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The purpose of this paper is to analyze how “New Deal” regulatory initiatives, primarily the Securities Acts and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), changed US auditors’ professional knowledge conception, culminating in the 1938 expansion of the Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP), the first US body to set accounting principles.

The paper combines Halliday’s (1985) knowledge mandates with Hancher and Moran’s (1989) regulatory space to attain a theory-based understanding of auditors’ changing knowledge conceptions amid regulatory pressure. It draws on a range of primary and secondary sources to examine the period from 1929 to 1938.

Following the stock market crash, the newly created SEC aimed to engage auditors as a means to regulate companies’ accounting practices based on a set of codified principles. While entailing increased status, this new role conflicted with the auditors’ knowledge conception, which was based on professional judgment and personal integrity. Pressure from the SEC and academics eventually made auditors agree to a codification of their professional knowledge and create the CAP as a cooperative regulatory solution.

The paper explores the role of auditors’ knowledge conceptions in the emergence of today’s standard setting. It is suggested that auditors’ incomplete control of their professional knowledge made standard setting a form of co-regulation, located between the actors occupying the regulatory space of accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the flash crash, and explain why and how it happened.

The author summarizes several studies suggesting various perspectives on the flash crash and its causes. Furthermore, the author highlights recently proposed and introduced improvements and regulations to reduce the risk of having similar market collapses in the future.

It is an overview paper that highlights the state of the art on the subject.

Paper does not report any research findings of the author.

High-frequency trading (HFT) along with its pros and cons is the new normal for most of the current electronic trading activity in the markets. It is well recognized by the experts that HFT may have its important shortcomings whenever the rules and regulations are not up to date to match the technological progress offering faster computational and execution capabilities.

HFT has created a societal discussion about its benefits and potential deficiencies as the common practice for trading due to potentially unequal access to market data by various categories of participants. Such arguments help the regulators to develop improvements to reduce the market risk and nurture more robust and fair markets for all.

The paper has a tutorial value and summarizes the current state of HFT. The readers of more interest are guided to the most relevant literature for further reading.

In Korea and abroad, this paper investigates the use of blockchains in the financial sector. This study aims to examine how blockchains are applied to the financial sector and how to respond to the Korean conditions.

This paper investigates the movements of the financial sector and related services using the blockchain in the current market.

First, as a result of examining domestic and foreign cases, it can be seen that the areas where blockchains are most actively applied in the financial sector are expanding into settlement, remittance, securities and smart contracts. Also, in Korea, many of the authentication procedures based on the equipment possessed by the consumers are used so that introduction of the blockchain in the authentication part is prominent. Second, the move to introduce a closed (private) distributed ledger that does not go through the central bank is accelerating in payments between banks. Third, domestic financial institutions also need joint action by financial institutions through a blockchain consortium to apply blockchain technology to the financial sector. Fourth, consumer needs and technological developments are changing. At the same time, as the opportunity to infringe on the information held by individuals has expanded, the need for blockchain technology is strongly emerging because of the efforts of the organizations to defend it.

This paper contributes to understanding the changes in the financial sector using the blockchain.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how non-professional investors (NPIs) with varying levels of financial sophistication interpret and perceive corporate disclosures and management credibility, specifically risk factors, when those disclosures are presented in readable and less-readable formats.

The paper uses an online experiment to test hypotheses related to the effects of financial sophistication (measured) and readability (manipulated) on NPIs’ equity valuations and perceptions of management credibility (competence and trustworthiness).

Increased readability appears to counteract less-sophisticated NPIs’ conservatism in equity valuations, such that they are not statistically significantly different from more-sophisticated NPIs’ equity valuations. Further, less-sophisticated NPIs judge management as less competent when disclosures are less readable, while more-sophisticated NPIs judge management as more competent when disclosures are less readable.

The paper has important implications for the SEC’s regulations related to plain English requirements for risk factor and other corporate disclosures. Financial sophistication varies among NPIs, and readability appears to influence these individuals in different ways.

