The real effects of a new accounting standard: the case of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers

International Financial Reporting Standard 15 (IFRS 15) Revenue from Contracts with Customers has significantly changed the philosophy of revenue recognition, not only to provide a fairer representation of corporate revenues, but also to inhibit the use of revenues for ‘earnings management’ purposes. We provide a framework to analyse the various effects of new and amended accounting standards. Changes in how companies recognise, measure, present and disclose their revenues (accounting effects) can affect how companies and their transactions are understood, both internally and externally (information effects), can change security prices (capital market effects) and can change how companies operate, and their costs and cash flows (real effects). We provide empirical evidence, based on a review of corporate annual reports, comment letters and interviews, on the effects of IFRS 15. We find evidence of accounting, information and, to a lesser extent, real effects, although, outside a few industries, IFRS 15 has had relatively little impact on the recognition and measurement of revenue.     

Official Demand for U.S. Debt: Implications for U.S. Real Rates

We estimate a structural term-structure model of U.S. real rates, where arbitrageurs accommodate demand pressures exerted by domestic and foreign official investors. Official demand affects rates by altering the aggregate price of duration risk, and thereby bond risk premiums. Although foreign central banks' demand contributed to reduce long-term real rates mainly in the years prior to the global-financial crisis, the Federal Reserve's demand lowered rates during the quantitative easing period. Overall, the two-factor model, augmented to account for changing liquidity conditions, offers a good representation of real rates during the 2001–16 period; however, we flag some caveats and possible extensions.     

What's on the Menu? Policies to Reduce Young People's Sugar Consumption

Young people in the UK consume far above the maximum recommended levels of added sugar. It is likely that neither they nor their parents fully take account of the future health, social and economic costs of this high sugar consumption. This provides a rationale for policy intervention. The majority of young people's added sugar consumption occurs in the home, where purchases are typically made by parents. This means that understanding the purchase decisions of adults is important for policy design, even if the policies aim to reduce the consumption of young people. We discuss the merits of popular policies, including taxes, advertising restrictions and restrictions on the availability of specific foods, and we identify promising avenues for future research.     

Have SFAS 166 and SFAS 167 improved the financial reporting for securitizations?

Critics have alleged that securitization accounting prior to 2010 was among the causes of the recent financial crisis. In response to this criticism, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) implemented two new accounting standards, SFAS 166 and SFAS 167, to improve the financial reporting for securitizations. Bank regulators have stated their belief that SFAS 166/167 will result in a consolidated balance sheet (and risk-based capital ratios based thereupon) that better reflects a bank's exposure to risk related to securitized assets. We document that, by ceding retained power or influence through the servicing/special servicing functions to third parties, SFAS 166/167 resulted in real effects to the extent that banks (particularly those that were weakly capitalized) achieved their accounting objectives in the post-SFAS 166/167 period through legitimate transaction structuring in line with the intent of the new rules. Further, we use capital market participants’ assessments of risk retention by sponsoring banks as a benchmark, and provide evidence consistent with bank regulators’ beliefs. In particular, following SFAS 166/167, equity investors of sponsoring banks do not consider (consider) as risk relevant securitized assets that receive off-balance sheet (on-balance sheet) treatment. Securitized assets that are consolidated under SFAS 166/167 exhibit the same risk relevance as assets that are not securitized, despite contractual provisions that would seem to imply substantial risk transfer.     

企业税负粘性研究:基于税务机关税收稽查的视角

以中国A股上市公司2008~2017年的数据为样本进行研究，发现我国上市公司存在明显的税负粘性现象，即营业收入减少时企业税负的减少量小于营业收入等额增加时企业税负的增加量。进一步研究发现，上述企业税负粘性受到税务机关税收稽查的影响，国税税收稽查收入比率显著影响企业税负粘性，地税税收稽查收入比率对企业税负粘性的影响不显著。最后，我们还发现企业税负粘性程度在不同产权性质的企业中存在显著不同，同时，国税税收稽查收入比率对产权性质不同的企业产生的影响也存在差异，国税税收稽查收入比率对国有企业税负粘性的影响在不显著，在非国有企业中则是显著的。     

