IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v90y2024icp220-240.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do financing constraints affect the financial integrity of firms?

Author

Listed:
  • Mertzanis, Charilaos
  • Marashdeh, Hazem
  • Houcine, Asma

Abstract

We use micro-survey data from 126,309 private non-financial firms in 138 developing nations during the period of 2006–2018 to investigate how financing constraints affect the integrity of their financial information. Our findings indicate that private firms with greater financing constraints are less inclined to undergo external audits voluntarily. This effect varies depending on factors such as firm size, business sector, ownership structure, accounting and auditing conditions, as well as the prevailing institutional environment. Our results remain robust even after subjecting them to various sensitivity and endogeneity tests. They suggest that financially constrained firms in developing countries may have stronger motivations to manipulate earnings, employ aggressive tax avoidance strategies, or be susceptible to managerial short-sightedness. Additionally, it is possible that finance providers rely on alternative mechanisms rather than audited accounts to monitor firm performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Mertzanis, Charilaos & Marashdeh, Hazem & Houcine, Asma, 2024. "Do financing constraints affect the financial integrity of firms?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 220-240.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:90:y:2024:i:c:p:220-240
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2023.12.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056023004525
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2023.12.004?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. Kaufmann, Daniel & Batra, Geeta & Stone, Andrew H. W., 2003. "The Firms Speak: What the World Business Environment Survey Tells Us about Constraints on Private Sector Development," MPRA Paper 8213, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Chinn, Menzie D. & Ito, Hiro, 2006. "What matters for financial development? Capital controls, institutions, and interactions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 163-192, October.
    3. Beck, T.H.L. & Hoseini, M., 2014. "Informality and Access to Finance : Evidence from India," Other publications TiSEM 00e890f4-bd1a-46ba-9064-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. repec:eme:maj000:maj-08-2017-1634 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Smith, Janet Kiholm, 1987. "Trade Credit and Informational Asymmetry," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(4), pages 863-872, September.
    6. Omar Farooq & Nermeen F. Shehata, 2018. "Does external auditing combat corruption? Evidence from private firms," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(3), pages 267-287, March.
    7. Venancio Tauringana & Steve Clarke, 2000. "The demand for external auditing: managerial share ownership, size, gearing and liquidity influences," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(4), pages 160-168, June.
    8. Jeong†Bon Kim & Dan A. Simunic & Michael T. Stein & CHEONG H. YI, 2011. "Voluntary Audits and the Cost of Debt Capital for Privately Held Firms: Korean Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 585-615, June.
    9. Doidge, Craig & Andrew Karolyi, G. & Stulz, Rene M., 2007. "Why do countries matter so much for corporate governance?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 1-39, October.
    10. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    11. D. Eric Hirst, 1994. "Auditor Sensitivity to Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(1), pages 405-422, June.
    12. Ahmet C. Kurt, 2018. "How Do Financial Constraints Relate to Financial Reporting Quality? Evidence from Seasoned Equity Offerings," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 527-557, May.
    13. Clive Lennox, 2005. "Management Ownership and Audit Firm Size," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 205-227, March.
    14. Ole-Kristian Hope & Wayne Thomas & Dushyantkumar Vyas, 2011. "Financial credibility, ownership, and financing constraints in private firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(7), pages 935-957, September.
    15. Kausar, Asad & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2016. "Real effects of the audit choice," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 157-181.
    16. Cumming, Douglas & Groh, Alexander Peter, 2018. "Entrepreneurial finance: Unifying themes and future directions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 538-555.
    17. Laux, Volker & Stocken, Phillip C., 2012. "Managerial reporting, overoptimism, and litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 577-591.
    18. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2005. "Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-128, February.
    19. Key, Kimberly Galligan, 1997. "Political cost incentives for earnings management in the cable television industry," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 309-337, November.
    20. Michael Minnis & Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Why regulate private firm disclosure and auditing?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 473-502, July.
    21. Geraldine Broye & Laurent Weill, 2008. "Does leverage influence auditor choice? A cross-country analysis," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(9), pages 715-731.
