会计制度变迁对会计稳健性的影响研究

会计制度质量的高低与会计稳健性之间的关系一直以来都饱受争议.财务报告的稳健型主要取决于制度环境的建设和经济发展水平,但有时会忽视了文化及准则差异.本文基于制度建设视角,对会计制度变迁与稳健性进行深入剖析,着重分析我国需要强化会计稳健性原则的原因.强化会计稳健性的外在原因包括监管盈余和评价制度,但究其根本,则是将稳健性作为改善企业盈余质量的机制以加强保护投资者利益.     

会计制度改革、盈余稳健性与盈余管理

本文以1994-2007我国会计制度改革为研究背景,分析了盈余稳健性和盈余管理之间的内在关系和相互影响,并以此为基础检验了我国会计准则的执行质量。研究得出,扣除操控性应计利润后,上市公司的盈余稳健性同会计制度中稳健性原则的运用程度仍紧密相关。并且,强化稳健性原则和限制公允价值的运用显著降低了公司高估盈余的水平,而弱化稳健性原则和扩大公允价值的运用,则导致了公司盈余管理水平的显著提高。总体而言,没有证据表明盈余稳健性的提高导致了上市公司的大清洗行为。     

论会计制度中稳健性原则的充分运用

会计制度中对稳健性原则作了充分的应用,本文分析了稳健性原则存在的理论依据,从会计制度中选取八个方面对会计制度中稳健性原则的运用进行了阐述,并指出了稳健性原则运用时应注意的问题。     

会计盈余的稳健性:发现与启示

在西方 ,稳健原则长期以来就是会计确认与计量的一个重要原则。在我国 ,1992年的会计准则首次提出了稳健性的要求 (或称谨慎原则 ) ,以后的会计制度 (准则 )越来越强调稳健原则。但我国证券市场上频频发生的会计造假行为似乎表明上市公司会计盈余普遍缺乏稳健性。针对这种矛盾 ,本文分析我国上市公司会计盈余的稳健性。我们的分析表明 ,会计盈余对“坏消息”的反应程度比对“好消息”的反应程度大 ,这种不对称性表明会计盈余在总体上是稳健的 ,同时 ,会计盈余变化也呈现不对称性 ,即负的会计盈余变化比正的会计盈余变化具有更大的反转率。我们认为 ,以上结论对我国证券市场的财务分析和盈利预测具有重要意义     

强制性制度变迁与盈余稳健性——来自深沪证券市场的经验证据

本文以1995—2004年深沪两市全部A股上市公司为研究样本,考察会计制度的强制性变迁是否显著提高我国上市公司会计盈余的稳健性。研究结果显示,1995—1997期间上市公司会计盈余不具有稳健性,意在提高上市公司稳健性水平的《股份有限公司会计制度》的实施并未实质性增强1998—2000期间会计盈余的稳健性水平,而更为积极贯彻国际通行的稳健会计政策的《企业会计制度》的实施则显著提升了2001-2004期间我国上市公司会计盈余的稳健性。然而,单独对盈利公司所作的进一步检验却表明,2001—2004期间会计盈余显示的稳健性特征主要是由于亏损公司"洗大澡"造成的。研究结果表明,单纯转变会计准则并不能改善会计信息的质量,除非附以相配套的强有力的法律和执行机制。     

会计审计制度改革中审计稳健性的概念体系构建

在全球会计审计制度改革的进程中,世界各国会计准则仍然普遍要求贯彻会计稳健性原则。在我国会计制度改革中强化会计稳健性原则的条件下,对审计稳健性进行专门研究就显得非常重要。因为,审计稳健性和会计稳健性共同确保和改善财务报告质量。本文通过对国内外相关文献的梳理和思考,从一个全新视角分析财务会计信息质量和投资者保护。首先,将现有审计师稳健性、审计报告稳健性的概念统一为审计稳健性,提出了审计稳健性这一新概念的目标、功能与计量方法,在分析其与审计质量、会计信息质量之间关系的基础上提出了具体的实现路径,从而对现有的相关研究产生一定的启发作用。     

我国上市公司盈余管理治理研究

存在于我国的上市公司中的盈余管理是现代财务会计研究的一个重要领域。本文从改进证券市场监管的相关制度,加强会计准则和会计制度建设,改善上市公司治理结构,强化注册会计师的审计监督和塑造良好的职业道德5个方面,研究和分析了治理我国上市公司盈余管理的对策。     

上市公司的盈余管理必然导致会计稳健性下降吗?

