Allocations and Common Costs in Long-Run Investing and Pricing Decisions: An Historical Analysis

The extent to which allocated common costs should influence business decisions remains controversial in management accounting. In the finance and investment literature this issue is generally ignored or dismissed by appeals to the'incremental' principle. This article presents an historical analysis of allocations in long-run investing and pricing decisions. It is demonstrated that seminal figures in the development of both investment and price theory were conscious of the need for firms to cover common costs and generally favoured some form of allocation. The anti-allocationist position is shown to be of relatively recent origin and to have caused an inconsistency in the management accounting literature in the treatment of common costs. European costing theory is shown to have been consistently allocationist. Evidence of a return in the recent U.S. literature to the older Anglo-American, and continuing European, allocations tradition is presented.     

Optimal Disbursement of a Sunk Resource and Decentralised Cost Allocation

We consider whether the allocation of the sunk cost of a central resource to operating divisions can be consistent with economically optimal resource consumption decisions. When it is recognised that the central resource is scarce, one may, in principle, defend the allocation of sunk cost, if it measures the opportunity cost of usage. However, typically it has been proposed that such allocations are, at best, a proxy for opportunity cost. Applying classical control theory techniques in a wide range of operating environments, we are able to identify cost allocations that exactly equal opportunity cost. Hence, for our model environment, we provide a rationale for sunk cost allocation in terms of guiding optimal decisions, in contrast to the traditional defence in terms of providing a proxy for opportunity cost. We demonstrate clearly how cost allocations are related to opportunity costs, and identify the circumstances under which the allocation of full costs or alternatively a fixed proportion (related to acquisition conditions) of costs, results in the implementation of economically optimal resource consumption decisions.     

Determinants of the Accounting Change for Income Tax

Abstract:   This study examines determinants of the decision of New Zealand firms to change their income tax accounting method from comprehensive to partial allocation. New Zealand provides a unique setting to investigate this issue because it allows firms the choice to use either the comprehensive or partial allocation procedures to account for income tax. I find that efficient contracting and debt‐related opportunistic factors are both important determinants that influence firms' decisions to change to partial. Specifically, the results indicate that the change is related to the extent of investment in depreciable assets and the closeness of firms to their debt covenant restrictions.     

Accounting for Carbon Emission Allowances in the European Union: In Search of Consistency

Abstract

With the commencement of Phase III of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in 2013, it is projected that approximately one-half of emission allowances will be acquired through auctioning and the provision of free allocations to installations will be substantially tightened. As a result, it is likely that many companies will hold purchased (as opposed to freely allocated or gratis) allowances and will have more significant liabilities under the scheme. The accounting treatment of emission allowances has therefore become more relevant and the lack of uniformity in practice that resulted after the withdrawal of IFRIC 3 is now a more pressing concern. This study uses content analysis to examine disclosed accounting policies of companies with significant emission liabilities under the EU ETS and identifies three more common approaches adopted to date. These can be generally described as the following: (i) a net liability approach, based on the classification of allowances as intangibles but only showing an emission liability when it exceeds the free allocation; (ii) an approach broadly based on IFRIC 3 (recognising the free allocation at fair value and a corresponding gross liability under the EU ETS); and (iii) an approach based on inventory classification, with free allocations given at nil value. The diversity in these treatments highlights the need for guidance from the International Accounting Standards Board.     

Accounting for Infrastructure Service Delivery by Government: Generational Issues

Infrastructure service provision by government creates huge distributional issues about service availability and performance over time and the relative funding burdens borne by successive generations of consumers across time. But providing financial disclosure on these issues through inter-generational accounting pre-supposes that accounting measurement is both generationally neutral (temporal neutrality) and does not legitimate any particular pattern of distribution. At the very least, accounting measurements of service provision costs should possess the attribute of distributional fairness. They should not bias the inter-generational allocation of cost or funding burdens. We argue that the forced application of inappropriate commercial accounting concepts of asset valuation, depreciation and capital maintenance does produce significant generational bias. More flexibility is required to produce the necessary accounting measurement attributes for financial disclosure on whether government has discharged its continuing accountability for inter-generational equity in burden sharing. We discuss three conceptual issues and illustrate the need for flexibility by proposing an alternative 'flow of obligations' approach which does not require reference to valuations of community service resources or arbitrary cost allocations under depreciation.     

