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Using a meta-regression analysis, we quantitatively review the empirical literature on the relation between effective tax rate (ETR) and firm size. Accounting literature offers two competing theories on this relation: The political cost theory, suggesting a positive size-ETR relation, and the political power theory, suggesting a negative size-ETR relation. Using a unique data set of 56 studies that do not show a clear tendency towards either of the two theories, we contribute to the discussion on the size-ETR relation in three ways: First, applying meta-regression analysis on a US meta-data set, we provide evidence supporting the political cost theory. Second, our analysis reveals factors that are possible sources of variation and bias in previous empirical studies; these findings can improve future empirical and analytical models. Third, we extend our analysis to a cross-country meta-data set; this extension enables us to investigate explanations for the two competing theories in more detail. We find that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, a transparency index and a corruption index explain variation in the size-ETR relation. Independent of the two theories, we also find that tax planning aspects potentially affect the size-ETR relation. To our knowledge, these explanations have not yet been investigated in our research context.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a meta-regression analysis upon the literature that examines the relationship between family firms and financial performance.

Information of publication and study characteristics from 61 primary studies, comprising 726 size effects was collected. In particular, three leading factors highlighted in narrative literature reviews analyzed were: the financial performance measures, the family–firm definitions and the estimation methodologies.

Overall, a positive relationship between family involvement and financial performance was found. A series of results, those linked to return on assets (ROA) – earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), suggest positive publication bias from family definition and negative publication bias when OLS is used. Tobin’s Q estimates show no linkage to certain traits and aspects of the research process.

Existing literature review and meta-analysis studies show not concluding results on the family effect upon firm performance. The meta-regression analysis used in this paper allows to examine simultaneously effect size and publication bias. The latter effect is particularly salient in the approach and findings, and not present in previous studies.

Llevar a cabo un análisis de meta-regresión a la literatura que examina la relación entre firmas familiares y desempeño financiero.

Se usa la información de la publicación y características del estudio de 61 estudios primarios, que incluyen 726 estimaciones. Se examinan tres elementos principales de esta literatura: (i) medidas de desempeño financiero, (ii) definición de firma familiar, y (iii) metodología de estimación.

Se establece una relación positiva entre involucramiento familiar y desempeño financiero. Las estimaciones que examinan ROA-EBITDA sugieren sesgo positivo de publicación. Las estimaciones que utilizan estimación de Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios sugieren un sesgo negativo de publicación. Las estimaciones que examinan la Q de Tobin, no sugieren relación con las características de los estudios o de la investigación.

Los estudios de meta-análisis existentes sobre esta literatura no ofrecen resultados concluyentes del efecto de las firmas familiares y desempeño financiero. El método de meta-regresión permite examinar simultáneamente el efecto entre las variables y la posible existencia de sesgo de publicación. La indagación de este último es de particular interés y no se encuentra en otros estudios.

The purpose of this paper is to complement and extend previous literature reviews on Technical Efficiency (TE) in dairy farms, analysing the effects of different methodologies and study-specific characteristics on Mean TE (MTE).

The researchers independently conducted a systematic review of more than 400 abstracts and 85 full-text papers. Original keywords were applied to seven key electronic databases. Results from a meta-regression analysis of 85 published papers totalling 443 TE distributions in dairy farms worldwide are discussed.

The variation in the MTE indexes reported in the literature can be explained by the methodology of estimations (method of estimation, functional form of frontier models, model dimensionality), the farms geographical location and farm size. Additionally, the results suggest that, given the state of technology prevailing in each country at the time that the studies on TE were conducted, dairy farmers in the sample could increase milk output by 20.9 per cent (level of inefficiency), on average, if they produce on their frontiers.

This study makes two important contributions: first, it updates and compares previous works on frontier estimation of TE in dairy farms; and second, it adds two dimensions of dairy farms, size (herd and land area) and economic development, to the known differentials of TE measurement.

Meta-regression is widely used and misused today in meta-analyses in psychology, organizational behavior, marketing, management, and other social sciences, as an approach to the identification and calibration of moderators, with most users being unaware of serious problems in its use. The purpose of this paper is to describe nine serious methodological problems that plague applications of meta-regression.

This paper is methodological in nature and is based on well-established principles of measurement and statistics. These principles are used to illuminate the potential pitfalls in typical applications of meta-regression.