    22. Blackwell, DW & Noland, TR & Winters, DB, 1998. "The value of auditor assurance: Evidence from loan pricing," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 57-70.
    23. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    24. Erik Peek & Rick Cuijpers & Willem Buijink, 2010. "Creditors’ and Shareholders’ Reporting Demands in Public Versus Private Firms: Evidence from Europe," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 49-91, March.
    25. Holthausen, Robert W. & Leftwich, Richard W., 1983. "The economic consequences of accounting choice implications of costly contracting and monitoring," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 77-117, April.
    26. Art Durnev & E. Han Kim, 2005. "To Steal or Not to Steal: Firm Attributes, Legal Environment, and Valuation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1461-1493, June.
    27. Mikko Zerni & Elina Haapamäki & Tuukka Järvinen & Lasse Niemi, 2012. "Do Joint Audits Improve Audit Quality? Evidence from Voluntary Joint Audits," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 731-765, December.
    28. Höglund, Henrik & Sundvik, Dennis, 2016. "Financial reporting quality and outsourcing of accounting tasks: Evidence from small private firms," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 125-134.
    29. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    30. Mehmet Ugur & Melsa Ararat, 2006. "Does Macroeconomic Performance Affect Corporate Governance? Evidence from Turkey," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(4), pages 325-348, July.
    31. Bouton, Lawrence & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2010. "Subjective perceptions of financing constraints: How well do they reflect credit market conditions?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 98-105, June.
    32. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    33. Michael Minnis, 2011. "The Value of Financial Statement Verification in Debt Financing: Evidence from Private U.S. Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 457-506, May.
    34. Distinguin, Isabelle & Rugemintwari, Clovis & Tacneng, Ruth, 2016. "Can Informal Firms Hurt Registered SMEs’ Access to Credit?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 18-40.
    35. Brenda Van Tendeloo & Ann Vanstraelen, 2008. "Earnings Management and Audit Quality in Europe: Evidence from the Private Client Segment Market," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 447-469.
    36. Connie L. Becker & Mark L. Defond & James Jiambalvo & K.R. Subramanyam, 1998. "The Effect of Audit Quality on Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, March.
    37. David Roodman, 2011. "Fitting fully observed recursive mixed-process models with cmp," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(2), pages 159-206, June.
    38. Ralf Ewert & Alfred Wagenhofer, 2019. "Effects of Increasing Enforcement on Financial Reporting Quality and Audit Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 121-168, March.
    39. Erik Peek & Rick Cuijpers & Willem Buijink, 2010. "Creditors’ and Shareholders’ Reporting Demands in Public Versus Private Firms: Evidence from Europe," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 2-2, March.
    40. Lasse Niemi & Juha Kinnunen & Hannu Ojala & Pontus Troberg, 2012. "Drivers of voluntary audit in Finland: to be or not to be audited?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 169-196, June.
    41. Jong†Hag Choi & T. J. Wong, 2007. "Auditors' Governance Functions and Legal Environments: An International Investigation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(1), pages 13-46, March.
    42. Jill Collis, 2012. "Determinants of voluntary audit and voluntary full accounts in micro- and non-micro small companies in the UK," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 441-468, September.
    43. Gavin Cassar & Christopher Ittner, 2009. "Initial Retention of External Accountants in Startup Ventures," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 313-340.
    44. Nikbakht, Ehsan & Sarkar, Sayan & Spieler, Andrew C., 2017. "External monitoring of private firms: A cross-country empirical analysis," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 113-127.
    45. Benjamin Balsmeier & Steven Vanhaverbeke, 2018. "International Financial Reporting Standards and Private Firms’ Access to Bank Loans," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 75-104, January.
    46. Kelvin K. F. Law & Lillian F. Mills, 2015. "Taxes and Financial Constraints: Evidence from Linguistic Cues," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 777-819, September.
    47. Gavin Cassar, 2011. "Discussion of The Value of Financial Statement Verification in Debt Financing: Evidence from Private U.S. Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 507-528, May.
    48. Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2019. "Family ties, institutions and financing constraints in developing countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    49. 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.
    50. Omar Farooq & Harit Satt & Basma El Fadel, 2020. "Political uncertainty and the choice of external audit: international evidence from private firms," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 17(4), pages 568-588, October.
    51. Petro Lisowsky & Michael Minnis & Andrew Sutherland, 2017. "Economic Growth and Financial Statement Verification," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 745-794, September.
