A Study of Accountants' Judgments With Respect to the Provision of Consolidated Financial Statements

The release of the Australian Accounting Standards Board AASB 1024. Consolidated Accounts. in September 1991 represents a fundamental shift in concept, criteria and approach. The Standard is based on the entity concept and adopts 'capacity to control' as the sole criterion for identifying related entities for the purpose of preparing consolidated financial statements. A conceptual (substance-over-form) approach is used to implement the control criterion. In essence, this approach requires accountants to make professional judgments about the existence of control based on the substance of group structures and arrangements rather than their legal form. Concerns about the subjectivity and possible variability of accountants' judgments cast some doubt on the operational effectiveness of the conceptual approach. In response to these concerns, this paper reports the results of an experiment that examines the consolidation judgments accountants make in response to a number of hypothetical scenarios. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to provide some insights into the likely quality and reliability of consolidation judgments under the conceptual approach adopted by AASB 1024. The results indicate that accountants can be expected to exhibit broad consensus in their consolidation judgments. In addition, an analysis of the variables suggests that the degree of share ownership is the most significant factor in making such judgments. Nevertheless, other factors including the composition of the board of directors, the existence of a special arrangement, and interactions with the other variables also proved to be significant. Overall, the study provides tentative support for the conceptual approach adopted in AASB 1024.     

Individual Investor Trading and Return Patterns around Earnings Announcements

This paper provides evidence of informed trading by individual investors around earnings announcements using a unique data set of NYSE stocks. We show that intense aggregate individual investor buying (selling) predicts large positive (negative) abnormal returns on and after earnings announcement dates. We decompose abnormal returns following the event into information and liquidity provision components, and show that about half of the returns can be attributed to private information. We also find that individuals trade in both return‐contrarian and news‐contrarian manners after earnings announcements. The latter behavior has the potential to slow the adjustment of prices to earnings news.     

Forces Leading to the Adoption of Accrual Accounting by the Canadian Federal Government: An Institutional Perspective*/ LES FORCES AYANT MENÉ L'ADMINISTRATION FÉDÉRALE CANADIENNE À ADOPTER LA COMPTABILITÉ D'EXERCICE: UNE PERSPECTIVE INSTITUTIONNELLE

In 1995, the federal government of Canada announced that it would adopt full accrual accounting. The change was fully implemented at the department level in 2001 and for government‐wide financial reporting in 2003. Using the perspective of institutional theory, we examine several factors that had the potential to influence the federal government's decision to adopt full accrual accounting, including two royal commissions, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, credit markets, and the practices of other national governments. We find that the decision to change to accrual accounting can be largely attributed to coercive and normative influences of the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (supported by the normative influence of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants' Public Sector Accounting Board) and mimetic isomorphism with other members of the federal government's organizational field.     

An Incentive Approach to Banking Regulation

We examine the optimal design of a risk-adjusted deposit insurance scheme when the regulator has less information than the bank about the inherent risk of the bank's assets (adverse selection), and when the regulator is unable to monitor the extent to which bank resources are being directed away from normal operations toward activities that lower asset quality (moral hazard). Under a socially optimal insurance scheme: (1) asset quality is below the first-best level, (2) higher-quality banks have larger asset bases and face lower capital adequacy requirements than lower-quality banks, and (3) the probability of failure is equated across banks.     

Allotment holding as an eco‐leisure practice: the case of the Sataf village

This article explores the phenomenon of allotment holding as a leisure practice, by drawing upon on a 2‐year field study conducted at the Sataf village allotment site near the city of Jerusalem. The findings indicate that plotting at the Sataf involves an ideological commitment to nature and environment‐friendly related themes. Accordingly, plot holding at the Sataf is termed an eco‐leisure practice. In addition, the findings indicate that plotting at Sataf is an individual rather than a socially oriented experience. These findings are interpreted with regard to all of the particular features and developments in Israel, the specific literature on allotment holding, the study fields of leisure and tourism, and George Simmel's philosophy of experience.     

A Model of Dynamic Takeover Behavior

Several observed features of takeover contests appear to be inconsistent with value-maximizing behavior on the part of the agents involved. For instance, managers occasionally resist takeover bids, presumably in order to facilitate competition among bidders. However, counterbids do not always materialize, suggesting that management resistance was not in the best interests of the firm's shareholders. On the other hand, a successful takeover is sometimes accompanied by a decrease in the value of the acquirer's shares. In addition, valuable combinations are occasionally not consummated. We present a simple illustration of sequential takeover bidding in which all managers act in the best interests of their respective shareholders. Within the context of this model, we provide an explanation of the type of behavior described above.     

Individual Investor Trading and Stock Returns

This paper investigates the dynamic relation between net individual investor trading and short‐horizon returns for a large cross‐section of NYSE stocks. The evidence indicates that individuals tend to buy stocks following declines in the previous month and sell following price increases. We document positive excess returns in the month following intense buying by individuals and negative excess returns after individuals sell, which we show is distinct from the previously shown past return or volume effects. The patterns we document are consistent with the notion that risk‐averse individuals provide liquidity to meet institutional demand for immediacy.