http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8599 Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:40:03 GMT 2026-04-08T19:40:03Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32836 Title: Corporate governance, CEO characteristics and earnings management: Evidence from UK listed companies Authors: Jasem, Yousef A Y Abstract: This research a novel contribution by explicitly quantifying the impact of behavioural CEO traits, specifically greed and narcissism on earnings management, extending traditional agency theory to a behavioural governance framework within a UK institutional setting. The findings demonstrate that CEOs exhibiting higher levels of greed and narcissism are significantly more likely to engage in earnings management, even in firms that formally comply with established corporate governance codes. This evidence indicates that structural governance compliance alone is insufficient to constrain opportunistic financial reporting when behavioural risks at the executive level are present. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that UK regulators such as the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) should move beyond a narrow focus on formal board structures and strengthen the behavioural dimension of corporate governance oversight. Specifically, governance codes and stewardship guidelines could be enhanced by encouraging greater transparency around CEO incentive intensity, power concentration, and behavioural risk indicators, particularly in firms with high discretionary reporting environments. The findings also support closer regulatory scrutiny of remuneration schemes that amplify short-term performance incentives for CEOs displaying behavioural traits associated with opportunism. From a practical governance standpoint, the research provides clear recommendations for boards and nomination committees. CEO selection, evaluation, and succession planning should explicitly incorporate behavioural screening alongside traditional measures of experience and competence. Boards should apply heightened monitoring during early CEO tenure and when behavioural indicators of greed or narcissism are present, for example through stronger audit committee engagement, such as, more frequent performance reviews. Furthermore, separating the roles of CEO and chair and strengthening audit committee independence are shown to be particularly effective in mitigating the earnings management risks associated with such behavioural traits. For institutional investors, especially foreign institutions with active stewardship mandates, the findings highlight the value of integrating behavioural CEO risk assessments into engagement strategies, voting decisions, and portfolio monitoring. Recognising greed and narcissism as systematic risk factors can improve stewardship effectiveness and enhance long-term investment value. Overall, this research contributes to original UK-based empirical evidence demonstrating that CEO greed and narcissism are economically meaningful drivers of earnings management, and that effective governance requires a behaviourally informed policy and monitoring approach, rather than reliance on formal compliance alone. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32836 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31849 Title: Essays on accounting quality Authors: Aghayeva, Shabnam Abstract: This thesis comprises of four empirical essays on the decision-usefulness of reported accounting information in the United Kingdom (UK). In the first essay, we examine the efficacy of the EU Accounting Directive’s (AD) deregulatory agenda in the UK capital market. The main purpose of the AD was to simplify firms’ accounting requirements to reduce their administrative burdens, with a special emphasis on lowering the business costs of small firms. Using a sample of UK firms, we find that reported business costs are lower post AD adoption. Further analysis reveals that the benefits of this cost reduction are lower in small firms than non-small firms. A second goal of the AD was to ensure that the simplification and flexibility offered in its reporting provisions must not undermine accounting quality. In this regard, we find that the post AD adoption period coincides with a period of lower earnings persistence, lower conservatism, increased smoothing and lower value relevance for UK firms. There also appears to be a shift from accruals management towards real activities manipulation during this period. This decline in accounting quality is exhibited in both small and non-small firms. Overall, we find that the AD regulatory agenda has been partially attained in the UK. Our results should assist policy makers in assessing the efficacy of the AD provisions for UK firms. In the second essay, we contribute to the literature on the externalities of firms’ financial reporting practices on their peer firms’ investments. If managers use their peer firms’ financial disclosures for investment decisions, it is plausible that their investments are related to peer accounting quality. Consistent with this argument, in a sample of FTSE All-Share Index firms, we find that the investment level and investment efficiency are both positively associated with peer accounting quality. We also argue that managers’ use of peer disclosures for investment decisions is related to their firm’s financial leverage, dividend payout and profit performance. Consistent with this argument, we find that the association between investment efficiency and peer accounting quality is more positive with increased financial leverage but less positive with increased dividend payout and increased profitability. Our results suggest that managers under greater pressure to invest efficiently are more likely to rely on peer disclosures. Additional analysis reveals that the association between investment efficiency and peer accounting quality is more positive in industries with a relatively small number of peer firms. Finally, we find that firms’ investment efficiency is positively associated with the industry accounting quality, and that the firm’s leverage, dividend payout and profitability moderate this relationship. In the third essay, we contribute to the literature on the externalities of firms’ financial reporting practices for their peer firms’ dividend policies. Specifically, we examine how the level of conditional conservatism in peer firms’ financial disclosures are related to managerial decisions to pay dividends. Peer firms’ financial disclosures are a relevant source of information for managers and capital providers faced with incomplete information for decision-making. More conservative peer disclosures lower information asymmetry, improve reporting transparency, and provide financial information users with reliable accounting numbers for assessing peer performance, and consequently, firm performance, thereby improving decision-making. Hence, increased peer conservatism empowers investors to negotiate more efficient contracts with managers, restricting inefficient investments and increasing dividend payments. Consistent with our argument, in a sample of FTSE All-Share Index firms, we find that firms with higher peer conservatism pay more dividends. We also find that this positive association