Josep Argilés

University of Barcelona | UB · Department of Business

Purpose This study aims to investigate how the village government implements internal control, accountability, transparency and participation in the good governance practice for corruption prevention and detection in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This study is qualitative research by conducting a semi-structured interview with village sta...

This research analyses the convenience and consequences of the ANECA criteria for the assessment of the research performed by accounting academics in Spain. We focus on the level for the accreditation of catedrático de universidad, and the publication patterns and possibilities of the accounting scholars in Spain. We find that they have more diffic...

This study investigates if a gender effect exists on the audit fees associated with the presence of women in roles closely related to the audit process. The analysis is based on the largest European corporations studied between 2016 and 2018. The results show that firms with female chief financial officers and more female directors on the audit com...

Whereas in 2001 women held around 5% of board seats in Norway, in 2007 their representation increased to more than 40%. This extraordinary change was the result of a board-gender quota regulation enacted in 2006. This study leverages this unique research setting and implements difference-in-differences estimations to investigate whether the appoint...

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether chief executive officer (CEO) demographics are associated with gender diversity in senior management in the Scandinavia region. Design/methodology/approach The research design draws on multivariate cross-sectional analysis. The demographic characteristics examined are gender, age and education. A tota...

We examine the content of the official Facebook pages of 502 Italian municipalities over the period 2016-2018 to empirically infer the motivations of municipalities to use Facebook. Our inference is mostly based on the relationship between the main topics discussed by the municipalities on Facebook and the most related municipal expenses per capita...

This study performs an empirical analysis on the relationship between labour cost stickiness and the decrease in employment protection in the Spanish labour reforms in 2010 and 2012. Following these reforms, the sticky behaviour of labour costs substantially decreased with respect to the pre‐reform period. All constituents of total labour costs fol...

This paper performs an empirical research and finds a negative relationship between accidents in the workplace and financial performance. The relationship is stronger and more persistent on one year ahead performance than on the current year. We find no significant evidence of curvilinear U-shaped or inverted U-shaped relationships. Results are str...

We conduct empirical research on the flexibility of operating costs of e-commerce firms. With an international sample of firms from different European countries, we find that e-commerce firms have a different cost structure than traditional retail firms, with a lower share of labor costs and cost of goods sold, but a higher share of other operating...

We investigate the effects of an exogenous demand shock arising from the award of public service contracts by Italian public administrations in 2015 on a sample of 1782 winning small and medium firms that were not awarded any contract during the previous 3 years. Using a difference-in-differences model with continuous treatments estimated on a prop...

As a result of a mandatory board gender quota regulation, the percentage of female directors in Norway increased from around 5% in 2001 to over 40% in 2007, while it remained stable in neighbouring Denmark. Taking advantage of this unique research setting, this study implements a difference-in-differences approach to investigate the effects of the...

This study evidences one of the adverse effects of e-commerce on labour tax avoidance, and more precisely in the loss of firms’ social security contributions. With a sample of French e-commerce and traditional retail firms, we find that labour tax avoidance is significantly higher in e-commerce than in traditional retail firms. Results are robust t...

This study investigates audit quality under joint and single audit regimes with a sample of large European firms. Both, the economic relevance of these companies, and the fact that the impact of joint audit on audit quality should be stronger when the audited company is a blue-chip firm motivate the study. If mandatory joint audit were positively a...

We investigate whether the geographic concentration of non-EU immigrants in the various Italian provinces affects labour tax avoidance (LTAV) practices adopted by firms located in the same provinces, as well as in the neighbouring provinces, and operating in construction and agriculture industries that mostly employ immigrants in Italy. For this pu...

Despite evidence suggesting that specialised knowledge should be more relevant than generic knowledge to explain different levels of audit quality across individual auditors, no study to date has addressed the respective impacts of the industry-specific and the generic audit experience of audit partners on the quality of audit services. Our study i...

We examine the effects of Mafia infiltration on public procurement performance, based on a sample of 68,063 public work contracts (PWC) awarded by Italian municipalities over the period 2012–2017, of which 687 are identified as Mafia-infiltrated, either because of being awarded by municipal councils subsequently dissolved due to Mafia infiltration,...