本文采用我国沪深两市2007-2014年的A股上市公司数据,研究了应计盈余管理与真实盈余管理对企业会计稳健性的影响。研究结果表明:企业向上的应计盈余管理活动和向上的真实盈余管理活动对会计稳健性具有相反的影响;企业向上的真实盈余管理活动强化了向上的应计盈余管理活动对会计稳健性的负向影响;企业向上的应计盈余管理活动强化了向上的真实盈余管理活动对会计稳健性的正向影响。因此,由于同时存在正负抵消和边际强化作用,企业实施向上的盈余管理活动并不必然导致会计稳健性下降。企业可能组合采用两种盈余管理方式进行盈余操控而同时保持会计稳健性相对稳定。     

是盈余稳健性还是盈余管理？来自中国证券市场的经验证据

本文考察2002-2005年上市公司会计盈余所具有的稳健性特征究竟是代表较高盈余质量的真正的盈余稳健性，还是可能只是向下盈余管理行为所带来的盈余稳健性的表象。研究发现，由于受洗大澡的盈余管理行为噪音的影响，2002-2005年上市公司总体表现出的盈余稳健性特征并不是代表较高盈余质量的真正的盈余稳健性，而可能主要是“洗大澡”盈余管理行为所带来的盈余稳健性的表象。本文的研究结论表明，在我国ST制度等特殊的制度背景下，上市公司向下盈余管理行为将影响对上市公司盈余稳健性结果的测定，单纯以盈余稳健性的强弱作为衡量上市公司盈余质量高低的标准未必可行。     

新会计准则出台对上市公司稳健性影响分析

会计稳健性长期以来一直是会计确认与计量的重要原则。新会计准则的变革对上市公司的盈余产生了巨大影响,虽然适度引入了公允价值,加强了会计信息的相关性要求,但是新准则依然是以提升稳健性为基调的。文章在对会计稳健性的内涵与影响动因进行阐述的基础上,通过分析准则的变革,对我国新准则背景下的会计稳健性进行了分析,并对如何在实施新会计准则过程中提升上市公司稳健性提出意见和建议。     

机构持股与会计稳健性

以我国A股具有机构持股的上市公司2007～2011年的数据为样本,采用Basu(1997)的盈余-回报率模型研究了机构持股对会计稳健性的影响。结果表明:机构持股比例越高,会计稳健性越好。考虑到产权性质后,国有公司的机构持股比例与会计稳健性具有显著的正相关关系,而在非国有公司中并不显著。另外,高成长性公司中机构持股对会计稳健性的影响显著为正,但在低成长性公司这一结果不显著。     

Accounting Returns Revisited: Evidence of their Usefulness in Estimating Economic Returns

Accounting information is used for measuring firm performance in various financial applications—a practice supported by empirical studies demonstrating the value relevance of accounting numbers, but disputed by theoretical papers arguing that a firm's accounting rate of return (ARR) serves poorly as a proxy for its internal rate of return (IRR). We derive a new model of the ARR–IRR relation, and describe how the conservatism of GAAP constrains a firm's IRR to fall in a range bounded by its historical growth rate and ARR. Using cross-sectional data, we demonstrate that economic returns can be estimated from accounting numbers for many firms. We link empirical results to underlying economic theory, and thus contribute to understanding why accounting information is value relevant.     

The Impact of Institutional Characteristics on Return–Earnings Associations in Japan

In this paper, we report the result of investigation into the impact of institutional characteristics on return–earnings associations in Japan. It is found that the strength of return–earnings associations in Japan is inversely affected by the extent to which a firm's shares are cross-held, the degree of a firm's holding of real estate assets relative to other assets, the amount of a firm's investment in equities of other firms, and the degree of a firm's reliance on debt financing, while it is positively affected by the extent to which a firm's shares are owned by foreign investors. We also provide evidence suggesting that reported earnings are less value-relevant in Japan than in the US, and that the pervasive use of conservative accounting practices in Japan is well manifested in the return–earnings association. Collectively, our results indicate that future research on cross-national differences in the value relevance of accounting disclosures must pay more attention to institutional environments unique to countries concerned.     