is more pronounced for firms with higher information asymmetry, free cash flow problems and shareholder monitoring. Additional analysis reveals that peer conservatism mitigates the underpayment of dividends, but not overpayment of dividends. Our results are robust to alternative variable measurements and model specifications. In the fourth essay, we contribute to the externalities of firms’ financial disclosures for their peer firms’ capital structure. Specifically, we argue that if capital providers view peer firms’ financial disclosures as relevant sources of information to make financing decisions about their own firms, then it is plausible that peer accounting quality is related to the firm’s optimal capital structure. Using a sample of FTSE All-Share Index non-financial firms, we find that increased peer accounting quality is associated with higher deviations from the firm’s optimal capital structure, after controlling for the firm’s accounting quality. This suggests that increased peer accounting quality generates negative externalities for the firm’s capital structure. Further analysis reveals that peer accounting quality is positively associated with underleverage but exhibits no alignment with overleverage. In additional analysis, we examine the moderating role of management performance in this relationship, as capital providers have incentives to assess management performance before making their financing decisions. We find that in efficiently (inefficiently) managed firms, the association between peer accounting quality and deviations from the optimal capital structure is less (more) pronounced. Subsample analysis suggests that management performance positively moderates the link between peer accounting quality and overleverage but appears to be unrelated to underleverage. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31849 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31560 Title: Three essays on financial development macroeconomic volatility and monetary policy Authors: Glebkina, Ekaterina Abstract: This thesis consists of three studies that cover topics in the increasingly in uential eld of nancial development and monetary policy. Chapters 2 and 3 explore the case of Brazil by (i) investigating whether (and how di¤erently) deposits in public and in private banks a¤ect economic growth over extremely long- time horizons using an uncommon econometric framework and (ii) revisiting the growth- nance nexus using a new econometric approach and a new and unique data set. More speci cally in Chapter 2 utilizes a PARCH framework and data for Brazil from 1870 to 2018 we nd that the main explanatory factors, solely in terms of their negative lagged indirect/direct (short-run) e¤ects on economic growth in Brazil, turn out to be the domestic nancial development indicators. Further, we nd robust evidence that the U.S. interest rate a¤ects growth positively both indirectly (via its volatility) and directly (both in the short- and long-run). Our results are robust to the inclusion of other economic variables i.e. trade openness and public de cit. We also argue that domestic nancial development in uences growth negatively in the short-run but positively in the long-run, whereas the impact of international nancial integration is positive in both cases. Furthermore, the impact of private and public ownership on economic growth tends to be both direct and indirect. However, our parameter estimations highlight the signi cantly higher (in absolute magnitude) negative indirect and direct short-run e¤ects of public banks (compared to those of private banks) on growth. Finally, trade openness and public de cit in uence output growth negatively in the short-run. Our results are robust to the inclusion of population, in ation, and authority score as well as dummy variables. Chapter 3 uses the smooth transition framework and annual time series data for Brazil (i.e. annual growth rate of gross domestic product (gdp), nancial development, trade openness and a set of political instability indicators) covering the period from a very long time window, from 1890 to 2003. The new data we use in this chapter is for political instability. Our research contributes further to the literature by extending the track of political instability back to the year of 1890. More speci cally, we constructed our own informal and formal political instability series from 1890 to 1919 (a period with high political uncertainty in Brazil). Our main ndings are that (a) nancial development has a mixed (positive and negative) time-varying impact on economic growth (which signi cantly depends on jointly estimated trade openness thresholds); (b) trade openness has a positive e¤ect, whereas (c) the e¤ect of political instability, both formal and informal, on growth is unambiguously negative. Finally, Chapter 4 continues the investigation on the empirical magnitude of the scal multipliers and its determinants in the U.S.. We estimate the e¤ects of unanticipated government spending shocks on output using quarterly U.S. data, 1986-2017. Our contribution is to estimate time-varying scal multi- pliers conditional on di¤erent states of the business cycle by smooth-transition estimation, characterising multipliers by the sign of the spending shocks. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31560 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31501 Title: The effects of quantitative easing on the cost of issuing UK government debt, on the bid-to-cover ratio at the debt auctions and on the integration of UK capital markets Authors: Oliaie, Mahnaz Abstract: This thesis examines the impacts of Quantitative Easing (QE) on the UK gilt market, focusing on government debt issuance costs, market demand, and financial market volatility. Despite a willing buyer of gilts during QE phases, issuance costs were higher, driven by volatility and supply increases during economic turbulence. Costs were particularly sensitive for longer maturity bonds and bonds already held by the Bank of England, indicating diminishing effects of QE over time. Auction demand, measured by the bid-to-cover ratio, rose significantly during QE phases but fell during periods of financial instability, larger auction sizes, and longer maturities. Liquidity-enhancing mechanisms, such as the Post Auction Option Facility (PAOF), positively influenced demand, while QE improved short-term demand but posed long-term liquidity challenges. Volatility analysis shows that during QE phases, short-term gilts experienced lower volatility, while long-term gilts showed higher volatility. However, greater intensity of purchases by the Bank of England reduced overall bond market volatility but increased volatility in the equity market. During QT phases, higher volatility was observed across all markets, though QT-active phases mitigated this effect, leading to relatively lower volatility. This thesis provides a comprehensive understanding of how QE and QT influence sovereign debt management and financial market stability. The findings offer practical insights for policymakers and market participants navigating the complexities of unconventional monetary policy. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/31501 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z