IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v66y2021ics0929119920301383.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The future of financial fraud

Author

Listed:
  • Karpoff, Jonathan M.

Abstract

Is financial fraud becoming a bigger or smaller problem over time? Current empirical approaches to this question generate mixed inferences. As an alternative, I use two theoretical constructs that isolate several factors that motivate fraud, and use them to consider the impact of technological and wealth changes over time. Some changes, such as an increase in anonymity in some financial transactions, facilitate new fraud innovations and increase the possibility of fraud. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic shutdown has fostered major disruptions in relative demands and organizational capital that also increase the likelihood of fraud over the next few years. Viewed over a longer time scale, however, the majority of technological and wealth changes seem likely to increase the use and effectiveness of reputational capital, third-party enforcement, and ethical motivations as fraud deterrents. I predict that, on net, these changes will drive a long-term decrease in the incidence of fraud.

Suggested Citation

  • Karpoff, Jonathan M., 2021. "The future of financial fraud," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:66:y:2021:i:c:s0929119920301383
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101694
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119920301383
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101694?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & James D. Cox & Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff & Richard Sloan, 2018. "Financial reporting fraud and other forms of misconduct: a multidisciplinary review of the literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 732-783, June.
    2. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christopher A. Parsons & Johan Sulaeman & Sheridan Titman, 2018. "The Geography of Financial Misconduct," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 73(5), pages 2087-2137, October.
    4. John Pound, 1992. "Raiders, Targets, And Politics: The History And Future Of American Corporate Control," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 5(3), pages 6-18, September.
    5. Trautmann, Stefan T. & van de Kuilen, Gijs & Zeckhauser, Richard J., 2013. "Social Class and Un(ethical) Behavior: A Framework, with Evidence from a Large Population Sample," Working Paper Series rwp13-004, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Engelberg, Joseph & Gao, Pengjie & Parsons, Christopher A., 2012. "Friends with money," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 169-188.
    7. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 2002. "Investor Protection and Corporate Valuation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(3), pages 1147-1170, June.
    8. Kreps, David M. & Wilson, Robert, 1982. "Reputation and imperfect information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 253-279, August.
    9. Sofia Johan, 2008. "Global Market Surveillance," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 10(2), pages 454-506.
    10. Carlin, Bruce Ian & Dorobantu, Florin & Viswanathan, S., 2009. "Public trust, the law, and financial investment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 321-341, June.
    11. Maksimovic, Vojislav & Titman, Sheridan, 1991. "Financial Policy and Reputation for Product Quality," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 175-200.
    12. Karpoff, Jonathan M & Lott, John R, Jr, 1993. "The Reputational Penalty Firms Bear from Committing Criminal Fraud," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 757-802, October.
    13. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    14. David Yermack, 2017. "Corporate Governance and Blockchains," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 21(1), pages 7-31.
    15. Patricia M. Dechow & Weili Ge & Chad R. Larson & Richard G. Sloan, 2011. "Predicting Material Accounting Misstatements," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 17-82, March.
    16. Fama, Eugene F, 1980. "Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 288-307, April.
    17. Mark Cecchini & Haldun Aytug & Gary J. Koehler & Praveen Pathak, 2010. "Detecting Management Fraud in Public Companies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(7), pages 1146-1160, July.
    18. Cumming, Douglas & Dannhauser, Robert & Johan, Sofia, 2015. "Financial market misconduct and agency conflicts: A synthesis and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 150-168.
    19. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    20. Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff, 2020. "The Trust Triangle: Laws, Reputation, and Culture in Empirical Finance Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 217-238, May.
    21. Smith, Adam, 1759. "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1759.
    22. Jean Tirole, 1996. "A Theory of Collective Reputations (with applications to the persistence of corruption and to firm quality)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(1), pages 1-22.
    23. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-641, August.
    24. Diamond, Douglas W, 1989. "Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 828-862, August.
    25. Liu, Xiaoding, 2016. "Corruption culture and corporate misconduct," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 307-327.
    26. Telser, L G, 1980. "A Theory of Self-enforcing Agreements," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(1), pages 27-44, January.
    27. Burns, Natasha & Minnick, Kristina & Starks, Laura, 2017. "CEO Tournaments: A Cross-Country Analysis of Causes, Cultural Influences, and Consequences," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 519-551, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lei, Yu-Tian & Ma, Chao-Qun & Ren, Yi-Shuai & Chen, Xun-Qi & Narayan, Seema & Huynh, Anh Ngoc Quang, 2023. "A distributed deep neural network model for credit card fraud detection," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    2. Bashir Ahmad & Maria Ciupac-Ulici & Daniela-Georgeta Beju, 2021. "Economic and Non-Economic Variables Affecting Fraud in European Countries," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Zaman, Rashid, 2024. "When corporate culture matters: The case of stakeholder violations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    4. Hamed Taherdoost, 2021. "A Review on Risk Management in Information Systems: Risk Policy, Control and Fraud Detection," Post-Print hal-03741848, HAL.
