The Information Economics Approach to Financial Reporting

This paper provides a non-technical overview of the literature on the economics of information and its implications for financial reporting. This paper attempts to spell out the unity of approach which underlies all information economics models and focuses on the main implications of the literature for accounting policy makers. The central section of the paper identifies precise conditions under which the provision of public information can lead to an improvement in social welfare. An understanding of these conditions is essential for policy makers if they are to take into account the economic effects of their decisions. The final section highlights three important unresolved issues and identifies promising directions for further research.     

会计学研究视角与研究领域拓展——基于国际期刊的研究

研究视角对专业学科的发展起着重要的作用。财务金融学中实证方法的引入,推动实证会计的兴起。随着会计学科的不断发展,固守原有的研究视角逐渐成为限制会计研究发展的障碍。为了推动会计研究的发展,本文选择国际期刊作为切入点,通过划分不同研究视角来确定现有会计研究中存在不足,并在此提出有待深入的研究领域,探索未来研究的方向。研究发现,现有会计研究以经济学视角和管理学视角为主流,而在社会学视角和信息技术视角方面有待进一步拓展。     

人本主义经济学的理论内涵和逻辑困境

人本主义经济学是现代主流经济学的理论和政策步入歧途后的逻辑必然。它将人的需要作为经济学研究的出发点,以马斯洛的需要层序论作为其理论基础,试图提出一个包含理论和政策的新的经济学框架。人本主义经济学摒弃了主流经济学的实证主义分析方法,公开宣称经济学离不开价值判断,重新回到古典经济学家很早以前提出的、已经被现代经济学遗忘的人文关怀层面。人本主义经济学关注人的发展和需要,关注人类的当下生存状态,而不是对金钱和财富的要求。由于人本主义经济学理论体系内容庞杂,导致其理论存在着逻辑困境。     

The accounting of interpretations and the interpretation of accounts: The communicative function of “the language of business”

The objectivistic philosophical assumptions which underlie contemporary research in accountancy, as well as economics and elsewhere, are challenged and an interpretive alternative is proposed. A “hermeneutical” view of decision-making is examined, first with regard to science in general, and then concerning the human sciences in particular, and finally with regard to economics. Human decisions are not seen as objective, mechanical or behavioristic but as meaningful utterances of minds, as part of a bidirectional communicative process. That is, scientific decisions, like everyday decisions, are mutually interpretive processes of communication in language. Although it is true that much of mainstream neoclassical economics is incompatible with this interpretive approach, the “Austrian” school can be seen as an interpretive version of neoclassicism. This school of economics indicates a way to understand the communicative function the accounting “language” itself serves in the economic process. The professional judgments made by both accounting researchers and practicing accountants, then, are treated as “matters of interpretation,” but as not, thereby, arbitrary.     

Policy models in accounting: A critical commentary

The accounting profession, through its rule-making apparatus, employs a particular choice model for identifying and resolving policy issues. This model is referred to in this article as the “constitional” approach. It is of interest to inquire why accountants have adopted this paradigm and eschewed other policy models, such as the “legal” or “scientific” approaches, even though the latter have generated considerable advocacy within the recent history of the profession. This paper examines the interesting hypothesis that the choice of the “constitutional” approach is consistent with the Group Self-Interest Hypothesis. By forming an associative group the major accounting firms have a primary interest in achieving higher prices for the industry's products. These higher prices can be achieved in three ways: (1) restricting entry, (2) restraining supply and (3) increasing demand. The “constitutional” approach is more efficacious in achieving these results than are the proposed alternative policy models.     

Governmental budgeting as ex ante financial accounting: The United Kingdom case

For many years now the academic governmental-budgeting literature has concentrated almost exclusively on the politics and economics of the budgetary process at the expense of the mechanical foundations. Consequently, we see an interesting but insulated discussion about political involvement and about the strengths and weaknesses of planning models. What we do not see is a discussion of the accounting perspective. This paper offers such a discussion. It explains local government budgeting as “ex ante financial accounting” and offers some important implications of this re-interpretation.     

The Public Policy Debate on Investors' Need for Disclosure Regulation: Accounting Historians' Help Wanted?*/ LE DÉBAT PUBLIC SUR LES BESOINS DES INVESTISSEURS EN MATIÈRE DE RÉGLEMENTATION DE L'INFORMATION: FAUT‐IL L'AIDE DES HISTORIENS DE LA COMPTABILITÉ?

This paper explores how research in accounting history can contribute to the important public policy debate regarding investors' need for disclosure regulation. Accounting, finance, and economics researchers and practitioners argue for, as well as against, disclosure regulation. The debate remains theoretical, however, because empirical studies are virtually nonexistent. This paper reviews five contexts in which accounting historians can begin a search for empirical insights concerning the costs, benefits, externalities, and effects on stakeholders of disclosure regulation. The paper's investigation of the accounting history literature suggests that accounting historians could improve the quality of the debate and help accommodate broader interests or alternative solutions to financial crises.     

