Proportional appropriation systems and financial statement quality in municipally owned entities: empirical evidence from Italy Available to Purchase

Francesco Capalbo is Professor of Accounting at the University of Molise (Italy). He is currently a member of the Italian Accounting Standards Board (OIC) and a member of Scientific Committee of the Internal Training Board of the Italian Supreme Audit Institution (Corte dei Conti). International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) member from 2016 to 2019, he is currently on the Academic Advisory Board of the IPSASB. He has authored several publications on leading journals on financial accounting issues and has held visiting academic positions at several universities including the University of Gent (Belgium), the University of Birmingham (UK), the University of Sydney (Australia), and the Macquarie Graduate Management School of Sydney (Australia). His current areas of research include public accountability and financial statements quality of public sector entities. He holds a Ph.D. in International Accounting from the University of Naples “Federico II”.

Luca Galati is Ph.D. Candidate in Finance and Accounting at the University of Wollongong (Australia) and the University of Molise, respectively. He is currently an Industrial Ph.D. Researcher in Market Microstructure at the Derivatives Markets Research Centre of the Rozetta Institute (Australia), and a Foreign Exchange Benchmark Surveillance Specialist at Refinitiv, an LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) business (UK). His research is mainly focused on Digital Finance, Empirical Market Microstructure, Financial and Forensic Accounting. He holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Business Economics from the University of Molise (Italy), with special mentions of Honour. He was also a Visiting Research Fellow at Florida Polytechnic University (USA) in 2023.

Claudio Lupi is Professor of Business and Economic Statistics at the University of Molise (Italy). He was formerly Research Director at the Institute for Studies and Economic Analyses (ISAE), a public economic research institute based in Rome, and senior researcher at the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). His research has been published in a number of international academic journals. Professor Lupi graduated in Economics from “Sapienza” University of Rome (Italy), and holds a Doctoral degree in economics from University of Naples “Federico II” (Italy) and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oxford (UK).

Margherita Smarra is Lecturer in Accounting at the Department of Economics of the University of Molise. Previously, she was Research fellow at the same university (September 2017–March 2020), and in 2016 she spent three months as visiting research fellow at Macquarie Graduate Management School of Sydney and Capital Markets CRC. She has published several chapters in edited books and different articles in referred journals. Her core research interests and experiences include earnings management, financial reporting and corporate governance. She holds a Ph.D. in Accounting at the University of Naples “Federico II” (in 2017).