Purpose This paper develops novel proxies for labour tax avoidance (LTAV) and tests their validity within a sample of 189 labour tax-avoidant offending firms (LTAOFs) accused of evading social security contributions (SOCs) by public authorities. Design/methodology/approach LTAV proxies are based on abnormal values of SOCs paid, reported in the inc...

This paper reports an empirical analysis of the influence of e-commerce business practices on tax avoidance. Using a sample of European parent firms in the retail trade industry from 22 different countries, we find empirical evidence that e-commerce firms are significantly more tax avoidant than traditional firms. However, as the latter have increa...

After the approval of a code of ethics, the creation of a permanent board‐level ethics committee is the next step in the institutionalization of business ethics. This study explores how the board's structure and demographic characteristics explain the decision to form an ethics committee. The analysis is based on the constituents of the Standard an...

Directive 2014/56/EU and Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014, which came into effect in June 2016, introduced the mandatory rotation of audit firms after a maximum period of 10 years with the same client. We conduct a cross‐European study with the aim of assessing whether long audit firm tenures are associated with lower levels of audit quality. The sampl...

We investigate the relationship between auditor-provided tax services (APTS) and tax avoidance in Spain. As a result of a recently enacted EU legislation, APTS is seriously restricted within the EU. The evidence available so far for the US provides consistent support for a positive relationship between APTS and tax avoidance. However, given the imp...

We investigate the impact of audit firm tenure, partner tenure, audit fees, fees for non-audit services and total fees on audit quality, as measured by discretionary accruals. Our sample consists of Spanish non-financial public companies for the years between 2006 and 2013. Results indicate that audit quality increases with audit firm tenure but de...

This article examines the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm performance with a sample formed by the best performing CEOs in the world according to Harvard Business Review. The empirical analysis is based on descriptive statistics techniques and studies the universe of CEOs included in the 2016 ranking “The Best-Performing CEOs in th...

We develop new transaction management (TRM) proxies, to find empirical evidence of the strategic management of accounting transactions, aiming to carry out money laundering activities, within a sample of 355 firms controlled by Italian Mafias. Our results reveal that, using a cluster analysis, Mafia-controlled firms can be classified into two diffe...

Should we expect a gender effect on the quality of audit services? Both the behavioural economics literature and the glass ceiling for women in the audit profession suggest an affirmative answer to this question. We conduct the study with a sample of Spanish-listed companies for the period between 2008 and 2015 and use the quality of the client's f...

Codes of good practices provide a soft alternative to the hard legislation approach to corporate governance. These codes include a set of recommendations that companies are expected to follow in order to enhance governance structures and practices. Some of these recommendations specifically aim to improve the effectiveness of the audit committee. W...

This study performs an in-depth analysis of the curvilinear relationship between slack and future firm performance. Using a sample of US firms, we analyze the influence of three indicators of absorbed and unabsorbed slack on the two commonest dimensions of firm performance: profitability and sales growth. Although the relationship between most slac...

This study develops an empirical analysis of the relevance of accounting information when biological assets are measured at fair value. We use an international sample of firms with biological assets. We find that biological assets influence unpredictability when they are measured at historical cost (HC). In this case, the ability of accounting data...

Purpose This paper investigates how accounting is used to disguise and carry out money laundering activities in specific socio-economic and political contexts and whether discretionary accruals can provide evidence of such illicit practices performed through legally registered Mafia firms (LMFs). Design/methodology/approach The study is based on...

On May 27, 2014, Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Aiming to enhance audit quality, the new regulation establishes important limitations to the selling of non-audit services by the audit firm to audit clients and a maximum tenure of ten years with the audit firm. However, it should be noted tha...

This study analyses cost stickiness under the dilemma between current profitability and future sales increase. When activity decreases firms are faced to keep profitability adjusting resources, while they should also consider long term consequences and keep slack resources which allow building firms capacities to adapt to external challenges and ta...

