect has been documented in Muslim countries suggesting an increase in mean returns as well as a reduction in volatility during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. In addition to the Ramadan effect, studie...

Purpose There has been an ongoing call from various groups of stakeholders for social and environmental practices to be integrated into companies’ operations. A number of companies have responded by engaging in socially and environmentally responsible activities, while others choose not to participate in these activities, which incur additional cos...

This paper critically examines the literature on risk reporting, largely dominated by the accounting standards for financial instruments (FI) issued by the FASB and the IASB. The analysis is motivated by the increased amount of FI-related research published in recent years, as well as by the conflicting findings that have emerged from these investi...

This paper uses a present value approach to show that price movements for equity indices in a sample of European stock markets can be traced to legal origin, institutional, and corporate financial factors. The present value literature states that stock indices move due to changes either in discount rates, dividend growth, or a combination of the tw...

Recent research has documented that at the time of religious celebrations in Muslim countries, such as Ramadan, there is a “festival” effect in share returns. In the Gregorian calendar, December is also a time of celebration and festivities which may be associated with patterns in the behaviour of security prices. Further, the first month of the ye...

Purpose - The current study examines the extent of segmental reporting disclosure and its value relevance to a sample of Qatari and Jordanian listed companies following the implementation review of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 8. This was the first standard to be subjected to a post-implementation review. Annual reports are...

This article investigates the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) for the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE). In particular, it tests whether share returns on the KSE exhibit patterns which may be used to predict future share price changes. Ten filter rules are tested on weekly data for 42 firms over the period 1998–2011. The results sugges...

Purpose Studies on Islamic calendar anomalies in financial markets tend to apply quantitative analysis to historic share prices. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research investigating whether the participants of such markets are aware of these anomalies and whether these anomalies affect their investment practice. Or is it a case that these pract...

This paper seeks to explain time-varying correlations among equity returns. The literature has shown that fundamental and economic factors can explain stock returns or the volatility of markets. Here, panel data analysis is employed to examine whether these factors can also explain the comovement of stock returns. Time-varying correlations among se...

This article reports on the development of the accounting discipline in universities in England and Scotland from the 1960s. Drawing on the oral history narratives of six distinguished accounting scholars who played a significant role in the discipline, this article documents (1) the initial influences on the teaching of accounting in English unive...

The current study investigates factors affecting Financial Instruments (FI) disclosure for a sample of Jordanian listed companies (82 firms) over two consecutive years (2013 and 2014). An unweighted disclosure index is used to examine the extent of FI disclosure. In addition, the study employs a number of multiple regression models to examine the d...

Present value parameters from a state-space model are estimated for the UK FT All-Share Index. The estimated parameters are used to construct a time series of expected future returns and expected future values of dividend growth, both of which are found to be time-varying with persistent components. Variations in the price-dividend ratio appear to...

It is argued that internet-based short-sellers take advantage of asymmetric information, publishing research online which often values shares in a target company at a large discount to their current price. The increasing popularity of online dissemination of information, coupled with evidence that individuals are prone to behave in a herd-like fash...

The current study investigates factors affecting financial instruments (FI) disclosure for a sample of Jordanian listed companies (82 firms) over two consecutive years (2013 and 2014). An un-weighted disclosure index is used to examine the extent of FI disclosure. In addition, the study employs a number of multiple regression models to examine the...

This paper develops a proposed research agenda in order to highlight how corporate governance, accounting and company law are relevant to the consideration of income inequality and wider social health. To illustrate this proposed research agenda, this paper draws on corporate governance research in the law and finance tradition, as well as macro-le...

The main aim of this paper is to investigate Financial Instrument (FI) disclosures provided by Jordanian listed companies under IFRS 7 as compared to those supplied under IAS 30/32. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 82 Jordanian listed companies is used in this monograph. A disclosure index checklist was constructed to measure FI informati...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to: examine the value relevance of financial instruments disclosure (FID) provided by Jordanian listed companies under International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS 7) as compared to that supplied under IAS 30/32; provide evidence about the value relevance of high vs low levels of FID; and investigate which c...

Legitimation can operate on an episodic or continual basis [Suchman, M.C. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571–610]. We examine the temporal legitimation of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)’s actions during the adoption and review of International Financial...

This paper investigates the information content (signalling) of dividend announcements by firms listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) over the period 2005 to 2009. This sample period was selected in order to avoid contamination of the dividend signal with a capital gains tax effect since a capital gains tax was introduced in Pakistan from 2010...

