会计准则导向背后的两种学说

从我国会计准则制定现实可以看到,我国的准则制定从一开始就受到经济后果学说实质上的支配,其实际是遵行规则导向。通过对会计准则的两种学说“会计技术观学说”和“经济后果学说”进行分析,对我国会计准则的制定提出了具体建议。     

关于美国会计准则导向演变的思考

美国爆出安然等一系列重大财务丑闻后，整个会计界进行了深刻的反思，规则导向会计准则成为众矢之的。美国最终决定改革会计准则制定模式，采用原则导向会计准则。美国在会计准则导向转变过程中面临着巨大的挑战，这一转变对我国会计准则建设也有所启示。     

浅谈会计准则制定模式的原则导向与规则导向

会计准则可分为原则导向的会计准则和规则导向的会计准则两种。基于我国当前国情,宜主要采用规则导向的会计准则制定模式。     

An Empirical Investigation of the True and Fair Override in the United Kingdom

Abstract:  The True and Fair View concept requires companies to depart from GAAP or the law if necessary to present a true and fair view of the corporation's financial affairs. We analyze UK public companies invoking a true and fair override to assess whether overrides are associated with weakened performance, earnings quality and informativeness. We find quantified overrides increase income and equity significantly, and firms that invoke more costly overrides report weaker performance. We also find that firms invoking the most costly overrides have less informative financial statements than control firms, and lower earnings quality. In contrast, firms invoking less costly overrides do not exhibit weaker performance, less informative financial statements or weaker earnings quality. These findings are relevant for the debate on principle- vs. rules-based accounting.     

The role of a crisis in reshaping the role of accounting

Prior to 2001, international accounting standards (IAS) were insufficiently attractive to gain the support of US regulators. The potential role of IAS in the US gained prominence during a period of extreme financial reporting instability in 2001–2002. Emerging opinion increasingly upheld principles-based rather than rules-based accounting standards in the face of the financial reporting crisis. But to promote any active shift in the US position, an institutionally legitimate infrastructure for the international accounting standards setter had to be created. As this was taking shape, the globalisation of business activities grew with inter-organizational linkages and cross-national financial inter-dependencies and flows becoming increasingly complex. Given the extensively uncertain, uneven and constantly evolving nature of global business changes, the aptness of applying judgment in assessing financial performance and position rather than relying on the application of pre-defined rules continued to achieve wider acceptance. The argument is made in the paper that international financial reporting standards are today seen to fulfil a global risk mitigating role founded on a logic that had to first gain political and institutional legitimacy and that also had to be viewed as being responsive to perceived market imperatives.     

新会计准则体系制定模式导向的透视

新会计准则体系的颁布被认为是我国会计史上的里程碑,如何使广大会计执业者全面理解新准则的内涵以实现对新规范的严格遵循和精准应用是新准则成功实施的必备条件。本文认为,如何理解"国际趋同"和"中国特色"是把握关键新准则精髓的关键,而理解这两者的关键又必须从准则产生的源头--制定会计准则时所采用的目标导向开展理论上的阐述,才能正本清源,因此,本文采用规则导向和原则导向的视角,通过分析对比两种导向模式的优劣,得出了在现阶段,我国必须实施坚持以原则导向为主,辅之于规则导向的会计准则混合制定模式,同时,时刻关注实施新准则约束条件的变化,适时调整两者的结构,并努力改善相关约束条件的制约,新的会计准则体系才能发挥应有的功用和效能的结论。     

会计准则制定导向的博弈论分析

本文运用博弈论的分析方法,对在不同的会计准则制定导向和会计监管下,企业管理当局和企业投资者之间的效用进行了分析。分析的结果表明:在规则导向会计准则和严格会计监管之下的纳什均衡点是社会效用最高的一种情况。最后,本文结合我国的现实情况分析了我国在制定会计准则的过程中要注意的问题。     

Striking a Balance Between Rules and Principles-based Approaches for Effective Governance: A Risks-based Approach

Several recent studies and initiatives have emphasized the importance of a strong ethical organizational DNA (ODNA) to create and promote an effective corporate governance culture of trust, integrity and intellectual honesty. This paper highlights the drawbacks of an excessively heavy reliance on rules-based approaches that increase the cost of doing business, overshadow essential elements of good corporate governance, create a culture of dependency, and can result in legal absolutism. The paper makes the case that the way forward for effective corporate governance is to strike an optimal balance between rules-based and principles-based approaches. The recent corporate scandals have demonstrated that the ethical ODNA is critical to the driving force and basis of legal and regulatory requirements. Effective governance means adhering to ethical principles, not merely complying with rules, and is a crucial guardian of a firm’s reputation and integrity. It is through an effective corporate governance program (that is, one that optimally captures and integrates the appropriate aspects of rules-based and principles-based approaches, and identifies and assesses the related risks) that an organization can reconfigure its ODNA for improved performance. Focusing on the ethical ODNA as the basis of new governance measures provides an opportunity to develop a competitive advantage as it represents a potential source of differentiation, strengthens the relationship with all stakeholders of the organization by building a culture of trust and integrity, and re-instills investor confidence. This paper employs dialectical reasoning that links the ODNA through principles-driven rules in developing a risks-based approach. A comparison from a risk assessment perspective between rules-based and principles-based approaches is presented. Although there have been few applications employing dialectical reasoning in business research, this methodology can be extremely useful in isolating ethical issues and integrating them into the business process. The risks-based approach captures the benefits of both rules-based and principles-based approaches, and incorporates trust-based principles such␣as solidarity, subsidiarity and covenantal relationships.Sundera Arjoon is a Senior Lecturer in Ethics at the Department of Management Studies, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad, He has served as Head of Department (2002–2005) and as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (1996–2002). His publications have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Markets and Morality, Global Development Studies, Social and Economic Studies, Applied Financial Economics, and the Journal of Eastern Carribean Studies. His current teaching and research interests include ethical decision-making, corporate governance, virtue ethics and familial ethics.     

A perspective on regulatory paradigms: The case of IRS and Sarbanes-Oxley approaches to executive compensation-related regulation

In this paper we explore two regulatory paradigms, with an emphasis on the regulation of executive compensation. An example of the traditional rule-based paradigm is Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m) in which a tax-deductible cap was passed into law to limit executive compensation. We demonstrate that this approach yielded mixed results. While stronger pay/performance sensitivity has been documented, Section 162(m) appears to have actually exacerbated the level of executive compensation. We contrast the rules-based paradigm with an alternative paradigm illustrated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in which the US Congress introduced a series of corporate governance initiatives into federal securities law. The transformation of the mode of regulatory intervention as reflected by SOX is shown to be fully consistent with recent changes in the generally accepted conceptual framework for financial reporting.     

美国会计准则制定模式变迁对我国的启示

本文首先对美国会计准则制定模式变迁的来龙去脉进行了综述,并对原则导向和规则导向的特征、利弊、经济性进行了分析,最后结合我国的具体背景对我国财务会计准则的制定提出自己的一些建议.