关于会计的基础、职责和立场的思考

会计是一个经济单位中会计信息的收集者、加工者、报告者,负责把复杂的经济事务按照既定的规则,加工成信息需要者能够理解的形式。会计的服务对象包括经济单位的负责人,国家税务机关,经济单位的其他利益相关者。那么,要想获取服务对象的信任,会计就必须具备坚实的基础,牢记自己的职责,坚守中立的立场。     

会计信息质量特征对经济后果的考虑

会计准则的技术性和经济后果并存已经成为会计理论界的共识.但是在各国(国际组织)制定的会计信息质量特征体系中,并没有将经济后果考虑进来,经济后果始终不能融入会计信息质量特征体系的内部.由于会计信息使用者能力的不同,会计信息质量特征应将信息弱势群体的需要放在首位.同时,还应更进一步对外部信息用户进行区分,以最弱者的会计信息需要为出发点,保证那些最弱势的、依靠内部使用者提供会计信息作为其主要信息来源的使用者能够获得足以支持其决策的会计信息时.只有当最弱的会计信息使用者都能够获得充分质量的会计信息时,会计信息才最佳地实现了其社会性.     

会计政策的经济后果

会计政策是指导企业进行会计核算的基础,企业选择不同的会计政策产生不同的会计信息,导致企业利害关系集团不同的利益分配结果和投资决策行为,进而影响社会资源的配置效率和结果,企业会计政策在形式上表现为企业会计过程的一种技术规范,但其本质上却是一种经济和政治利益的博弈规则和制度安排,会计政策选择具有一定的经济后果.     

利益相关者会计信息需求的比较与分析

会计是资本市场信息提供的主体,会计信息是社会经济信息的重要组成部分。会计或财务报告的目标一般被界定为"向利益相关者提供决策有用的信息",然而,随着社会经济和利益相关者理论的不断发展,利益相关者的分类和范畴发生了变化,不同的利益相关者对于会计信息的需求不完全相同。本文在对利益相关者分类的基础上,比较和分析了各利益相关者的会计信息需求。     

从文化、伦理看会计信息失真

在我国当前的经济生活中,会计信息的质量——尤以真实性为最,受到了普遍的质疑。会计信息失真已渐成为社会性的顽疾。一、对会计信息失真的分析对会计信息失真,存在着两种理解。一种理解是认为“会计信息失真”所失去的是经济业务的“真”实面目,即会计信息不能真正反映经济业务。造成这种信息失真的原因主要源于会计理论和会计法规等方面。可称为“制度性失真”,属会计人员的不可控范围,其责任不在会计人员。这种失真一般可以通过外部规范解决。对会计信息失真的另一种界定,即认为是信息真实性(可靠性)的丧失。上述前一种造成失真的原因中,有些由于会计方法(如历史成本计价原则,如权责发生制确认标准)在客观上也造成会计信息的传递失真,但其并未违背真实性原则。本文所要着重探讨的是因会计人员主观上违背会计行业有关法规制度“真帐假做”或“假帐真做”甚至是“假帐假做”所造成的会计信息失真。这种“故意失真”是由于会计人员出于一己私欲,或是遵从领导授意,通过“造假”来达到侵吞会计主体利益的目的。本文拟从我国的文化背景和经济伦理的角度来剖析会计人员的主观上故意失真的根源。二、从国人的文化背景看会计信息失真我国有着几千年的封建经济史。在封建社会中,由于自然经济的...     

盈余管理与会计域秩序

盈余管理是目前会计学研究的核心问题之一。本文首先对已有盈余管理研究进行评述,在此基础上,认为已有研究仅仅局限于已有会计规则的框架下来研究会计规则执行过程中的盈余管理,而会计规则的执行在很大程度上决定于会计规则的制定。本文认为,会计规则的制定与执行是两个相互影响的环节,会计域秩序是会计信息质量的基本评价标准;盈余管理研究的目的之一是为会计规则的制定提供依据,它除了关注会计规则的执行行为以外,还应将会计规则的制定作为一个重要的变量,即研究在采用不同原则、方式和程序所制定而成的会计规则下的不同盈余管理行为。     

会计信息失真的分析及治理

会计的目标是对会计主体的经济活动进行核算,提供反映会计主体经济活动的信息,如果会计信息失真,则必然会造成严重的经济后果和社会资源配置的无效率。笔者从内部原因和外部原因两个方面探讨了导致会计信息失真的原因,并提出了解决会计信息失真的对策。     

会计信息质量与会计国际化进程的选择

一、引言 会计的国际协调源于经济全球化对会计信息质量可比性的需求,但是,会计准则的国际协调能否带来会计信息质量可比性的提高?会计信息质量可比性的提高是否会以降低其他的会计信息质量为代价?会计信息质量在会计国际协调的进程及其选择中占有何种地位?会计国际化从来就不仅是一个技术层面的问题,利益的合作与冲突始终是各国会计国际化选择衡量的最终基准;也从来不仅止于对会计信息质量的影响,虽然从会计信息的经济后果的角度来看,对会计信息质量的关注也暗含了对其经济后果方面的经济利益的关注.     