This paper investigates the information content (signalling) of dividend announcements by firms listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) over the period 2005 to 2009. This sample period was selected in order to avoid contamination of the dividend signal with a capital gains tax effect since a capital gains tax was introduced in Pakistan from 2010...

Most prior research has tested for monthly regularities based on the Gregorian calendar; by contrast, little attention has been given to other calendars based on different religions or cultures. This paper examines Islamic monthly anomalies in a stock market located within a Muslim country - Pakistan. The study employs data for 106 companies listed...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of external auditors, preparers and users (investors and analysts) of financial statements in Jordan about this new segmental reporting standard; a decision usefulness framework underpins the research. Design/methodology/approach – The objective of this study is to explore the perce...

Accounting information; market efficiency, trading rules; filter rules; emerging market; Kuwaiti stock market

This article investigates whether economic variables have explanatory power for share returns in South Asian stock markets. In particular, using data for four South Asian emerging stock markets over the period 1998–2012, the article examines the influence of a selection of local, regional and global economic variables in explaining equity returns;...

The aims of this paper are (a) to examine whether changes in dividend can be forecasted from past financial statement information and (b) to investigate whether such forecasts can be exploited to yield abnormal returns. A two-step approach is adopted. First, a logit model is developed to predict one year-ahead changes in dividends. Second, the buy-...

The primary objective of this paper is to examine the factors which affect the segmental disclosures (mandatory and voluntary) provided by Jordanian listed companies. In addition, the study documents evidence about the extent to which multi-activity companies comply with the requirements about segmental disclosure as mandated by IFRS 8. Based on an...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the views of company executives and investors regarding the signalling impact of dividends in Pakistan. Quantitative research in the area has been scant, but recent large sample evidence suggests a number of noteworthy idiosyncrasies exist in terms of the market reaction and these require furthe...

This paper considers the role of company law in the context of financialization, with a focus on shareholder primacy. After a detailed review of the provenance of the putative shareholder primacy rationale, the study provides an analysis of relevant aspects of the Company Law Review (CLR) process in the UK. This ultimately led to the Companies Act...

This paper uses a questionnaire survey to investigate share valuation methods and the sources of information employed by Kuwaiti investors; it compares the appraisal techniques and the sources of information employed by Kuwaiti investors to those used in other developed and emerging stock markets. The findings suggest that Kuwaiti investors behav...

This paper uses a questionnaire survey to investigate share valuation methods and the sources of information employed by Kuwaiti investors; it compares the appraisal techniques and the sources of information employed by Kuwaiti investors to those used in other developed and emerging stock markets. The findings suggest that Kuwaiti investors behave...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the segmental information disclosures of Jordanian companies under IFRS 8 for 2009 with disclosures under IAS 14R for 2008. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 109 Jordanian companies is used in this research. A disclosure index checklist was constructed to assess the segmental information provid...

This study explores whether an information gap exists for six types of corporate disclosure in Egypt, where International Accounting Standards (IAS) apply but penalties for non-compliance are limited. It also investigates whether low compliance with mandatory disclosure can be explained by low levels of demand for this type of information among loc...

Using weekly disaggregated returns data for the top twenty shares, by market value, from seventeen emerging markets over the period 1991–1996, this paper investigates the potential gains from international diversification into these markets. The paper also assesses whether these gains could have been achieved on an ex-ante basis. Finally, the paper...

This article investigates relationships between countries' legal traditions and their quality of life as measured by a number of widely reported social indicators; in so doing it also offers a critique of a highly influential body of work which is widely cited in the literatures of corporate governance, economics and finance. That body of work has...

Purpose – Very little is known about the influences on dividend decisions in Pakistan, despite the importance of the market in the region and the nation's non‐standard tax system. This study therefore aims to provide detailed evidence regarding this issue by examining the views of those charged with the decisions in practice. Design/methodology/ap...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the technical methods that investors in the Kuwait Stock Exchange use to evaluate ordinary shares. The research examines the extent of investors' use of technical analysis, and the technical indicators and the sources of technical information employed by investors. Further, it compares the valuati...

Purpose One of the most fundamental changes to affect financial reporting in recent years has been the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This paper aims to examine the nature of the Income Statement and Net Equity IFRS adjustments for a sample of companies from the UK, Ireland and Italy following the introduction o...