Linking international business theory to accounting history: implications of the international evolution of the state and the firm for accounting history research

Accounting is an interdisciplinary subject. We routinely draw insights and models from the base disciplines (e.g. economics, psychology etc.) as a starting point for research on accounting issues. As accounting researchers, and accounting historians in particular, explore the international dimensions of accounting it is appropriate, therefore, to look to the literature on international relations for insights. This paper provides examples of how we could use the literature on the nation-state and international enterprises to frame questions about international accounting history.     

Deconstructing the principal-agent model: a view from the bottom

The principal-agent model has been a popular paradigm in mainstream accounting research for nearly two decades. This paper argues that contrary to principal-agent theorists' claims to objectivity and neutrality, the theory actually imposes a capitalistic subjectivity on the object of the research, labor, and in so doing, rationalizes and legitimizes exploitation. To pioneer a new age, the innate dignity of life must be restored to human beings in systems of thought. An alternative conceptual frame aimed at assisting with creating a culture in which human enrichment replaces material riches as the object of economics is proposed.     

Concentration and profits: A test of the accounting bias hypothesis

An extensive research tradition in economics considers the degree to which leading firms of dominant proportions use the advantages of large relative firm size to earn above normal or monopoly profits. To date, the findings of this research remain inconclusive and controversial. This study considers the hypothesis that accounting method selection bias may be responsible, at least in part, for confounding the results of empirical research on the issue. Using a general framework featuring alternate accounting and nonaccounting market value-based measures of profitability, we find consistent and robust evidence rejecting a monopoly-based explanation of leading firm profits. The consistency of results across profit measures is important from an accounting and public policy perspective because, at least in terms of the monopoly profits issue, accounting method selection bias does not emerge as an important factor limiting the usefulness of accounting data.     

The ‘performativity thesis’ and its critics: Towards a relational ontology of management accounting

This paper explores accounting's mediating role in bringing theoretical statements from economics into life. It addresses the so-called performativity thesis that claims that economic theory does not just observe and explain a reality, but rather shapes, formats and performs reality. Accounting mediates in that process by creating cognitive boundaries that embed societal practices in economic theory. However, the performativity thesis is not without criticisms. Its main criticisms concern a lack of proof of the thesis; an overestimation of the power of economics to extend beyond the virtual; and a lack of a critical stance. In order to bring more nuance in the discussion on the performativity thesis the paper reflects on evidence from the field of accounting. The review of accounting studies reveals how accounting, to different degrees, is implicated in strategic and operational activities in markets and organisations and how it is a performative mechanism of economisation. Moreover, in order to accentuate the ‘good’ in society and to challenge the ‘bad’, the paper suggests a further development of (critical) management accounting research into the performativity of both economics and other social theories. A relational ontology of management accounting that is in politics and that is sensitive to ‘unlocalisable’ virtual powers of social-historical formations of management accounting may be developed.     

Financial and external reporting research: the broadening corporate governance challenge

This study provides a critical examination of contemporary financial and external reporting research from a corporate governance perspective. Adopting Hines' social constructionist approach to financial reporting, the study investigates research into accounting publishing patterns, published reviews of major subject areas within financial and external reporting research, and interviews a sample of accounting professors in British universities. The findings reveal a strong North American economics and finance-based positivist influence, a largely uncritical acceptance of accounting's subservience to the demands of the market, a reluctance to engage major policy questions and broader reporting constituencies. These appear to be conditioned to a large degree by internal features and pressures within the academic research community. Evidence is presented for greater attention to major environmental shifts impacting accounting and communities globally, a reinvigoration of researchers' direct engagement with reporting constituents in the field, a revisiting of major accounting, business, social and environmental policy questions, and a preparedness to address today's major corporate governance concerns of communities and governments.     

William Vickrey: Contributions to Public Policy

This article introduces the reader to the full range of William Vickrey's contributions to economics from a public policy perspective. It is organized in similar manner to the book Public Economics: Selected Papers by William Vickrey; it examines Vickrey's public policy contributions to social choice and allocation mechanisms, taxation, marginal-cost pricing, urban transportation, urban economics, and macroeconomic policy.     

Measuring Compliance with the Golden Rule

The golden rule of public finance is based upon the notin that intergenerational equity requires that the cost of public expenditures be spread over time in a manner that reflects the intertemporal distribution of the benefits generated by those expenditures. This is often translated into a rule that the budget be structurally balanced in accrual accounting terms. This article considers the form of accrual accounting that is most suited to the task of measuring the consistency of fiscal policy with the golden rule. It recommends a combination of the real capital maintenance approach (also known as ‘current purchasing power accounting’) and annuity depreciation. Such an approach differs from ‘current cost accounting’, which has dominated public sector models of accrual accounting in recent years. The meaning of balance-sheet measures is also considered, and it is concluded that the golden rule is more appropriately expressed as an accrual balanced budget requirement than as a requirement for the maintenance of constant net worth. JEL classification: H6, M40.     

