Paolo Saona Hoffmann

Saint Louis University Spain

Paolo Saona is a Professor of Finance at John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University in its campus of Madrid, Spain. He received his PhD at Universidad de Valladolid, Spain, and his MBA and BSc in Business at Universidad Austral de Chile. His research fields are international corporate finance, international corporate governance, capital structure decision, financial and regulatory systems, and banking systems. His research work has appeared in a number of international refereed scientific journals. He is a member of numerous international societies and served in the editorial board of several scientific journals. He has been awarded with research grants.

1books edited

1chapters authored

Latest work with IntechOpen by Paolo Saona Hoffmann

This edited volume aims to discuss the most contemporary state of the determinants of the firm value. This book presents theoretical works as well as empirical studies that contrast the arguments offered by the leading, ground-breaking theories on the firm value. What variables determine the firm value? Are these determinants controllable or uncontrollable by the managers of the companies? Is the impact of corporate governance systems on the firm value symmetrical between different institutional contexts? Do the financial reports affect the value of the firm? What role does corporate social responsibility play as a determinant of the firm value? These and other questions are analyzed and scrutinized step by step throughout this book.

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Firm Value

Edited by Paolo Saona Hoffmann

Chapters authored

Earnings Quality and Market Performance in LATAM Corporations: A Combined Agency and Cognitive Approach to Investors’ Perceptions of Managerial Information

By Paolo Saona, Alesia Slocum, Laura Muro and Gonzalo Moreno

This chapter studies the impact of financial reporting quality on firms’ market performance in a sample of LATAM corporations. We infer that, especially in contexts of high information asymmetry, investors are not able to effectively discern the quality of the information they are provided with and can therefore be misled in their investment decisions by managerial opportunism. Our theoretical framework is built upon a combined agency theory and cognitive approach. We thereby seek to provide a valuable method to better understand how investors could be making suboptimal choices as a consequence of managers’ opportunistic behaviour. Empirically, we use the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model, hypothesizing that a positive relationship should be observed between the opportunistic manipulation of earnings (that is, the misuse of accounting accruals) and the firm’s market performance (that is, the consequential behaviour of investors). Through this ‘pioneering’ methodology, applied to the relatively under-researched LATAM region, we find that: (1) Financial data are identifiably and consistently manipulated through discretionary accruals in these countries. (2) As manipulation increases, markets do tend to appear more attractive to investors. (3) The elasticity of the market reaction to this manipulation is higher in what we term ‘opaque’ countries.

Part of the book: Corporate Governance and Strategic Decision Making

Paolo Saona Hoffmann

Latest work with IntechOpen by Paolo Saona Hoffmann

Firm Value

Chapters authored

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