The analysis in this paper demonstrates that many of the nine statistical and measurement pitfalls in the use of meta-regression are nearly universal in applications in the literature, leading to the conclusion that few meta-regressions in the literature today are trustworthy. A second conclusion is that in almost all cases, hierarchical subgrouping of studies is superior to meta-regression as a method of identifying and calibrating moderators. Finally, a third conclusion is that, contrary to popular belief among researchers, the process of accurately identifying and calibrating moderators, even with the best available methods, is complex, difficult, and data demanding.

This paper provides useful guidance to meta-analytic researchers that will improve the practice of moderator identification and calibration in social science research literatures.

Today, many important decisions are made on the basis of the results of meta-analyses. These include decisions in medicine, pharmacology, applied psychology, management, marketing, social policy, and other social sciences. The guidance provided in this paper will improve the quality of such decisions by improving the accuracy and trustworthiness of meta-analytic results.

This paper is original and valuable in that there is no similar listing and discussion of the pitfalls in the use of meta-regression in the literature, and there is currently a widespread lack of knowledge of these problems among meta-analytic researchers in all disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the increasing potential demand for meta-analysis studies in auditing. The paper includes a review of a new technique and meta-regression analysis, and explains its advantages in comparison to meta-analysis techniques used in prior auditing research. It also discusses opportunities for applying meta-analysis to auditing topics and potential pitfalls.

The paper provides a review and commentary on meta-analysis techniques used in auditing research, especially for meta-analyses of empirical archival studies that use regression models.

There is now considerable potential for meta-analysis to have an impact on auditing policy and regulation. Researchers using meta-analysis should make use of the most current techniques (e.g. meta-regression), which are more reliable and allow researchers to explore more issues about the research.

The paper informs auditing researchers about methods to advance their research and increase its usefulness.

While the effect of the minimum wage (MW) on employment has been widely studied, less is known about its impact on hirings and separations. Whereas the adverse effects of MW on hiring are quite familiar, results of studies indicating reductions in separations are less expected. This study aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice by performing a meta-analysis, which allows for understanding the real effect of MW on employment's two components: hirings and separations.

Since mixed results cloud understanding of the issue, a meta-regression analysis was conducted. This technique permits understanding the effect of MW on labor market transitions and offers additional explanations for controversial results.

Despite the evidence that MW increasing the turnover and reducing permanence could negatively affect employment, findings from meta-regression analysis pointed out that increases in MW reduce hirings but also separations offsetting the negative effect on employment. Overall, the results imply that the standard finding that MW changes have little or no impact on employment rates reflects offsetting reductions in hiring and separations. Evidence of negative publication bias is also found.

The results emphasize the importance of looking beyond employment rates to understand the impacts of MW. Overall, the evidence implies that the standard finding that MW changes have little or no impact on employment rates reflects offsetting reductions in hiring and layoffs. In addition, the results suggest that MW tends to have a much larger impact on employment flows than on employment levels. This finding has to be considered by policymakers when they make decisions about increasing the MW. These analyses assist in clarifying debates about the effects of MW on the labor market in the changing economic environment and conduct a labor policy in the right direction.

The meta-regression analysis (MRA) conducted in this study emphasizes the importance of looking beyond employment rates to understand the impacts of MW (Brochu and Green, 2013). Overall, the evidence implies that the standard finding that MW changes have little or no impact on employment rates reflects offsetting reductions in hiring and layoffs. Therefore, the evidence from the performed MRA is consistent with those previous meta-analysis studies that found little or no evidence about MW adversely affecting employment and, at the same time, provide additional explanation for these findings. In addition, the results suggest that MW tends to have a much larger impact on employment flows than on employment levels (Dube et al., 2016).

Even though hirings are reduced due to MW, this evidence could not necessarily imply a negative effect of MW on the labor market since job searching or matching is improved. Additionally, the increases in MW could improve the quality of the job and the job attachment, which are consistent with a recruitment-retention model (Dube et al., 2007). The evidence from this MRA, which is consistent with little or no impact of MW on employment, also could imply that although the MW is set relatively high to balance the supply and demand of labor, their level is close to optimal. Setting the right level is also associated with compliance with MW. This issue deserves attention since any adverse employment effects of MW could be strengthened by incomplete coverage. The effectiveness of the entire process of developing, putting into practice and enforcing MW rules hinges on compliance.

As prior meta-regression analysis did not have the same objective, the results of this article move current research forward. Based on the analysis, future research lines are delineated, and some public policy implications are assessed.

The demand for alcohol is a well‐researched topic, yet the published literature regarding consumer responses to changes in the price of alcohol includes many conflicting and inconsistent results. This paper seeks to present an analysis of known own‐price elasticity estimates, and to attempt to understand why reported results differ.

