An Examination of the Stockholder Response to Corporate Religiosity and Religiosity’s Effects on Operational and Financial Reporting Quality

Briscoe, Katrina Marie (2014) An Examination of the Stockholder Response to Corporate Religiosity and Religiosity’s Effects on Operational and Financial Reporting Quality. Undergraduate thesis, under the direction of Victoria Dickinson from Accountancy, The University of Mississippi.

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Abstract

Religion has been shown to influence decision makers at both the individual and business level. In this paper, I examine the stockholder response to corporate religiosity and religiosity’s effects on operational and financial reporting quality. Industry adjusted return on assets and industry adjusted accruals are my measures for operational and financial reporting quality, respectively. Using religiosity data from Dyreng, Mayew, and Williams, I evaluate the 1999 and 2006 mean stock returns by degree of religiosity and return on assets and by degree of religiosity and accruals earnings management. I find that stockholders favor the least religious companies with the highest level of operational efficiency and the highest level of accruals earnings management in 1999. My results show that stockholders continue to favor the least religious companies with the highest level of accruals earnings management in 2006 but at a decreasing rate. My results also show that stockholders begin to favor the most religious companies with the highest level of operational efficiency in 2006. In this paper, I also examine corporate religiosity by industry and auditor client base. My results reveal the most and least religious industries and the auditors with the most and least religious client bases. Collectively, my study provides new evidence and continues the discussion of the effects of corporate religiosity in the United States.

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