The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
There has been recent and growing criticism of the usefulness of financial reporting for investors, particularly the annual financial statements. In response, the IASB is pursuing several projects aimed at improving the relevance of financial information. To inform the IASB’s work, we investigate, using a mixed‐method approach, the extent and nature of the use of annual financial statements by equity...
This paper investigates the potential for accounting rules to mitigate under‐investment induced by myopic managerial incentives. It exploits the difference within US GAAP requiring the capitalization of some research and development (R&D) costs in software development but proscribing the capitalization of R&D in other industries. We first investigate whether other hi‐technology firms with...
With China’s adoption of principles‐based international accounting standards and its convergence with International Accounting Standard 39 (IAS 39), Chinese companies have discretion under the original Accounting Standards for Enterprises 22 (CAS 22) as to how they account for the initial measurement, sale, and subsequent reclassification of financial assets. We use a Chinese company (‘Company A’)...
Using a large sample of earnings press releases by Australian firms, we compare multiple attributes of non‐GAAP earnings measures with their closest GAAP equivalent. We find that, on average, non‐GAAP earnings are more persistent, smoother, more value relevant, and have higher predictive power than their closest GAAP equivalent. However, the same set of non‐GAAP earnings disclosures are also less...
We investigate compliance with the Australian JORC Code for reporting mineral resources and ore reserves, the quality of the disclosure, and its impact on the capital market. The compliance and quality assessment is conducted by two experienced geologists who find that while the overall reporting quality improved after the 2012 revisions to the Code, they disagree on the extent of improvement. This...
Despite the positive effects of the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) noted in the literature, standard setters have issued reports suggesting that the required disclosures in IFRS have become too burdensome and should be reduced. We examine this disclosure overload problem by testing whether the disclosure reduction recommendations of the Excess Baggage Report issued...
While the extractive industries (EI) are of major significance economically, the reporting of their activities has been the subject of contentious debate posing dilemmas for regulators and standard setters over many decades. In order to ensure alignment with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) research project on EI, we first identify some important economic characteristics of EI and...
We demonstrate that when the variables comprising a firm's investment opportunity set depend on their past values then the present value of the cash flows the firm expects to earn will be stated in terms of the levels and the momentum of the affected variables. It is also shown that the market value of a firm's equity is comprised of the present value of the cash flows it expects to earn from operating...
We study the impact of earnings management prior to bankruptcy filing on the passage of firms through Chapter 11. Using data on public US firms, we construct three measures of earnings management: a real activities manipulation measure (abnormal operating cash flows) and two accounting manipulation measures (discretionary accruals and abnormal working capital accruals). We find that, controlling for...
This study investigates whether environment information disclosure (EID) and different energy sources have any effect on the cost of equity capital (COEC), and how the EID effect on the COEC varies with different types of energy. We find a negative relationship between EID and COEC. Thus, EID reduces the agency problem and information asymmetry between firms and investors, and also supports the legitimacy...
We examine asset sales as a method of real earnings management around the benchmarks of loss avoidance and last year's earnings. Evidence is reported of asset sales to boost or reduce earnings near the benchmark of last year's earnings. For the zero earnings benchmark our results are moderated by the opening balance of accruals: only firms with high levels of accruals use asset sales to boost earnings...
We test the proposition in Johnstone (2016) that new information may lead to higher, rather than lower, uncertainty about firms’ future payoffs. Based on the Bayesian rule, we hypothesize earnings news that is inconsistent with investors’ prior belief will lead to higher market uncertainty. Using earnings signals in the past few quarters to proxy for investors’ prior belief, we find supporting evidence...
This Special Issue is based on papers initially presented at the ‘Accounting for the Public Sector at a Time of Crisis’ Conference at the Centre for Not‐for‐profit and Public‐sector Research, Queen's University Belfast, UK in 2018. The public sector consists of organizations that are owned and operated by government; organizations that exist to provide goods and services for a country's citizens....
This paper examines the use of accounting in managing the co‐existence of different institutional logics in a German higher education institution (HEI), and its impact on the HEI. The study is of particular interest as the HEI analyzed pursued its own corporatization through a re‐organization from a state into a foundation university. We show that this corporatization through the adoption of new public...
This paper studies the impact on universities of operating in a new public management (NPM) world by examining UK experiences, in general, and the specific cases of two UK universities. As institutions with high levels of human capital and articulate professionals, universities offer a complex setting in which to study the tensions between professions and managerialism. This study identifies the importance...
In the context of austerity‐inspired reforms to public audit in England we investigate the extent to which audit firms mitigate management bias in public sector financial reports. A substantial body of literature finds that both public and not‐for‐profit managers manage ‘earnings’ to report small surpluses close to zero by managing deficits upwards and surpluses downwards. Under agency theory, auditors...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.