The approach taken to analysing the data is the meta‐regression approach. Specifically, the meta‐regression considers 150 beers, spirits, and wines, own price elasticity point estimates, which have been drawn from studies that consider demand responses to changes in the price of alcohol in 18 different countries.

The results of the empirical work reported in this paper suggest that the year of the study, the length of study, the per capita level of alcohol consumption, and the relative ethanol share of a beverage are important factors when explaining variations in consumer demand responses to changes in the price of alcohol. Interestingly, the study also suggests that country‐specific and beverage‐specific effects are not important.

The paper is valuable as it uses the meta‐regression framework to control for study design characteristics and, once these characteristics are controlled for, it becomes possible to identify the underlying trend in the demand for alcohol. Specifically, the trend was shown to be one where the demand for alcoholic beverages became increasingly inelastic up to 1969 and decreasingly inelastic thereafter.

Empirical studies regarding the impact of the real exchange rate (RER) on economic growth are extensively available. However, the literature as a whole appears to report varying results, while the causes of such differences have not been analyzed systematically. The present study aims to fill the gap in the literature.

In this paper, the authors compile 543 empirical estimates from 51 studies of the exchange rate-growth nexus in order to meta-analyze its relationship. Meta-analysis allows the authors to quantitatively synthesize previous empirical studies and explain the variation in the results. This method also enables us to investigate the possibility of publication bias, as there is a tendency in research only to report results that are both statistically significant and show the expected signs.

After addressing publication bias and heterogeneity in the estimates, the meta-regression results show that RER depreciation (or undervaluation) genuinely favors economic growth. On average, RER depreciation has a greater impact on economic growth in developing countries than the developed ones. The study’s results imply that maintaining an undervalued RER could be favorable to spur economic growth, especially in developing countries.

Initially predominant in the medical literature, meta-analysis has been on a rising edge in economics. This progress has produced many systematic quantitative review analyses with continuously improved statistical-econometric practices related to economic variables. However, to the authors’ knowledge, no comprehensive meta-regression analysis of the relationship between exchange rate and economic growth has been conducted and published in any publicly accessible academic outlet. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap in the literature.

The local property tax is the oldest tax in the United States, as well as being the only substantial tax on landed wealth, a major part of the housing expense of most American families, and the most important revenue source for local governments. It is also increasingly limited by state law. This chapter presents a synthetic review of the literature on property tax limitation laws. Property taxation is a crucial resource for local governments because it is primarily a tax on real estate, and land is the least mobile tax base. A tax on the market value of real estate may have the effect of transmitting real estate price shocks to individual land users. Property tax limitation laws provide some homeowners with social protection from such market-induced economic shocks, but they do so at the price of a substantial reduction in state capacity. A meta-regression analysis of published studies finds that property tax levy limitations, on average, reduce local government budgets by as much as 5%. The potential implications for provision of other public goods, including social protection for other groups, are discussed.

This paper aims to assess the cumulative evidence on the determinants of sustainability assurance (SA) reports and the choice of assurance provider quality. It addresses the contradictory and inconsistent findings of past studies conducted over the past two decades.

The authors undertake a meta-regression analysis that enables systematic, comparative assessment of the variables associated with the choice of SA and the type of assurance provider. The authors undertake a chronological analysis with the aim of identifying systematic differences in the empirical evidence across distinct time periods.

The results indicate that there is very little evidence to support many of the expected associations between commonly studied predictor variables (namely, measures based on agency and corporate governance conceptions) and the choice of SA and the assurance provider type. As a result, research on this topic does not make as effective a contribution as might be expected. There is, however, a time period difference. The authors find results from studies using company data prior to 2010 are significantly different from those using post-2010 data. The results indicate the decision to publish SA to be significantly associated with companies in the oil industry and utilities, and larger organisations where agency costs tend to be higher. Obtaining assurance from a higher-quality provider is found to be associated with companies in environmentally sensitive industries and in stakeholder-oriented countries.

The study shows that as yet there is not sufficient evidence to support expected results. Users of the research should be aware of this, and researchers should know that more work is needed. The authors suggest researchers take greater care in the choice and comparability of variable measurement and expand the conceptual base when selecting predictor variables.

Companies need to be more transparent and accountable to critical stakeholders such as report users and regulators, and the latter should be more aware that the organisational practice of SA and choice of service provider have changed over time and are increasingly open to agency and other cultural biases.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply meta-regression techniques for understanding the body of literature on SA and provider choice.