Accounting Conservatism, Property Concentration, and Pyramid Structures: The Case of Chile

Authors

  • Cristian Medina Medina Universidad de Chile

Abstract

The main objective of this document is to contribute through empirical evidence, to the literature that deals with the concept of accounting conservatism. Specifically, it analyzes how conservative the Chilean financial market is, and analyze the effects that the ownership structure of the firm has on the level of accounting conservatism. The sample used consists of an unbalanced panel with financial information of 119 companies listed on the Santiago de Chile stock exchange for the 2007-2011 study period, obtained from the Thomson One database (Thomson Reuters) and with data collection of the Superintendency of Securities and Insurance (SVS). The results indicate that effectively there is evidence in the Chilean market, that the concentration of property negatively affects the level of accounting conservatism. However, it is not possible to determine that in companies with pyramid-owned structures the level of accounting conservatism decreases.

Keywords:

Accounting conservatism, Concentration of property, Pyramidal structure, Asymmetries of information, Asymmetrical recognition of utilities