This paper is concerned with the impact of introductory financial accounting courses on student perceptions of business objectives. The paper reports the results of a questionnaire survey of UK and Japanese university students which investigated their views at the start and end of an introductory financial accounting module. The views of Japanese s...

Purpose This paper seeks to examine the association between corporate voluntary disclosure and systematic (market or beta) risk for a sample of Egyptian listed companies. Design/methodology/approach Using panel data analysis, beta is regressed on the level of voluntary disclosure and the following control variables: dividend payout, asset growth,...

This study provides empirical evidence in relation to a growing body of literature concerned with the ‘socialisation’ effects of accounting and business education. A prevalent criticism within this literature is that accounting and business education in the United Kingdom and the United States, by assuming a ‘value-neutral’ appearance, ignores the...

This study examines financial accounting educators' views about, and use of, recommended course textbooks in the UK. In particular, this research explores the factors that influence the selection of a recommended text, the role it plays on the course, and educators' perceptions of the worldview that underpins their chosen text. Drawing on the resul...

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the views of Dublin‐based financial analysts and major Irish fund managers on dividends. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses semi‐structured interviews with 16 participants and analyses their responses concerning the role of dividends in the share screening process; the perceived relationship between...

This paper examines the different factors that may influence the quantity of firms' disclosures about derivatives usage. The analysis focuses on the disclosures that were mandated by Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) 13 and examines these for a sample of UK firms' corporate reports. The study focuses on three reasons why companies disclose informa...

This paper provides an analysis of the typical modes of ideology in introductory financial accounting textbooks and training materials. Drawing on Thompson's [Thompson JB. Ideology and modern culture: critical social theory in the era of mass communication. Cambridge: Polity Press; 1990] schema concerning the typical linguistic modes through which...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to ascertain financial analysts' views regarding the usefulness of a number of items of accounting information via a postal survey. This usefulness is explored in the context of the Egyptian capital market. In addition the usefulness of different types of information is researched, namely: historical vs forwar...

The paper attempts to deal with data problems associated with shares traded on the Nigerian stock exchange (NSE). In particular, the paper investigates the effects of thin trading on share price changes and designs an approach to examine the extent of any possible inactive trading associated with Nigerian shares. This paper used disaggregated data...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how investors and stockbrokers in Nigeria value shares and whether their approach to share valuation differs from that documented in other countries. In particular, the paper investigates whether the investors and stockbrokers use fundamental, technical and/or risk analysis differently to appraise inv...

This study examines the value of voluntary and mandatory disclosure in a market that applies International Accounting Standards (IAS) with limited penalties for non compliance. The lack of enforcement creates an element of choice in the level of mandatory disclosure by companies. Using panel-data analysis, our empirical results show that, after con...

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to critically evaluate membership of the FTSE4Good “socially responsible investment” indices (membership of which is based on ethical criteria), which were launched in the UK in July 2001 as a means of increased accountability and change. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts an interpretive and critical...

According to the weak-form of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), investors should not be able to outperform the market consistently by looking at charts of past share prices or by devising trading rules based on historic share returns. This paper investigates the extent to which the equity prices of firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the long‐term relationship between the rate of inflation and the returns of real estate and financial assets traded in New Zealand markets. Design/methodology/approach The question of whether these assets are good candidates to hedge inflation in the long run is addressed employing cointegration and...

The question of whether active trading strategies outperform the more naive approaches that are available to investors has returned to the research agenda. The topic had been hotly debated in the early and middle 1960s, but seemed to have been dispatched to the academic sidelines by proponents of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). However, the...

This paper: (i) examines the potential benefits from diversifying into eight stock markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE); and (ii) quantifies the importance of country, industry and time factors in CEE equity returns. The findings suggest that substantial benefits exist from investing in CEE stock markets and that they accrue more from the ge...

This paper examines the financial performance of the FTSE4Good indices; the indices include companies from different geographical areas on the basis of pre-determined social responsibility criteria: currently environmental sustainability, relationships with stakeholders, attitudes to human rights, supply chain labour standards and the countering of...

The move to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for many listed companies in Europe, and elsewhere, has been the biggest change to corporate financial reporting of recent times. The process has not been without problems but the ultimate aim of increased comparability and international harmonisation of financial reporting remains a ne...