This paper investigates the impact of firm and partner tenure on audit quality, where audit quality is proxied by discretionary accruals. We study a sample of Spanish listed companies between 2005 and 2011 and address both the individual and the interaction effects of firm and partner tenure. Our study is motivated by the current debate, particular...

We perform an empirical analysis on the benefits of, and the challenges faced by, sustainability accounting in measuring the effects of climate change for a sample of Spanish rice farms. We use farm yields, revenues and incomes as indicators of economic performance, and greenhouse gas emissions, and direct and indirect energy consumption as indicat...

We investigate whether long audit partner tenures impair auditor independence, as proxied by the opinion of the audit report, with a sample of Spanish companies for the period: 2002–2010. The Spanish audit market constitutes an ideal setting in which to address this issue, as it is characterized by unusually lengthy engagements with the audit firm....

RESUMEN Este trabajo realiza un análisis de los artículos publicados en la Revista Española de Financiación y Contabilidad en el período 2008–2013 según los datos contenidos en el Web of Science, Scopus y Google Académico. El análisis descriptivo identifica los artículos más influyentes, los autores y las instituciones más productivos, así como las...

This paper undertakes an empirical analysis of the impact of absorbed and unabsorbed slack, employing three different measures for each slack type, on firm profitability. We find that unabsorbed slack has a more favorable influence on future firm profitability than absorbed slack. While all the absorbed slack indicators have a significant negative...

This paper addresses the need of finding new ways of measuring the environmental and economic consequences of farming. The aim of this study is to inquire into the impacts that excessive intensification has on productivity and environmental costs in the long term and additionally, to explore empirically the trend of these two indicators over time....

This paper develops two new measures of labor tax avoidance (LTAV) based on social contribution expenses reported in financial statements and tests them and their determinants within a sample of 224 Italian firms defined as legally registered Mafia firms (LMFs) due to having been confiscated at some point by judicial authorities, in relation to all...

The European Commission's Green Paper on Audit Policy has raised serious concerns about external auditor independence and also encouraged further research about the implications of long audit firm tenures. We examine the effects of audit firm tenure on independence, while measuring independence using the audit report opinion with a sample of Spanis...

This paper develops a model that can contribute to the detection of legally registered firms defined as Mafia firms (LMFs) due to having been confiscated by judicial authorities, in relation to alleged connections of their owners with Italian organized crime. The model correctly classifies 76.41% of firms within a matched sample of 852 firm-years i...

This paper performs an empirical analysis on the incidence of labor accidents on firm financial performance. With data on financial statements and labor accidents of 299 Spanish firms for 6 different years we perform panel data estimations and find a negative influence of accident rate on return on assets, as well as on abnormal return on assets. T...

The annual general meeting (AGM) constitutes the most important corporate event. Nevertheless, its role as an efficient instrument for corporate governance has recently come under increasing scrutiny, and numerous proposals for reform have emerged as a result. The purpose of this paper is to assess the release of value-relevant information during t...

This chapter investigates whether earnings management activities increase the likelihood of receiving a qualified audit report. We have carried out this study with a sample of Spanish companies for the period 2001-2009. Previous research on the issue is not only scarce but also suffers from methodological pitfalls. In all cases, researchers have fo...

This study analyses the influence of the recent economic downturn on earnings management (EM), as well as the manipulation of real activities through cash flow from operations (CFO), with a sample of Spanish listed firms from 2004 to 2009. We find evidence that the recent economic downturn has changed the patterns of firms’ EM. On the one hand, the...

Este estudio realiza un investigación empírica comparando las dificultades que se derivan de la utilización del valor razonable (VR) y del coste histórico (CH) en el sector agrícola. Se analiza también la fiabilidad de ambos métodos de valoración para la interpretación de la información y la toma de decisiones por parte de los agentes que actúan en...

This paper contributes with an empirical analysis, using a sample of farms, on the influence of size on cost behaviour under operational and tactical flexibility. Results indicate that small farms behave advantageously with respect to biggest farms in situations of operational and tactical flexibility. On the one hand, the increase in indirect cost...

This paper contributes with an empirical analysis, using a sample of farms, on the influence of size on cost behaviour under operational and tactical flexibility. Results indicate that small farms behave advantageously with respect to biggest farms in situations of operational and tactical flexibility. On the one hand, the increase in indirect cost...

