IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v155y2017icp62-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do nonprofits manipulate investment returns?

Author

Listed:
  • Almond, Douglas
  • Xia, Xing

Abstract

We provide evidence that nonprofit organizations manipulate reported investment returns to avoid investment losses. We find a sharp discontinuity around zero in cross-sectional distribution of the rates of return on investments for tax-exempt organizations: rates of return are significantly more likely to be slightly positive than slightly negative. This pattern is found for a wide range of nonprofit missions, including religious related charities and community improvement organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Almond, Douglas & Xia, Xing, 2017. "Do nonprofits manipulate investment returns?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 62-66.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:155:y:2017:i:c:p:62-66
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2017.03.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176517301039
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2017.03.014?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. David S. Lee & Thomas Lemieux, 2010. "Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 281-355, June.
    2. Joseph J. Cordes & Burton A. Weisbrod, "undated". "Differential Taxation of Nonprofits and the Commercialization of Nonprofit Revenues," IPR working papers 97-15, Institute for Policy Resarch at Northwestern University.
    3. Burgstahler, David & Dichev, Ilia, 1997. "Earnings management to avoid earnings decreases and losses," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 99-126, December.
    4. McCrary, Justin, 2008. "Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design: A density test," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 698-714, February.
    5. Nicolas P.B. Bollen & Veronika K. Pool, 2009. "Do Hedge Fund Managers Misreport Returns? Evidence from the Pooled Distribution," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2257-2288, October.
    6. Daniel Bergstresser & Mihir Desai & Joshua Rauh, 2006. "Earnings Manipulation, Pension Assumptions, and Managerial Investment Decisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 157-195.
    7. Hofmann, Mary Ann & McSwain, Dwayne, 2013. "Financial disclosure management in the nonprofit sector: A framework for past and future research," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 61-87.
    8. Eric Zitzewitz, 2012. "Forensic Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 731-769, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dang, Canh Thien & Owens, Trudy, 2020. "Does transparency come at the cost of charitable services? Evidence from investigating British charities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 314-343.
    2. James Alm & Daniel Teles, 2018. "State and federal tax policy toward nonprofit organizations," Chapters, in: Bruce A. Seaman & Dennis R. Young (ed.), Handbook of Research on Nonprofit Economics and Management, chapter 19, pages 370-385, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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. Igor Goncharov & Vasso Ioannidou & Martin C. Schmalz, 2020. "(Why) do central banks care about their profits?," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 018, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    2. Dang, Canh Thien & Owens, Trudy, 2020. "Does transparency come at the cost of charitable services? Evidence from investigating British charities," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 314-343.
    3. Igor Goncharov & Vasso Ioannidou & Martin C. Schmalz, 2017. "(Why) Do Central Banks Care About Their Profits?," CESifo Working Paper Series 6546, CESifo.
    4. Byzalov, Dmitri & Basu, Sudipta, 2019. "Modeling the determinants of meet-or-just-beat behavior in distribution discontinuity tests," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    5. Bird, Andrew & Karolyi, Stephen A. & Ruchti, Thomas G., 2019. "Understanding the “numbers game”," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2).
    6. Bennett, Benjamin & Bettis, J. Carr & Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Milbourn, Todd, 2017. "Compensation goals and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 307-330.
    7. Chen, Huaizhi & Cohen, Lauren & Lou, Dong, 2016. "Industry window dressing," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 70650, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. C. S. Agnes Cheng & Weihang Sun & Kangtao Ye & Ning Zhang, 2020. "The Effect of Auditing on Promoting Exports: Evidence from Private Firms in Emerging Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(4), pages 1692-1716, April.
    9. Chen, Yi & Zhao, Yi, 2022. "The timing of first marriage and subsequent life outcomes: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 713-731.
    10. Tianyan Hu & Sandra L. Decker & Shin-Yi Chou, 2014. "The Impact of Health Insurance Expansion on Physician Treatment Choice: Medicare Part D and Physician Prescribing," NBER Working Papers 20708, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Fanny Landaud & Son Thierry Ly & Éric Maurin, 2020. "Competitive Schools and the Gender Gap in the Choice of Field of Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 55(1), pages 278-308.
    12. Ivan A Canay & Vishal Kamat, 2018. "Approximate Permutation Tests and Induced Order Statistics in the Regression Discontinuity Design," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 85(3), pages 1577-1608.
    13. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2015. "Procrastination, academic success and the effectiveness of a remedial program," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 217-236.
    14. Arteaga, Irma & Heflin, Colleen & Gable, Sara, 2016. "The impact of aging out of WIC on food security in households with children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 82-96.
    15. Chin, Aimee & Daysal, N. Meltem & Imberman, Scott A., 2013. "Impact of bilingual education programs on limited English proficient students and their peers: Regression discontinuity evidence from Texas," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 63-78.
    16. Hilber, Christian A.L. & Lyytikäinen, Teemu, 2017. "Transfer taxes and household mobility: Distortion on the housing or labor market?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 57-73.
    17. Christian A. L. Hilber & Teemu Lyytikäinen, 2012. "The Effect of the UK Stamp Duty Land Tax on Household Mobility," SERC Discussion Papers 0115, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Emanuele Bracco & Alberto Brugnoli, 2012. "Runoff vs. plurality," Working Papers 23767067, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    19. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Kristoffersen, Jannie H.G. & Vejlin, Rune, 2017. "College admissions decisions, educational outcomes, and family formation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 215-230.
    20. Sanchez-Vidal, Maria, 2019. "Retail shocks and city structure," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103394, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nonprofit organization; Investment returns; Financial statement manipulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
    • K13 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Tort Law and Product Liability; Forensic Economics
    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General

    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:ecolet:v:155:y:2017:i:c:p:62-66. 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/ecolet .

    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.