高校科研经费间接成本核算模型构建--基于政府会计制度背景

科研经费间接成本是对高校开展科研活动的成本补偿,随着《政府会计制度》的实施,高校在会计核算模式、财务报告编制方面都发生了重大的变化,新制度为高校成本核算提供了制度保障。本文阐述了科研经费间接成本的构成及研究现状,梳理了从资源归集、作业中心成本计算及科研项目成本分摊的整个核算流程。根据资源消耗的不同特点,运用作业成本法和权重比例法的理论和方法,科学地对科研经费间接成本进行分类和分摊,构建了比较完整地高校科研经费间接成本核算模型。同时提出了与模型运用相配套的建议:制定具体行业的间接成本核算规定,规范间接成本的核算;构建并完善高校成本管理系统并加强财务人员的培养;根据高校自身特点,制定科研经费间接成本核算体系。     

A behavioural theory of the fund management firm

The paper outlines a behavioural theory of the fund manager (FM) firm comprising investment decisions (at stock and portfolio levels) by teams and individuals, and of an organisation process and contextual resource factors affecting decisions. FM organisational processes interacted with resources to enhance investment team decision conditions, costs and processes. Enhanced conditions and reduced decision costs were expected to improve the chances of FM success via new information production and better-quality decisions. These dynamic elements to FM firms can be interpreted as tentative organisational means to deal with major problems of behaviour, uncertainty and information asymmetry at the heart of the valuation, investment and performance problems facing FMs. Field research was conducted in 15 FM firms during 2004–2011. A grounded theory approach was employed in processing the data. This led to improvements in empirical understanding of behaviour within FM firms and markets. The results were discussed relative to relevant literature and previous grounded theory. This created a new conceptual tool to investigate FM underperformance and variety in FM styles. The paper demonstrated an empirically rich model of hierarchy, information production, capital allocation and other resource usage in financial institutions and discussed how this created further opportunities for research.     

Accounting aggregation: User preferences and decision making

This experiment tests the effects of alternative aggregations of accounting data in a simulated portfolio task. Certain entropy-based aggregation criteria were used to prepare differentially aggregated financial statements for use in the task. Subjects made allocations of initial edowments between hypothetical firms, disclosed confidence in their allocation decisions and reported on specific characteristics of the financial statements. Differences in reported usefulness of statement sets furnished were found to be associated strongly with measured information content. The results also provide limited evidence that decisions and judgments of subjects were affected by the information content of the accounting aggregations provided.     

A Case Study on Interest Adjusted Accounting Using EEI

It can be claimed that the failure of conventional accounting explicitly to recognise the cost of capital is a major shortcoming during periods of high interest rates. Another important problem stems from the apparently arbitrary and incorrigible allocations typically involved in the matching process. Grinyer has previously proposed a theoretical solution to these problems using an allocation algorithm he called ‘Earned Economic Income’ (EEI). This paper outlines and illustrates a practical development from the EEI concept by means of a case study which explains the calculations and estimates that were made when testing the approach in a firm manufacturing and trading in industrial textiles.     

The information content of aggregate profitability

Recently, there has been significant interest in the information content of aggregate accounting profitability. I collect evidence on whether aggregate profitability captures information about changes in the cost of capital as predicted by classical investment theory. Consistent with these predictions, I find that the stock market return is negatively related to future accounting profitability for several years into the future. I provide evidence that this relation is most likely due to a positive association between changes in expected returns which exert a negative impact on stock returns and future profitability. These findings indicate that aggregate accounting profitability reflects significant economic content related to the cost of capital. This study is the first to link changes in accounting profitability to the market cost of capital under an investment-based mechanism.     