Due to the overwhelming international evidence that stock prices drop by less than the dividend paid on ex-dividend days, the ex-dividend day anomaly is considered a stylized fact. Two main approaches have emerged to explain this empirical regularity: the tax-clientele hypothesis and the microstructure of financial markets. Although the most widely...

En este estudio hacemos una revisión crítica de los procedimientos vigentes en la comunidad académica contable para la generación de conocimiento y su publicación. Exponemos que hay pocas revistas académicas para publicar la investigación contable, que éstas publican pocos artículos, aplican elevadas tasas de rechazo y el proceso de revisión es len...

La evolución de la contabilidad desde el coste histórico (CH) hacia el valor razonable (VR) ha suscitado debates y controversias, tanto en el ámbito profesional, como en el académico. Si bien el debate y los estudios se han referido principalmente a los instrumentos financieros, el requerimiento de la NIC41 de valorar los activos biológicos al VR h...

Accounting research has usually approached studies on cost stickiness through models with costs and output variations in logarithms of relative changes. But this approach is unable to detect cost stickiness properly in sectors characterized by small business units with scarce influence and chances to depart from sector trends, such as agriculture....

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of stock recommendations in returns and trading volumes. Unlike previous research we have investigated the five most usual types of recommendations: buy, outperform, hold, underperform and sell. The methodology we propose is also different from previous studies. From our results we conclude th...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of stock recommendations in returns and trading volumes. Unlike previous research we have investigated the five most usual types of recommendations: buy, outperform, hold, underperform and sell. The methodology we propose is also different from previous studies. From our results we conclude th...

This research finds neither significant differences in earnings and revenues for farms using fair value (FV) for biological assets with respect to those valuing at historic cost (HC), nor an increase in their volatility. It does not bring about differences in profitability, accounting manipulation and farm cash flows predictability either. On the c...

Spanish and Western agriculture show a continuous decrease in the number of farms. One of the main factors for this trend is the economic nonviability of many of the existing farms. In addition, the interrelationship of agriculture with other industries is growing. Thus, policymakers, banks, creditors and other stakeholders are interested in predic...

Spanish and Western agriculture show a continuous decrease in the number of farms. One of the main factors for this trend is the economic nonviability of many of the existing farms. In addition, the interrelationship of agriculture with other industries is growing. Thus, policymakers, banks, creditors and other stakeholders are interested in predic...

La continua desaparición de explotaciones agrícolas inviables, junto con la creciente interrelación de la agricultura con otros sectores, motiva el interés de los decisores políticos, bancos, acreedores y otros agentes relacionados con el sector para predecir el grado de viabilidad de las explotaciones agrícolas. El objetivo de este artículo es apo...

While conventional farming systems face serious problems of sustainability, organic agriculture is seen as a more environmentally friendly system as it favours renewable resources, recycles nutrients, uses the environment's own systems for controlling pests and diseases, sustains ecosystems, protects soils, and reduces pollution. At the same time o...

La continua desaparición de explotaciones agrícolas inviables, junto con la creciente interrelación de la agricultura con otros sectores, motiva el interés de los decisores políticos, bancos, acreedores y otros agentes relacionados con el sector para predecir el grado de viabilidad de las explotaciones agrícolas. El objetivo de este artículo es apo...

In this paper we perform a mathematical analyse of profits and losses in direct and full costing. They are compared in different situations, mainly the utilisation of productive capacity and the existence of beginning inventories. Direct costing was conceived as a system of cost accounting which would show profits as a function of sales. In full co...

This paper conducts an empirical study on output, costs and incomes in organic farming with a sample of Spanish firms. Financial accounting data reveals that organic and partly or transitional to organic farming do not get significantly different output than intensive farming. Farms in transition to organic farming bear significantly higher costs a...

This paper aims to estimate a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of a panel of 150 mixed Catalan farms in the period 1989-1993, in order to attempt to measure and explain variation in technical inefficiency scores with a one-stage approach. The model uses gross value added as the output aggregate measure. Total employm...