The SEC’s Concept Release (April 13, 2016) acknowledges the need to update and improve risk factor disclosure regulations. This study provides evidence that contributes to those decisions.

The paper extends the research on processing fluency, by examining readability of disclosures with a consistent tone (negative). The NPIs surveyed are directly representative of the population of interest for risk factor disclosure regulations.

It is important to note that insider trading is currently outlawed under the Securities Act 17 of 2004 (Chapter 24: 25) as amended (Securities Act) in Zimbabwe. This Act enumerates some practices that may give rise to insider trading liability in the Zimbabwean financial markets. Nonetheless, numerous challenges, such as the lack of adequate financial resources, the lack of sufficient persons with the relevant skills and expertise on the part of the enforcement authorities, lack of political will, inadequacy of insider trading provisions, poor cooperation and collaboration between the relevant authorities and the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic have negatively impeded the effective regulation and combating of insider trading in Zimbabwe. To this end, the author explores the stated challenges and recommend measures that could be used by regulatory bodies and other relevant enforcement authorities to enhance the regulation and combating of insider trading in the Zimbabwean financial markets. This study aims to enhance the detection and combating of insider trading in Zimbabwe.

A qualitative research methodology is used through the analysis of relevant legislation and case law.

It is hoped that the findings and recommendations made in this study will be considered by the Zimbabwean policymakers.

The study does not use empirical research methodology.

The findings and recommendations made in this study could enhance the combating of insider trading activities in Zimbabwe.

The study seeks to curb insider trading in the Zimbabwean financial markets and financial institutions in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic-related regulatory and enforcement challenges.

The study provides original research on the regulation and combating of insider trading activities in Zimbabwe.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the prohibition of certain non-audit services by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Bangladesh on the profitability of the audit firms which are affiliated with Big-4 international audit firms. This paper is based on personal in-depth interviews with the Big-4-affiliated audit firms. A qualitative approach, in a way which is descriptive and illustrative, is adopted in this research. This research provides evidence for the fact that audit services are the most significant and stable source of income for an audit firm. Although respondents generally admit that non-audit services might be more profitable, they all agree that audit services are indeed the core operations of an audit firm. Findings in this paper reveal a contemporary picture of the auditing profession in Bangladesh and elucidate the impact that the implementation of Corporate Governance Order 2006 has on an audit firm's profitability. This research is the first in-depth study of the impact of the prohibition of non-audit services on the profitability of the Big-4-affiliated audit firms in Bangladesh. Financial reporting regulatory authorities in Bangladesh or other developing countries may find the findings in this paper useful.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the Ponzi schemes and revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat.

The study adopted a quantitative research approach. Convenient sampling method was used to select 435 individuals from three regions in Ghana. Standardize questionnaire developed by the researcher was used as the main data collection instrument. The binary logistic regression was used to test the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables.

The results of the study showed a positive relationship between financial threat and job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment. However, negative relationship was identified between financial threat and total debt, stress, economic hardship and anxiety. Findings from this study imply that job loss, general health, information search and loss of investment are major factors that determined financial threat in Ghana.

This indicates that individuals in Ghana have become uncertain regarding the use of current and future financial services in Ghana because most individuals have lost their jobs in the financial institutions, cannot get access to safe drinking water and education, need to gather more information before investing in financial institutions in Ghana and losing of funds invested.

This study is the first to test the effects of the Ponzi schemes and the revocation of licences of some financial institutions in Ghana on financial threat using binary logistic regression.

This paper aims to determine the influence of various corporate characteristics such as total assets (TA), total sales (TSE), return on assets (ROA), return on sales (ROS), liquidity and age on leverage of the listed non-financial companies in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE).