会计制度不完全性的经济学分析

本文从制度经济学的角度对会计制度不完全性进行了分析 ,认为会计制度安排作为一种不完全合约 ,无论是在发达的市场经济国家 ,还是在转轨时期不完善的市场经济国家 ,会计制度的不完全性是客观存在的 ;此外 ,会计环境的复杂性、未来的不确定性及相关法规制度的不完善是会计制度不完全性的外在诱因。本文在分析我国经济转型期会计制度不完全性原因的基础上 ,提出完善我国会计制度的政策建议     

宏观经济政策与微观企业行为——拓展会计与财务研究新领域

本文首先回顾国际主流会计学术研究近年来遇到的挑战与质疑,然后提出以宏观经济政策与微观企业行为互动为基础的会计与财务研究框架,并以货币政策变动对企业融资、会计选择、经营业绩的影响为例说明这个框架对会计与财务研究可能产生的影响。本文认为结合宏观经济政策与微观企业行为互动作用的研究可能拓展会计与财务研究的新领域。     

A Statistical Model of International Accounting Harmonization

This article shows how the difference between the observed frequencies of accounting policy choice and the outcome of a random policy choice, where each available method has an equal chance of being selected, may be fully explained with a statistical model. The process of harmonization is described in a way that identifies departures from equiprobable accounting policy choice as either: (a) the systematic effects of harmonization, or (b) the effects of systematic divergence from international harmony where the frequency of adoption of differing accounting methods varies across countries, or (c) the effects of company-specific accounting policy choices. The understanding of harmony that underlies previous attempts to measure harmonization is such that, with respect to a particular financial statement item, a situation of maximum harmony is reached when all companies in all countries use the same accounting method. From the standpoint of modelling the harmonization process. however, a different concept of harmony may be more useful. In this article, therefore, we posit a state of distributional harnzony in which, other things being equal, the expected distribution of accounting policy choices is the same in each country. In this theoretical state. the odds of selecting a given accounting method from those available for a particular financial statement item are identical for each country. A major advantage of this benchmark is that it provides a basis for distinguishing between two possibly conflicting components of the international harmonization process: between-country harmonization and within-country standardization. A hierarchy of nested statistical models is then used to describe accounting policy choices made by companies with an international shareholding and registered in Europe, where the European Union has been involved in a program of accounting harmonization. The accounting policies analysed in depth in this article comprise the treatment of goodwill and accounting for deferred taxation. The results are compared with the comparability index method used previously in harmonization research studies.     

Understanding cost differences in the public sector—a cost drivers approach

Estimation of cost causality has always been an important part of the accountant’s work. This includes the identification, classification and estimation of factors causing a change in the total cost of a related cost object. In the recent literature these factors are called cost drivers. Different approaches and conceptual frameworks for understanding cost causality are found in the economics, strategy and accounting literature. This paper examines different cost driver approaches in a public sector setting. The study is based on data from primary and secondary schools in the four largest cities in Norway. The findings show that a strategic management accounting approach provides a framework for selecting a broader set of explanatory variables than the traditional cost estimation literature. This set includes product attributes, institutional factors and government policy as cost drivers in the public sector.     

A fundamentalist perspective on accounting and implications for accounting research

This paper presents a framework for addressing normative accounting issues for reporting to shareholders. The framework is an alternative to the emerging Conceptual Framework of the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The framework can be broadly characterized as a utilitarian approach to accounting standard setting. It has two main features. First, accounting is linked to valuation models under which shareholders use accounting information to values their stakes. Second, the desirable characteristics of accounting information are inferred from the demand of investors and analysts who use the information in practice. This stands in contrast to the “qualitative characteristics” in the Boards’ Framework which are embraced largely on the basis of their aesthetic appeal. These features lead to a set of broad accounting principles that resolve “recognition” and “measurement” issues at the core of the Boards’ Conceptual Framework and also the central issue of a balance sheet approach versus an income statement approach. The framework in the paper also frames the research questions for researchers interested in accounting policy.     

Animal spirits in financial economics: A review of deviations from economic rationality

John Keynes made the notion of animal spirits a central part of economics in 1936. However, recent financial literature is dominated by asset pricing models based on strict economic rationality and struggles to accept the notion of animal spirits. This essay is an overview of the causes and consequences of financial market inefficiency and failure and the role of animal spirits in finance. Unlike prior literature, it combines insights and evidence from multiple fields such as finance, economics, psychology, and politics, to understand the many reasons for market failure. It then uses this understanding to develop five simple practical principles to guide regulations required to mitigate the effects of market failures. The results should be of much interest to finance scholars, money managers, business executives, and policy makers.