This article aims to identify the key groups of regions with respect to farms oriented to fruit and citrus production. Twenty variables of fruit and citrus oriented farms corresponding to forty-one regions of the European Union were analyzed. Seven groups emerged from cluster analysis. Only two of them showed good perspectives. Regions in the South...

In this article an empirical analyse of farming costs is performed within the frame of the activity based costing, employing a panel data set of Catalan farms. One the main conclusions of the study is that there is limited association for transaction and farm costs, especially in indirect costs. Direct and indirect costs are mainly driven by volume...

Many firms that do not have a formal obligation to prepare financial statements do not produce any accounting information voluntarily, either. However, as accounting information is generally believed to be useful for decision making, the reasons for this behaviour are unclear. In this paper we try to shed some light on this question and provide emp...

In this paper we perform a mathematical analyse of profits and losses in direct and full costing. They are compared in different situations, mainly the utilisation of productive capacity and the existence of beginning inventories. Direct costing was conceived as a system of cost accounting which would show profits as a function of sales. In full co...

[fre] Professionnel de l'�conomie des exploitations, l'auteur d�plore une d�viance appauvrissante de sa profession. Pouss�s par les exigences d'un r�gime fiscal plus complexe et d'un nouveau mode d'exigibilit� � l'acc�s aux aides, les conseillers ont �t� massivement orient�s vers une pratique tr�s m�canique de la comptabilit�. Parall�lement l'impor...

This paper starts out to observe that there is a gap between the importance given to accounting and the low level of bookkeeping and accounting practice in the agricultural sector. Reasons for this gap are that current general accounting rules do not adapt very well to the particularities of farming and are dif cult and expensive to implement. We t...

[fre] Professionnel de l'�conomie des exploitations, l'auteur d�plore une d�viance appauvrissante de sa profession. Pouss�s par les exigences d'un r�gime fiscal plus complexe et d'un nouveau mode d'exigibilit� � l'acc�s aux aides, les conseillers ont �t� massivement orient�s vers une pratique tr�s m�canique de la comptabilit�. Parall�lement l'impor...

[fre] Professionnel de l'�conomie des exploitations, l'auteur d�plore une d�viance appauvrissante de sa profession. Pouss�s par les exigences d'un r�gime fiscal plus complexe et d'un nouveau mode d'exigibilit� � l'acc�s aux aides, les conseillers ont �t� massivement orient�s vers une pratique tr�s m�canique de la comptabilit�. Parall�lement l'impor...

[fre] Professionnel de l'�conomie des exploitations, l'auteur d�plore une d�viance appauvrissante de sa profession. Pouss�s par les exigences d'un r�gime fiscal plus complexe et d'un nouveau mode d'exigibilit� � l'acc�s aux aides, les conseillers ont �t� massivement orient�s vers une pratique tr�s m�canique de la comptabilit�. Parall�lement l'impor...

Competitividad comparada del sector gran�voro espa�ol en el marco de la Uni�n Europea. Referencia espec�fica a Catalu�a. El sector gran�voro, y especialmente el porcino, ha sido un recurso de intensificaci�n en regiones con escasez de SAU y que poseen suelos pobres para el cultivo. Catalu�a ha sido la regi�n espa�ola cuyas explotaciones m�s han rec...

En aquest treball s'analitza la posició competitiva que ocupa l'agricultura catalana en el conjunt de la Unió Europea (UE). Per a aquest propòsit analitzem els trets característics i els resultats econòmics de l'agricultura catalana contraposant-los als dels quinze països membres de la UE. Les dades indiquen que les explotacions agrícoles catalanes...

In spite of its relative importance in the economy of many countries and its growing interrelationships with other sectors, agriculture has traditionally been excluded from accounting standards. Nevertheless, to support its Common Agricultural Policy, for years the European Commission has been making an effort to obtain standardized information on...

In this article an empirical analyse of farming costs is performed within the frame of the activity based costing, employing a panel data set of Catalan farms. One the main conclusions of the study is that there is limited association for transaction and farm costs, especially in indirect costs. Direct and indirect costs are mainly driven by volume...