    52. Berry, Aidan & Robertson, Jenny, 2006. "Overseas bankers in the UK and their use of information for making lending decisions: Changes from 1985," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 175-191.
    53. Fafchamps, Marcel & Labonne, Julien, 2017. "Using Split Samples to Improve Inference on Causal Effects," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(4), pages 465-482, October.
    54. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2001. "Are CEOs Rewarded for Luck? The Ones Without Principals Are," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 901-932.
    55. Manuel Cano Rodríguez & Santiago Sánchez Alegría, 2012. "The value of audit quality in public and private companies: evidence from Spain," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(4), pages 683-706, November.
    56. Korajczyk, Robert A. & Levy, Amnon, 2003. "Capital structure choice: macroeconomic conditions and financial constraints," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 75-109, April.
    57. Jere R. Francis & Inder K. Khurana & Xiumin Martin & Raynolde Pereira, 2011. "The Relative Importance of Firm Incentives versus Country Factors in the Demand for Assurance Services by Private Entities," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 487-516, June.
    58. Elisabeth Dedman & Asad Kausar & Clive Lennox, 2014. "The Demand for Audit in Private Firms: Recent Large-Sample Evidence from the UK," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 1-23, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ann Vanstraelen & Caren Schelleman, 2017. "Auditing private companies: what do we know?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 565-584, July.
    2. Aase, Øivind André, 2022. "Size Management in Response to Mandatory Audit Rules," Discussion Papers 2022/2, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    3. Aase, Øivind André Strand, 2022. "Effects of Voluntary Audit on Accounting Quality in Small Private Firms," Discussion Papers 2022/1, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    4. Clatworthy, Mark A. & Peel, Michael J., 2016. "The timeliness of UK private company financial reporting: Regulatory and economic influences," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 297-315.
    5. Ole-Kristian Hope & Shushu Jiang & Dushyantkumar Vyas, 2021. "Government procurement and financial statement certification: Evidence from private firms in emerging economies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(4), pages 718-745, June.
    6. Petro Lisowsky & Michael Minnis, 2020. "The Silent Majority: Private U.S. Firms and Financial Reporting Choices," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 547-588, June.
    7. Kuo, Nan-Ting & Lee, Cheng-Few, 2024. "Social trust and the choices to provide audited financial statements by private firms in emerging markets," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2).
    8. Palazuelos Cobo, Estefanía & Montoya del Corte, Javier & Herrero Crespo, Ángel, 2017. "Determinantes de la continuidad en la contratación de la auditoría de forma voluntaria: evidencia para el caso de España," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 63-72.
    9. Huq, Asif & Hartwig, Fredrik & Rudholm, Niklas, 2018. "Do audited firms have lower cost of debt?," HUI Working Papers 132, HUI Research.
    10. Wen Hua Sharpe & Peter Carey & Hong Feng Zhang, 2023. "Being private, Big 4 auditors, and debt raising," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2295-2345, June.
    11. Maarten Corten & Tensie Steijvers & Nadine Lybaert, 2015. "The demand for auditor services in wholly family-owned private firms: the moderating role of generation," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 1-26, January.
    12. Elina Haapamäki, 2018. "Voluntary Auditing: A Synthesis of the Literature," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 81-104, January.
    13. Stefanie Ceustermans & Diane Breesch & Joël Branson, 2017. "Voluntary Disclosure of Sales and the Extent of Trade Credit in Small Private Companies," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 388-406, September.
    14. Hope, Ole-Kristian & Langli, John Christian & Thomas, Wayne B., 2012. "Agency conflicts and auditing in private firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 500-517.
    15. Reiner Quick & Niklas Schenk & Florian Schmidt & Thilo Towara, 2018. "The impact of corporate governance on auditor choice: evidence from Germany," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(2), pages 251-283, June.
    16. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    17. Bernard, Darren & Burgstahler, David & Kaya, Devrimi, 2018. "Size management by European private firms to minimize proprietary costs of disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 94-122.
    18. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Mertzanis, Charilaos & Garas, Samy & Abdel-Maksoud, Ahmed, 2020. "Integrity of financial information and firms' access to energy in developing countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    20. Michael Minnis & Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Why regulate private firm disclosure and auditing?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 473-502, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial integrity; Financing constraints; Institutions; Developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

    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:reveco:v:90:y:2024:i:c:p:220-240. 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/inca/620165 .

    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.