Room: 404

Time: 10:45 - 12:15
Session Chair: Nattawoot Koowattanatianchai, Kasetsart University

The Extent to Which Earnings Are Manipulated In the Financial Sector of the Stock Exchange of Thailand and Its Exogenous Macroeconomic Factors
Nattawoot Koowattanatianchai, Kasetsart University
Nattawut Jenwittayaroje, NIDA Business School
Apichai Apirattanapimolchai, Sripatum University
The objective of this study is to use the Beneish M-score model to detect financial fraud in the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Our investigation emphasizes on the financial sectorof the Stock Exchange of Thailand, including banks, and non-banks such as brokerage firms and commercial finance companies. Results show that banks have managed their earnings during the past ten years to a larger extent, on average, than other financial companies. We blame stricter rules and regulation imposed on Thai banks by relevant regulatory bodies to be the main cause of such a phenomenon. Our time series regression results indicate that Thai financial firms can manage their earnings to deal with both good and bad market sentiments. This finding does not corroborate those often found in previous research.

Efficiency of Vietnam Insurance Market: A DEA Approach
Tuan Ngo, International University - Vietnam National University
This is the first paper conducted to evaluate the efficiency and productivity level in Vietnamese insurance industry using quantitative approach DEA. This study measures insurance efficiency scores from the period between 2013 and 2015. The non-parametric approach data envelopment analysis based upon CRS and VRS models, is applied to examine the insurance efficiency in terms of life and non-life sectors. The results also show that the Vietnamese Insurance firms in both sectors operated fairly at their efficient level during the period examined.

The Utility Function of Thai Farmer and Application on Crop Insurance Premium
Arnat Leemakdej, Thammasat Business School
This study uses certainty equivalent approach to estimate the utility function of Thai smallholder farmers in seven provinces of North Eastern region. I find that the negative exponential function (EXP) can explain risk aversion better than the log of the inverse power transformation function (IPT). Based on 279 samples, nearly half of them are risk lovers. The factors to determine risk aversion vary by provinces. There is no common factors that contribute to risk aversion among provinces. However, the common factors that lower risk aversion are the size of family, other income. This is consistent with the hypothesis firstly introduced in this study that farmers in developing countries diversify their risk through other sources of off-farm income.