Customer Profitability Analysis Reports for Resource Allocation: The Role of Complex Marketing Environments

Most decision making research in management accounting remains focused on cost information in a production context. Little is known on the relevance of customer profifitability analysis (CuPA) reports, which more accurately reflect revenue and marketing support variations acrosscustomers, for marketing decisions. This study uses an experimental design to examine the impact of such reports on resource allocation decisions (that affect the firm's profits) in marketing environments varying in complexity. The main result of the experiment suggests that the value of CuPA reports depends on the complexity of the marketing setting. Only in a highly complex marketing setting do they enhance resource allocation decisions and resultant firm profitability. Conversely, in the simple marketing environment, decision makers can combine their traditional volume-based cost data with other available types of feedback to perform as well as under a more accurate CuPA report. These findings on complexity contrast with those of a prior study in a production context ( Gupta and King, 1997 ). It is argued that improvements in the current research design, in the form of regularly updated profitability reports and concerning accuracy, increase the relevance of CuPA reports in a complex marketing setting.     

The interplay between cost accounting knowledge and presentation formats in cost-based decision-making

Most studies on cost-based decision-making examine the profit impact of cost reports that rely on different methods to allocate costs. In practice, firms’ cost reports often employ the same cost allocation method with subtle variations in the way that the cost data are presented. This paper examines experimentally the profit impact of a cost report’s presentation format in relation to a decision maker’s level of cost accounting knowledge. Using a customer profitability report prepared using activity-based costing and presented in either a tabular or a graphical format, participants analyze a complex pricing and resource allocation task that affects firm profitability. The results suggest a strong relation between presentation format and cost accounting knowledge. Specifically, decision makers with a low level of cost accounting knowledge attain higher profits when they use a graphical format in comparison to a tabular format. More surprisingly, graphs (versus tables) have an adverse effect on profits for users with a high level of cost knowledge. This result has broad implications: in order to facilitate the decisions of a variety of users of accounting data (e.g. managers, external investors, etc.), firms may need to adapt the presentation format of their accounting data to the level of accounting sophistication of the users.     

Impact of Automation on Cost Accounting

Although production methods have been highly developed and now make use of very advanced technologies, management accounting systems have lagged behind. Before introducing new cost accounting systems, however, it is necessary to have a clear view of practice. The empirical results described in this paper constitute the output of a large scale research project into manufacturing companies located in Belgium. Extensive data on cost accounting systems were gathered through the use of a questionnaire. There is an indication that technological change has an impact on both cost composition and cost structure. The widespread hypothesis that the proportion of direct labour cost within total costs is lower in companies with automated production process is confirmed. As to the traceability of costs, there is a shift from indirect costs towards direct costs in companies with automated production. However, it appears that only a few companies are concerned about the efficiency of their cost calculation on a permanent basis. Moreover, no differences could be detected in the use of cost accounting in decision making between companies with automated production and those with mechanical production.     

Accounting for Intangibles: Can Capitalization of R&D Improve Investment Efficiency?

This paper investigates the potential for accounting rules to mitigate under-investment induced by myopic managerial incentives. It exploits the difference within US GAAP requiring the capitalization of some research and development (R&D) costs in software development but proscribing the capitalization of R&D in other industries. We first investigate whether other hi-technology firms with no capitalization of R&D costs suffer higher levels of under-investment in myopic settings relative to software development firms. Second, we investigate whether the capitalization rule assists in mitigating under-investment within the software development industry, and whether this comes at the cost of over-investment in the presence of financial flexibility. Our findings are consistent with the mitigation of under-investment in the software development setting but we find no evidence of over-investment in the presence of high financial flexibility. Other hi-tech firms that cannot capitalize R&D costs suffer higher levels of under-investment relative to software development firms. Finally, we find that the ability to capitalize for the sample of software firms does reduce the probability of cutting R&D investment when managers are under earnings pressure. The findings in this paper are relevant to standard setters seeking to understand the costs imposed by (understandably) conservative accounting rules, and how verification of points of feasibility alongside less conservative accounting can prevent dysfunctional investment outcomes. This is the first study to consider whether the ability to (justifiably) capitalize the costs of internally generated intangibles can improve investment efficiency (the allocation of resources).     