Managerial legal liability coverage and earnings conservatism

This paper examines the effect of managerial legal liability coverage on earnings conservatism. Using directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance coverage and cash for indemnification as a proxy for managerial legal liability coverage, we find that the higher the managerial liability coverage, which reduces the expected legal liability of managers, the less conservative the firm's earnings. We also find that managerial legal liability coverage has a stronger influence on earnings conservatism in a legal regime with higher litigation risk. Our results are consistent with the threat of litigation conditioning managers to practice conservative accounting.     

上市公司会计稳健性的时序演进与行业特征研究

会计稳健性（accounting conservatism）是财务报告的一个重要特征和惯例。稳健原则的贯彻实施是我国会计改革与国际接轨的突出特征。为分析中国的会计稳健性在实证上的特征，本文采用中国上市公司1993～2003年的数据，运用basu（1997）模型，计算了上市公司分年度的会计稳健性以及行业特征。实证研究发现，随着中国会计制度的改革，证券市场监管和处罚力度的强化，注册会计师的脱钩改制，会计稳健性在1998年后逐渐增强，2001年以后上市公司的会计具有稳健性，会计稳健性具有行业特征，在制造业尤其明显。     

Accounting conservatism and common ownership by dedicated institutional blockholders

We examine the peer effects of accounting conservatism in a common dedicated institutional blockholder (CDIB) setting. We find a positive correlation in accounting conservatism between focal firms and their CDIB peers. To corroborate our main findings, we document that the peer effect is stronger for firms connected through CDIBs that are activists or that have more active shares, for firms with larger CDIB ownership and for firms with weaker corporate governance mechanisms and higher information asymmetry. The results suggest that managers view following peer firms’ conservatism as a way of pleasing CDIBs. We also find that in proxy voting, firms receive less support from their investors when their conservatism deviates more from their CDIB peers. Finally, we find that the CDIB peer effect remains significant after controlling for the effect of industry and local peers. Overall, our paper presents evidence consistent with firms adapting their accounting conservatism in response to their incumbent dedicated institutional investors’ preference.     

How do institutional investors influence accounting conservatism in China?

Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2015, we find that domestic mutual funds have negative effects while qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) have positive effects on firm accounting conservatism. These effects become stronger when their ownerships are closer to that of the controlling shareholder, respectively. Furthermore, these results are more pronounced when institutional investors are more able to monitor managers and compete with controlling shareholders. Our findings suggest that the influence of institutional investors on accounting conservatism in China is subject to their identities as well as the control contestability against the controlling shareholders.     

The Timeliness of Income Recognition by European Companies: An Analysis of Institutional and Market Complexity

This study examines international differences in the asymmetric timeliness of accounting earnings by modelling international exposure to different jurisdictions as a firm-specific effect, using an index of regulatory complexity that relates to conditions in each of the capital markets in which the firm's equity is listed. The companies investigated are those with shares cross-listed on European stock exchanges, some of which are also listed in New York. Variation across jurisdictions and markets with respect to earnings timeliness and conservatism can be explained in part as an interaction of market effects and regulatory effects, with some evidence of opposition between the two, and the sensitivity of earnings to stock price changes shows a common, converging trend towards greater accounting conservatism in Europe.     

Bank Relationships and the Value Relevance of the Income Statement: Evidence from Income-Statement Conservatism

Abstract:  This study examines the effects of a firm's debt financing decision on the informativeness of the income statement. This study specifically examines the association between a firm's bank dependence and the value relevance of the income statement by investigating the income-statement conservatism of firms with bank loans. Focusing on relatively small businesses, this study finds that income-statement conservatism, measured as timely loss recognition, is increasing in a firm's bank dependence. This study also finds that the value relevance of the income statement is increasing in a firm's bank dependence. The findings of this paper suggest that the usefulness of the income statement varies with a firm's bank dependence, indicating that the value relevance of the income statement is a function of a firm's debt financing decision. The findings further suggest that bank relationships affect the value relevance of the income statement through their influence on income-statement conservatism.