PhD Defence: Anastasios Elemes
In his dissertation ‘Studies on Determinants and Consequences of Financial Reporting Quality’, ERIM’s <link people anastasios-elemes>Anastasios Elemes investigates determinants and consequences of financial reporting quality. The first study explores the consequences of financial reporting quality in a setting that is characterized by low demand for high quality financial reporting. The second and third studies focus on audit- related determinants of financial reporting quality. Overall, the three studies of this dissertation highlight the importance of auditor incentives in shaping financial reporting quality as well as the significance of accounting information even in settings with low demand for high quality financial reporting.
Anastasios Elemes defended his dissertation in the Senate Hall at Erasmus University Rotterdam on Thursday, 26 November 2015, at 13:30. His supervisor was <link people erik-peek>Prof.dr. E. Peek . Other members of the Doctoral Committee were <link people erik-roelofsen>Prof.dr. E. Roelofsen (RSM), Prof.dr. A. Vanstraelen (Maastricht University), and <link people david-veenman>Prof.dr. D. Veenman (ESE).
About Anastasios Elemes
Anastasios (Tassos) Elemes was born in Athens, Greece on July 5th, 1981. He obtained with BSc in Marketing and Communication from Athens University of Economics and Business and his MSc in Finance and Investments (Cum Laude) from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. During his Master’s degree, Tassos was invited to the ING Honour’s Class (top 5%) in which he was awarded the “Best Academic Essay” and “Best Group” awards. In October 2011, he started his PhD in Accounting at Rotterdam School of Management. His research interests lie in the areas of auditing and international financial reporting. During his PhD, Tassos spent four months as visiting scholar at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and attended leading international conferences, such as the AAA Midyear and Annual Meetings and the International Symposium on Audit Research. Furthermore, he has been involved in teaching financial accounting and in supervising bachelor and master thesis projects. Alongside his PhD, Tassos successfully passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program. Since September 2015, Tassos has been appointed as Assistant Professor at ESSEC Business School.
Thesis Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate determinants and consequences of financial reporting quality. The first study explores the consequences of financial reporting quality in a setting that is characterized by low demand for high quality financial reporting. The second and third studies focus on audit- related determinants of financial reporting quality. In chapter 2, I study the impact of high quality financial reporting on private firms’ access to bank debt and trade credit capital. The results suggest that high quality financial reporting does have economic consequences even in the presence of private communication that serve as alternative information asymmetry- mitigating mechanisms. Chapter 3 investigates the relation between auditor size and audit quality for private firms in a setting in which large auditors have materially weak incentives to retain their audit quality advantage. My analysis provides evidence that the otherwise positive relation between auditor size and audit quality reverses when the incentives of large auditors to deliver superior audit quality become sufficiently weak. Chapter 4 examines the effect of the political connections of auditors on audit quality. The results suggest that politically connected offices deliver superior audit quality than non- politically connected offices. However, the positive relation between audit office political connectedness and audit quality dissipates for those clients that are politically connected themselves. Overall, the three studies of this dissertation highlight the importance of auditor incentives in shaping financial reporting quality as well as the significance of accounting information even in settings with low demand for high quality financial reporting.
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Photos: Chris Gorzeman / Capital Images