规范会计行为、遏制会计信息失真的法律对策

会计工作是经济管理工作的重要基础, 在现代信息社会中处于非常重要的地位。据统计,会计信息已占到整个经济信息总量的70％以上,是市场经济公平、高效运转的重要信息来源。然而,目前我国会计信息失真的现象非常严重,影响了我国的经济秩序和社会秩序。企业会计信息失真,是一定主体行为的结果,从行为人动机来区分,会计主体故意违背会计规则,就会引起会计信息的违规性失真;会计主体不是故意违背会计规则,而是采用不当的会计行为所造成的会计信息失真属于行为性失真。上述两种会计信息失真都是由于会计行为主体在执行     

浅谈会计工作监管目标与思路

会计工作不仅是经济管理的组成部分,而且是一项十分重要的经济基础工作。为了规范会计工作,保证其在经济管理中发挥作用,政府部门应在宏观上对会计工作进行必要的指导、监督和管理。新《会计法》把会计监管的任务赋予了财政部门。作为财政部门的会计管理机构,应充分发挥执法主体作用,切实行使会计监管职责,保证会计信息的真实、完整。要做好会计监管工作,必须首先明确工作目标和思路。笔者认为,会计工作监管必须实现“六化”和做到“五个加强”。1会计工作监管目标(1)会计基础工作规范化。会计基础工作是会计信息系统运行所必须的基本条件和…     

我国政府会计模式构建过程中主体界定问题初探

我国政府会计体系改革的起步相对较晚,有些方面滞后于财政预算管理体制的改革,而且与国际惯例之间也存在着一定的差距,因此适应我国经济体制和财政体制改革的需要。特别是适应我国加入WTO的新形势,积极推进政府会计体系的改革,将是我国下一步会计改革的重要内容。在这个过程中,我们认为首先应当思考这样一个问题,即未来政府会计体系的界限应当在哪里划定?或者说,究竟什么样的经济主体属于“政府”,应当纳入到未来的政府会计体系中?本文在借鉴GASB成功经验的基础上从“组织性质”和“资金来源与用途”两个角度提出了“双主体”模式的初步设想。     

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.     

Reshaping accounting research: Living in the world in which we live

This paper is derived from my participation as a faculty guest of the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Commerce 20th Annual Doctoral Consortium. Consistent with the theme of “paradigm, paradox, and paralysis?”, I argue in this paper that accounting practice and scholarship suffer from paralysis created by the imposition of a neoclassical economic paradigm. Starting from the premise that accounting is foremost a practice, I argue that accounting cannot be limited by any one type of understanding. A human practice like accounting is simply to multi- faceted and complex to be sensibly “modeled” in any one particular way. The “flight from reality” (Shapiro, 2005), that occurred because of the empirical revolution in accounting, should be abandoned in favor of a more problem driven approach to accounting research and practice.     

Accounting and Valuation: How Helpful Are Recent Accounting Rule Changes?

The longstanding debate over the proper definition of “earnings”—whether investors when setting stock prices focus primarily on GAAP earnings or other measures like operating cash flow—is both misguided and theoretically unresolvable. The biggest problem faced by investors in evaluating earnings reports is not their inability to understand the effects of the different accounting methods companies use when aggregating accounting line items into reported net income. More challenging, and more critical to the investment process, is getting complete and reliable information about the line items themselves. The authors' underlying premise is that investors, when provided sufficient information about these “components” of earnings, can combine or reconfigure them in whatever way they find most useful. But without sufficient and reliable information about the individual line items, investors will find it difficult to understand how earnings are generated and thus to produce the forecast of future earnings necessary to value a company. In the past few years, there have been significant rule changes in accounting for employee options, derivatives, and special purposes entities. The authors evaluate the extent to which the new rules encourage disclosures that are helpful from a valuation perspective. Although there has been some progress, financial reporting in each of the three areas continues to fall well short of providing the complete, disaggregated data required to value a firm with confidence.     