税收执法提升了企业财务报告质量吗——基于“金税工程三期”的准自然实验

以2011~2018年中国A股上市公司为样本，以税务稽查系统改革"金税工程三期"为准自然实验，探讨税收执法的公司治理效应，采用双重差分模型，实证检验了金税工程三期改革对企业财务报告质量的影响。研究发现：金税工程三期改革显著提升了企业财务报告质量。金税工程三期改革的公司治理效应在治理环境较弱、信息透明度更低、融资需求更高的公司表现得更为显著。从作用机制来看，金税工程三期改革显著增强了税收执法力度，减少了企业的避税行为。     

产品市场竞争、公司治理与企业房地产投资——来自A股上市公司的经验证据

通过研究在产品市场竞争与公司治理不同情境中企业投资房地产的经济后果，发现房地产投资对公司市场业绩和会计业绩均存在负向影响。这种影响在竞争性行业中更加明显，并随着治理水平的下降逐渐加强。分类研究显示，在行业竞争、公司治理水平均较低或较高的情况中，负向影响较小；其他中间状态下，负向影响显著。房地产投资对会计业绩的改善效应仅存在于产品市场竞争激烈且治理较差的环境中，与之相伴的是市场业绩的显著恶化。当行业竞争激烈时，中等密集度投资能够获得会计业绩的改善，但随着密集度或投资期的增加，转变为持续恶化效应。这些结论意味着，产品市场竞争与规范的公司治理能够约束企业无效的房地产投资。     

房产税促进地区产业结构优化的路径与异质性表现——产业转移和企业创新视角的沪渝比较

房地产市场过度繁荣带来的房价过快上涨会影响要素流动和企业行为，进而加剧资源错配，不利于地区产业结构优化。征收房产税可以有效抑制房价过快上涨，通过地区相对房价的下降减轻资源错配程度，并从影响产业转移和推动企业创新两条路径促进地区产业结构优化。运用合成控制法对上海和重庆房产税改革试点的政策效应进行评估，结果表明：重庆的房产税政策有效抑制了房价过快上涨，促进了先进产业的转入和创新水平的提高，进而显著提高了地区产业结构合理化和高级化水平，地区产业结构优化效应明显；上海的房产税政策对房价上涨的抑制作用不明显，高房价阻碍了高技能人才的流入，导致其产业高级化水平的提高更多依赖于低端服务业的发展，不利于地区产业结构合理化，总体上并未能有效促进地区产业结构优化。上海与重庆房产税政策效应的差异不仅源于其政策力度的不同，还由于两地经济发展水平和产业结构的不同。房产税政策必须有效抑制房价上涨，并应结合本地经济发展实际因地制宜，才能更好地促进地区产业结构优化。     

Bank credit,public financial incentives,tax financial incentives and export performance during the global financial crisis

This paper investigates the extent to which access to credit, public financial incentives and tax financial incentives affect export performance using the EU-EFIGE/Bruegel-Unicredit data set, covering firms within Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and the UK during the 2008 global financial crisis. The results show that firms receiving credit or benefiting from public financial incentives display higher export intensity and export a greater number of product lines compared to those that did not, especially in countries with better access to credit and/or financial incentives during the crisis. Further, firms benefiting from tax financial incentives show a better export performance compared to those that did not, regardless of the degree of access to credit and/or financial incentives in the country in which they operate. In addition, the effect of access to credit and public finance incentives on export performance is found to be size-dependent, while the effect of tax financial incentives is not. We suggest that governments should promote publicly funded financial incentives along with conventional schemes, such as R&D subsidies, to promote exports, particularly during a period of financial crisis.     

Consumption and exchange rate uncertainty: Evidence from selected Asian countries

We set out to assess the effects of exchange rate uncertainty on real consumption in selected Asian countries. Consumption influences business cycles, which in turn shape short-run monetary policy decisions. Hence, understanding factors driving consumption is appealing to policymakers. To date, few studies have analysed the effects of uncertainty on consumption. The available ones generally focus on the long-run effects, in spite of the fact that the short-run persistence and adjustments to equilibrium are equally relevant. Our study takes these limitations seriously by distinguishing the short- and long-run effects of exchange rate uncertainty on consumption. Using a flexible dynamic panel data technique that allows long-run effects to be homogeneous and the short-run effects to be heterogeneous, we find that uncertainty impedes consumption in the long run. In the short run, however, the effects are immaterial. This evidence remains robust to the measure of uncertainty, asymmetric uncertainty, inflation and the global financial crisis of 2008. By decomposing uncertainty into its temporary and permanent components, we find that the latter have a stronger effect on consumption in the long run than the former. Although both components demand policy attention, the evidence suggests that policymakers should be more concerned with permanent uncertainty.