Purpose This study aims to examine the extent to which UK directors failed to report their share trading in the timeframe required by extant regulations in the run‐up to the changes in insider trading law contained in the Financial Services and Markets Act. Design/methodology/approach The study investigates the extent of non‐compliance amongst the...

Purpose This study aims to provide a modern perspective on the role of dividends in smaller developed countries such as Ireland by examining views regarding the determinants of payout levels, the role of taxation and the relevance of conventional signalling theory. Design/methodology/approach The study employs semi‐structured interviews with the f...

This exploratory research considers the views of 12 introductory accounting lecturers in Scotland regarding their perceptions of how different corporate stakeholders are represented in their recommended introductory accounting texts. The study builds on previous research which suggests that accounting education is embedded in neo-classical economic...

This article examines the weak–form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) for the Saudi Stock Market. Specifically, it considers whether patterns are present in share returns such that investors can out–perform the market by trading on the basis of historic information. Two different trading strategies are tested on weekly data for 45...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the issues faced by institutional investors looking to invest in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. In particular, the paper seeks to ascertain the views of practitioners on the reasons for undertaking CEE investment, the structures of their investment processes for the CEE region, the b...

This article examines the nature of any gains from investing in the emerging stock markets of Central and Eastern Europe using disaggregated data for 187 shares from eight stock exchanges over the period 1998 to 2003. The results suggest that gains exist; these gains are largest when diversification occurs across countries rather than via investmen...

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey about share valuation practices among investors and their intermediaries in Saudi Arabia. The findings suggest that fundamental analysis is used most by investor respondents where a P/E multiple is applied to an earnings forecast to generate a prediction of future price. However, technical analysis is al...

A substantive literature examines the short- and long-run performance of share returns following an Initial Public Offering (IPO). However, the related issue of why companies seek to raise money through an IPO, or the factors that are important in this equity-issuing process, have attracted very little academic attention. The current paper seeks to...

This paper explores the production of introductory financial accounting textbooks in the UK. Despite being a pervasive pedagogical device (see Brown and Guilding, 1993, Accounting Education: an international journal, 4(2) pp. 211-218), there has been little research carried out which examines the role or contents of textbooks in accounting educatio...

This paper considers the conditions needed for an organisation to function as an effective network. In particular, the concepts of trust and distrust are explored. Looking at the new labour reforms of 1997, evidence is presented by means of interview responses from GPs, that this powerful group in primary health care lacked sufficient trust in heal...

This paper seeks to characterize the distribution of extreme returns for US, UK and Japanese equity indices over the years 1963-2000. In particular, the suitability of the following distributions is investigated: Normal, Frechet, Gumbel, Weibull, Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), Generalized Pareto and Generalized Logistic (GL). Daily returns were o...

Purpose This paper seeks to examine the long‐run financial and return performance of UK companies which are grouped according to whether or not they have changed their dividends and earnings. Prior research has been conducted using US data and they are limited to extreme dividend changes such as dividend initiations and omissions. They have also ar...

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to explore whether there is any relationship(s) between social and environmental disclosure and the financial market performance of the UK's largest companies. Design/methodology/approach Two data sets were used in the study. The CSEAR database of UK companies provided the social and environmental disclosure com...

This study investigates the manner in which the Irish stock market responds to company announcements about dividend payments. In particular, the paper examines whether the predictions of the 'signalling' hypothesis hold or if more recent findings (which suggest that there is little value-relevant information contained in dividend changes) better ch...

This paper examines whether the requirement to disclose information about derivative usage is associated with a significant share price reaction for a sample of 202 firms; to date, such an analysis has not been undertaken. The analysis is performed on the date of the exposure draft, on the date when the standard was published and when the company r...

This study examines return and volatility spillovers from the US and Japanese stock markets to three South Asian capital markets – (i) the Bombay Stock Exchange, (ii) the Karachi Stock Exchange, and (iii) the Colombo Stock Exchange. We construct a univariate EGARCH spillover model which allows the unexpected return of any particular South Asian mar...

This paper studies the performance of 60 European funds from four countries. The paper extends the UK matched pair approach for fund evaluation developed by Mallin et al. (1995) to a European setting. The findings suggest that there is no difference between ethical and non-ethical funds according to the performance measures employed. Neither type o...

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the effects of government reforms to improve the accountability of primary healthcare providers in Scotland. As a result of the reforms, funding arrangements for GP practices changed and new financing mechanisms were introduced; this paper seeks to investigate the impact of these changes. Design/methodo...