Inferences from Financial Statements of Legally Registered Mafia Firms in Italy

• Autores: Diego Ravenda
• Directores de la Tesis: Jaume Valls Pasola (dir. tes.), Josep Maria Argilés i Bosch (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat de Barcelona ( España ) en 2014
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Josep García Blandón (presid.), Belén Gill de Albornoz Noguer (secret.), Josep Bisbe Viñas (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Empresa
• Materias:
  • Ciencias económicas
    • Econometría
      • Modelos econométricos
    • Contabilidad económica
      • Contabilidad financiera
    • Organización y dirección de empresas
      • Gestión financiera
  • Ética
    • Ética de individuos
      • Códigos de conducta ética
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en:  TDX  Dipòsit Digital de la UB 
• Resumen

  • In this dissertation we examine labor tax avoidance, expenses manipulation and accrual management within a sample of 224 Italian firms defined as legally registered Mafia firms (LMFs), due to having been confiscated by judicial authorities in relation to alleged connections of their owners with Italian organized crime. Based on the insights gained, we further develop a predictive model that can contribute to the detection of LMFs. Overall, our results reveal that, before being confiscated, LMFs engage more in labor tax avoidance and accrual management relative to lawful firms (LWFs). Furthermore, LMFs upward manage material expenses and downward manage personnel and service expenses with a cumulative negative effect on reported cash flow relative to sales. On the other hand, following their confiscation and consequent assignment to legal administrators, practices of LMFs mostly become insignificantly different from those of LWFs, although LMFs continue exhibiting a higher degree of accrual management. Finally, our detection model correctly classifies 76.41% of firms within a matched sample of 852 firm-years including LMFs before confiscation and LWFs. Unlisted LMFs are socially irresponsible by nature because of their illicit purposes. In addition, their incentives, modus operandi and financial statement formats differ from those of listed companies. Hence, our study allows inferring conclusions on the relations of corporate social responsibility with earnings management and labor tax avoidance. Furthermore, it adopts new earnings management and labor tax avoidance measures that, as well as providing additional insights, may enhance further research on their effectiveness in other cultural, legal and institutional contexts and for other types of firm. Finally, but no less important, our findings can aid practitioners and regulators in identifying accounting signals that can be used in risk assessment models or in the detection of criminal infiltrations and related illicit practices, especially in countries with a strong criminal presence.