Essays on Determinants of Accounting Conservatism

This study consists of two essays. Using a dataset from 38 economies, the first essay examines the association between product market competition and accounting conservatism as well as whether this association varies with legal institutions and product market competition. In addition, I also investigate whether product market competition affects the positive association between legal institutions and accounting conservatism documented by prior studies. In the second essay, I examine the association between ownership structure and accounting conservatism as well as how legal institutions influence this association. Using a comprehensive, firm-level ownership dataset for thirteen Western European countries to conduct the empirical analysis, I find that: (1) both wedge between control rights and cash-flow rights and dispersion of cash-flow rights across multiple large owners are positively associated with accounting conservatism; (2) legal institutions strengthen the positive association between wedge/dispersion of cash-flow rights and accounting conservatism.