Voluntary CSR disclosure,institutional environment,and independent audit demand

Using a sample of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, this study examines the impact of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on independent audit demand in different institutional environments. The sample covers the 2008–2016 period and excludes firms that are required to disclose CSR information. The findings show that compared with companies that choose to not disclose such information, companies that voluntarily disclose CSR information prefer to employ “small” accounting firms for auditing services, although the auditing fees are much higher. However, as the institutional environment improves, this preference is weakened. Further analyses show that this preference is stronger in enterprises where CSR disclosure is driven by strong political motivations and managerial self-interest motivations. Legitimate motivations and economic motivations do not significantly impact the preference for “small” audit firms. Furthermore, this preference is more obvious in enterprises with poor operational performance and low information disclosure quality, and it increases as CSR disclosure level decreases. The study enriches our understanding of the economic consequences of voluntary CSR disclosure and the factors that influence independent audit demand. The results also have implications for the construction and regulation of China’s system for supervising CSR information disclosure in the transitional phase.     

Alignment of performance measurement to sustainability objectives: A variance-based framework

Meaningful incorporation of environmental and social responsibility goals into organizational strategic plans requires a mechanism to measure and reward performance contributing to that objective. This paper formulates such a framework using management accounting concepts. We demonstrate that the benefits of pursuing sustainability objectives can be decomposed into three parts. The first consists of what might be considered a natural outcome of pursuing the traditional economic goal of efficiency through cost-minimization (a “waste” variance). The second part consists of sustainability gains that produce societal benefit but may be incongruent with short-term economic goals (a “sustainability” variance). The third part stems from a change in optimal output level when that is considered endogenous to the firm (a “volume” variance). While elimination of waste variances can be encouraged using a traditional performance evaluation and reward structure, elimination of sustainability and volume variances requires redesign of performance evaluation tools and reward structures. We demonstrate that failure to recognize and incorporate the difference between the three variances can lead to inefficient allocation of resources, over- or under-production, and only partial fulfillment of environmental goals. Further, availability of shadow price information is essential to implementing such a performance measurement system; thus it is a public policy imperative to develop markets that establish such prices.     

A rejoinder

This paper takes the position that the task of accountants is to provide information as free bias as possible that will be useful to decision makers (possibly including accountants themselves) who may be concerned with social and economic issues. Though accountants may sometimes fail to achieve the faithful representation of economic phenomena, that should be their goal. In developing this argument, the paper criticizes Radical Accounting, as represented by Tony Tinker's Paper Prophets, and others who assert that accounting policies should be chosen for their supposedly desirable economic consequences rather than for their capacity to depict relevant phenomena faithfully. Like journalists, accountants should report the news, not make it. Neutrality in accounting may not always be easy to secure, but without it the credibility of accounting is endangered.     

Zur Entscheidungsnützlichkeit eines IFRS-Abschlusses von Versicherern – Analyse der angedachten Regelungen zum endgültigen IFRS 4

In its Discussion Paper from May 2007 for the final IFRS 4 (“Insurance Contracts”), the IASB planned the “Current Exit Value” (CEV) to evaluate insurance liabilities. The aim of this article is to examine the impacts of the planned Current-Exit-Value-Approach on the decision usefulness of insurers' financial statements. In order to evaluate accounting rules, the criterion decision usefulness is divided into two sub-criteria – relevance and reliability. We found out that the Current-Exit-Value-Approach for insurance contracts in conjunction with fair value accounting of relating assets actually generates relevant information for users of insurers' financial statements. But we have serious concerns about a cost-adequate implementation of CEV approach. Furthermore, the reliability of accounting information based on a synthetic fair value is strongly questionable. Only extensive disclosure requirements can bring transparency to users and therefore assure reliable accounting information. Besides, there are other topics that should be reviewed before releasing a final standard (e.?g. customer relationship, credit characteristics of insurance liabilities, unit of account).     

The double liability rule

Conventional liability rules do not lead to a first best allocation. Optimal bilateral risk control can be achieved by not compensating any losses and, in addition, charging each party a fine equal to the loss suffered by the other party. In this way, each party internalizes the full accident loss. This paper investigates the properties of this “double liability” rule under risk neutrality and risk aversion of the parties. Finally the use of this rule in the context of multiple-party accidents is discussed.     

税收国际协调与会计准则全球趋同关系之辨析

本文研究经济全球化下税收国际协调与会计准则全球趋同这两大并存趋势的关系。论文认为 ,这两大趋势是经济全球化在国际税收和国际会计这两个相互联系领域中的反映 ,并从六个方面论述了两者之间的内在联系以及所反映的本质内涵。作者认为 ,二者之间的关系是所谓“经济一体化三难”的反映 ;在中国参与经济全球化的过程中 ,应把握两者关系 ,注意政策的内在协调 ,同时考虑国际税收与会计交叉学科的发展 ,为实务界提供指导