A non-probability sampling technique has been used in this study, and the leverage of 106 companies listed in the DSE has been examined for the time period 2011-2015. Multiple regression models are used to estimate the influence of corporate characteristics on leverage and leverage is measured by the debt ratio, that is, total liabilities divided by total assets (TA).

The results obtained from the regression models show that TA, ROA and age are negatively and significantly related to the leverage of companies.

Considering only non-financial companies as the sample is a limitation. Hence, the results may not extend across all listed companies in Bangladesh. The study explores only six corporate characteristics variables; other factors influencing the leverage of the firm such as the number of foreign shareholders, ownership structure and auditors’ opinion could be explored in further studies.

The finding of this study contributes to the regulators and enforcement agencies such as Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the DSE. It will enable the regulatory agencies to aim at greater compliance with the local and international standards and also enforce penalties for non-compliance.

This paper aims to update the cybersecurity-related accounting literature by synthesizing 39 recent theoretical and empirical studies on the topic. Furthermore, the paper provides a set of categories into which the studies fit.

This is a synthesis paper that summarizes the research literature on cybersecurity, introducing knowledge from the extant research and revealing areas requiring further examination.

This synthesis identifies a research framework that consists of the following research themes: cybersecurity and information sharing, cybersecurity investments, internal auditing and controls related to cybersecurity, disclosure of cybersecurity activities and security threats and security breaches.

Academics, practitioners and the public would benefit from a research framework that categorizes the research topics related to cybersecurity in the accounting field. This type of analysis is vital to enhance the understanding of the academic research on cybersecurity and can be used to support the identification of new lines for future research.

This is the first literature analysis of cybersecurity in the accounting field, and it has significant implications for research and practice by detailing, for example, the benefits of and obstacles to information sharing. This synthesis also highlights the importance of the model for cybersecurity investments. Further, the review emphasizes the role of internal auditing and controls to improve cybersecurity.

The study aims to examine the appropriateness of the coefficient of elasticity of trading (CET) as a measure of liquidity using Nigerian stock market data. Given that liquidity is multidimensional, the CET is complemented with the popular measure of liquidity, turnover ratio to explore the causal relationship among the CET, turnover ratio and market return to determine their relevance in security valuation. In other words, an attempt is made to examine if either of these two measures of liquidity is a relevant factor in explaining stock market return.

The Toda-Yamamoto version of Granger causality test is applied to two sets of data on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The available monthly time series data are from 2008 to 2019 while the annual data are from 1986 to 2018. The Toda-Yamamoto test is preferred because it is more robust to integration and cointegration of the variables.

The results of the Toda-Yamamoto version of the Granger causality test on monthly data reveal no causal relationship between CET and market return, turnover and market return and CET with turnover and market return. These results are consistent with those for several frontier countries reported by Rubio et al. (2005), Hartian and Sitorus (2015), Batten and Vo (2019) and Sterenczak et al. (2020). The results support the conclusion that the Nigerian economy is not fully integrated with the global economy. Market inefficiency due to order imbalances given the nature of the trading system can also explain the reported results. However, the results from annual data do not tally with the monthly results. There is causality running from CET to market return. There is also causality running from turnover to market return. Therefore, both CET and turnover are statistically significant causal predictors of market return. The results from annual data are consistent with those reported by Marozva (2019).

The key limitation is availability of high-frequency transaction-level data to researchers to consider many measures of liquidity that have been employed in developed countries. The research implication is that more researchers will be encouraged to conduct more studies on liquidity and how the study results can drive policy recommendations. The standard asymptotic distribution of underlying the Toda-Yamamoto approach has been found to lead to overrejection.

This study is the first to apply Toda-Yamamoto model on data from Nigeria to investigate the causal relationship between stock market return and liquidity proxied by the CET given the nature of the automated trading system (ATS) in use. The CET is also complemented with the turnover ratio to explore the multidimensional nature of liquidity and its causal relationship with market return. The study is also interpreted as a determination of the integration of Nigeria's economy with the global economy with its implication on investment diversification.