    5. Bao, Xin & Han, Meini & Lau, Raymond & Xu, Xiaowei, 2024. "Corporate integrity culture and credit rating assessment," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Hutton, Irena & Knill, April M. & Zutter, Chad J., 2021. "25 years and counting of corporate finance: What have we learned and where are we going?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Yunchuan Sun & Xiaoping Zeng & Ying Xu & Hong Yue & Xipu Yu, 2024. "An intelligent detecting model for financial frauds in Chinese A‐share market," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 1110-1136, July.
    8. Li, Xiaodan & Pan, Zikui & Ho, Kung-Cheng & Bo, Yu, 2024. "Epidemics, local institutional quality, and corporate cash holdings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 193-210.
    9. Wang, Yang & Ashton, John K. & Jaafar, Aziz, 2023. "Financial statement fraud, recidivism and punishment," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    10. Mia Hang Pham & Harvey Nguyen & Martin Young & Anh Dao, 2024. "Who Keeps Company with the Wolf will Learn to Howl: Does Local Corruption Culture Affect Financial Adviser Misconduct?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 185-210, September.
    11. Mostafa Saidur Rahim Khan & Yoshihiko Kadoya, 2023. "Who Became Victims of Financial Frauds during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Hartmann, Andre J. & Gangl, Katharina & Kasper, Matthias & Kirchler, Erich & Kocher, Martin G. & Mueller, Martin & Sonntag, Axel, 2022. "The economic crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic has a negative effect on tax compliance: Results from a scenario study in Austria," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    13. Bernales, Alejandro & Beuermann, Diether W. & Cumming, Douglas & Olid, Christian, 2023. "Blue-Collar Crime and Finance," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. Chen, Fengwen & Wang, Bing & Wang, Wei & Hu, Chen, 2024. "The secret of imitating wrongdoing: Accidental or deliberate," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    15. Rashid Zaman & Nader Atawnah & Muhammad Nadeem & Stephen Bahadar & Irfan Haider Shakri, 2022. "Do liquid assets lure managers? Evidence from corporate misconduct," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7-8), pages 1425-1453, July.
    16. Maria Tragouda & Michalis Doumpos & Constantin Zopounidis, 2024. "Identification of fraudulent financial statements through a multi‐label classification approach," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff, 2020. "The Trust Triangle: Laws, Reputation, and Culture in Empirical Finance Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 217-238, May.
    2. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & James D. Cox & Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff & Richard Sloan, 2018. "Financial reporting fraud and other forms of misconduct: a multidisciplinary review of the literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 732-783, June.
    3. Alexander, Cindy R, 1999. "On the Nature of the Reputational Penalty for Corporate Crime: Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(1), pages 489-526, April.
    4. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:789-848 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Zaman, Rashid, 2024. "When corporate culture matters: The case of stakeholder violations," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    6. Ahlin, Christian & Kim, In Kyung & Kim, Kyoo il, 2021. "Who commits fraud? evidence from korean gas stations," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Rind, Asad Ali & Abbassi, Wajih & Allaya, Manel & Hammouda, Amira, 2022. "Local peers and firm misconduct: The role of sustainability and competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    8. Vincenzo Scoppa, 2003. "Contratti incompleti ed enforcement endogeno. Una rassegna della letteratura," Economia politica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 391-440.
    9. Heski Bar-Isaac & Juanjo Ganuza, 2005. "Teaching to the top and searching for superstars," Working Papers 05-06, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    10. Chen, Yong & Mak, Barry & Li, Zhou, 2013. "Quality deterioration in package tours: The interplay of asymmetric information and reputation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 43-54.
    11. Cole, Rebel & Johan, Sofia & Schweizer, Denis, 2021. "Corporate failures: Declines, collapses, and scandals," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    12. W. Bentley MacLeod, 2006. "Reputations, Relationships and the Enforcement of Incomplete Contracts," CESifo Working Paper Series 1730, CESifo.
    13. Dragan Filipovich, 2002. "Free Riding And Incentives To Invest In The Reputation Of An Anonymous Group," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 1(1), pages 59-81, Marzo 200.
    14. Ashton, John & Burnett, Tim & Diaz-Rainey, Ivan & Ormosi, Peter, 2021. "Known unknowns: How much financial misconduct is detected and deterred?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    15. John Kennes & Aaron Schiff, 2003. "The Value of a Reputation System," Industrial Organization 0301011, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Stringham, Edward Peter, 2011. "Embracing morals in economics: The role of internal moral constraints in a market economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 98-109.
    17. Omer Moav & Zvika Neeman, 2004. "Inspection in Markets for Experience Goods," Discussion Paper Series dp349, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    18. Luís Cabral & Ali Hortacsu, 2004. "The Dynamics of Seller Reputation: Theory and Evidence from eBay," Working Papers 04-05, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    19. Hortacsu, Ali, 2005. "Trust and Reputation on eBay: Micro and Macro Perspectives," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt8vj7d50q, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    20. Karol Marek Klimczak & Alejo José G. Sison & Maria Prats & Maximilian B. Torres, 2022. "How to Deter Financial Misconduct if Crime Pays?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 205-222, August.
    21. Stuart Landon & Constance E. Smith, 1998. "Quality Expectations, Reputation, and Price," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 628-647, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial misconduct; Fraud; Trust; Reputation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:66:y:2021:i:c:s0929119920301383. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.