Why Managers Use Cost Allocations: A Research Note

Using an experimental design, this paper investigates empirically the conditions under which managers use cost allocations for decision-making purposes. The paper focuses on decision-risk in the context of short-term decision-making when most capacity costs are unavoidable. Decision-risk is determined in this paper by a combination of two factors: uncertainty and irreversibility. Cost allocations can serve as a reference point for a decision maker to deal with decision-risk. Three hypotheses are formulated: (1) the combination of both uncertainty and decision irreversibility induces the use of cost allocations. However, (2) certainty or (3) decision reversibility alone are not expected to induce the use of cost allocations. The hypotheses were tested in an experiment, in which senior managers participated. The experimental results supported the hypotheses.     

会计信息可比性与劳动收入份额北大核心

利用2006-2019年沪深A股数据,本文考察了会计信息可比性对企业劳动收入份额的影响。研究发现,会计信息可比性的增强显著提高了企业的劳动收入份额,表明会计信息质量的提高有助于员工更好地分享企业的发展成果。进一步研究结果表明,(1)降低资本成本及增大自主研发强度是会计信息可比性提高企业劳动收入份额的两大作用路径;(2)会计信息可比性的增强主要提高了普通雇员的劳动收入份额,对高管劳动收入份额的影响并不显著;(3)会计信息可比性对劳动收入份额的影响存在一定异质性,当企业自身融资约束程度较高、信息透明度较低,或可比公司的会计盈余质量较强时,会计信息可比性与劳动收入份额的正相关关系更强;(4)会计信息可比性通过提高劳动收入份额,提升了企业的价值创造能力。     

审计成本控制框架设计与运行——基于价值链预算角度

会计师事务所与一般企业一样,需要控制其成本以提高绩效,而"通过分析企业价值链,制定出预算,进而通过预算实现对成本控制"的价值链预算可以铸造具有系统功能的"审计成本控制链"。审计成本控制链是审计人员接受委托到最后审计报告提供给投资者决策使用的整个过程中对审计成本发挥控制作用的各种因素及其所形成的控制链条。对"审计成本控制链"上各作业单元进行分析,可以测算出完成每个作业所需不同级别审计人员的审计时间,进而编制出初始的预算成本;当发现新的审计线索时,增加审计程序不可避免,预算也必然会随之进行调整;为检验调整的合理性以及更好地发挥预算对成本控制的效果,还需要在审计项目结束时,对预算的编制及调整进行评价。从预算的编制到预算的调整再到对预算实施效果评价,在逻辑上就构成了完整的成本控制链条。     

Investment and Abandonment Decisions with Uncertain Price and Cost

We analyze firms' investment and abandonment decisions when both output price and investment cost change stochastically. The model allows for and makes endogenous the abandonment decision, thereby incorporating irreversibility. We show that the investment trigger may be much higher than the standard net present value rule suggests even when a substantial portion of the investment cost may be recovered. Further, we argue that the correlation between output price and investment costs significantly affects the effect of irreversibility on investment behavior. Empirical implications are discussed with extensive numerical illustrations, along with an application to the banking industry.     

Reflections of an Australian Contemporary: The Complementarity of Entry and Exit Price Current Value Accounting Systems

One of the great controversies in accounting concerns the use of current value accounting systems in place of historical cost systems, and the relative merits of the two current value systems proposed—CCA and CCE. Chambers developed and argued the case for CCE. In this essay, the fundamental nature of each system is outlined and related to the economic theory of the firm and its associated theory of optimum resource allocation. It is shown that both CCA and CCE theories are conceptually valid and provide necessary information for efficient resource allocation decisions; however, neither system can provide all the ex post information required and they complement each other.