New development: Accounting recognition of public infrastructure—applying a practical control criterion approach

ABSTRACT

The accounting recognition of public infrastructure can be extremely complex. This article explores and discusses the key IPSAS definitions and reviews the national accounting frameworks of some countries as regards their criteria for recognizing these assets. The author makes an important contribution to public sector accounting research by presenting a new way of recognizing public infrastructure as an asset based on the control criterion.     

中国银行业环境信息披露水平及其影响因素——基于16家上市银行的实证分析

本文从环境报告的可信度、广泛度、客观度、重视度、表现度、便捷度六个方面衡量了银行业环境信息披露水平,并在此基础上重点对环境信息披露指数与银行盈利能力、规模、财务杠杆、实际控股人属性之间的关联度进行了实证检验。研究结果表明:上市银行的环境信息披露水平总体上看近几年有较大提升,但各银行环境信息披露指数的差异很大,差异主要体现在信息披露的数量和可信度上;银行资产规模与环境信息披露水平之间存在显著的正相关关系,实际控股人属性也会对环境信息披露水平产生一定影响。因此,随着企业规模的不断提高,其环境信息披露水平也会相应提升。     

国际银行业信息披露制度研究

信息披露制度的兴起和完善伴随着商业银行治理结构的变革及风险管理技术的提升,是推动银行业公司治理改革的重要动力。《有效银行监管的核心原则》、《提高银行透明度》、《巴塞尔资本协议Ⅱ》等报告和协议为国际银行业信息披露标准提供了借鉴,折射了国际银行业信息披露制度的变革方向。美国银行业信息披露制度对我国有着明显的借鉴意义,其改进信息披露的举措主要包括提高信息披露效能、加强信用风险披露和按业务线披露经营信息等。以《巴塞尔资本协议Ⅱ》的要求为基础,借鉴发达国家的信息披露制度,细化《商业银行信息披露暂行办法》的相关规定,推进信息披露的规范化,是我国商业银行提升信息披露水平的可选思路。     

影响商业银行稳定的微观因素

本文运用14家上市商业银行2003~2010年的数据,实证研究了银行稳定与信息披露的关系。中国商业银行的稳定性在逐渐增强,信息披露在一定程度上促进了银行稳定性。进一步发挥信息披露的市场约束作用,需要完善相应的制度环境和市场基础。银行资产规模以及利润的增长有效地促进了商业银行的稳定性。国有银行有国家信用的担保,而股份制银行具备相对完善的治理制度,两者的稳定性并不存在显著性的差别。政府应完善信息披露制度,为投资者提供全面、及时、真实的财务信息,加强信息披露的市场约束作用,加强对银行信息披露的监管。     

国有商业银行上市与信息披露机制完善研究

在中国加入WTO和四大国有商业银行积极准备股改上市的背景下,建立和完善适应资本市场要求的信息披露机制意义重大.对照国际银行业的通行标准和资本市场的监管要求,我国国有商业银行的信息披露机制仍存在较大的完善空间.本文在归纳巴塞尔委员会和国内相关监管部门对上市银行信息披露要求的基础上,指出国有商业银行应尽快完善对风险管理定量信息、非财务信息、公司治理信息和表外业务信息的披露,充实会计报表附注的披露要素,并妥善处理信息披露与商业秘密保护的关系;通过完善信息披露机制,树立与国有商业银行资产规模和市场地位相称的上市公司形象.     

Asset Revaluations and Debt Contracting

The research question investigated is: Do managers of Australian firms use upward asset revaluations to reduce debt contracting costs? Prior research, using sample periods from the 1970s and early 1980s, provides evidence that asset revaluations are used to reduce the costs of debt contracting (see Whittred and Chan, 1992; Brown et al., 1992; Cotter and Zimmer, 1995). However, considerable changes to the institutional set-ting have occurred in the past decade. These institutional changes include increased regulation of asset revaluations and disclosures, changes in the macroeconomic environment, and changes in the Australian debt market. Particularly, there has been a shift in emphasis from public to private debt. The relationship between asset revaluations and debt contracting is examined in the current setting, using refined measures of contracting variables. Interestingly, the results of prior research do not replicate in the current setting. In order to further examine the potential impact of changes to the institutional setting, a series of interviews with chief financial officers is undertaken. The conclusion drawn from this additional analysis is that the relatively closer relationship between firms and their bankers in the current institutional setting has caused many firms to choose footnote disclosure of undervalued assets in preference to recognizing an upward asset revaluation in the balance sheet.     

Disclosure Of Audit Committees by Public Companies in Australia 1988–1990

The existence of audit committees in public companies can improve the quality of the financial reporting process, aid the actual and perceived independence of both the internal and external auditors, and improve financial statement users' confidence in the quality of the information. These benefits will be enhanced by disclosure of audit committees in the financial statements. This study examined the incidence and form of the disclosure of audit committees in annual reports by major Australian public companies over the period 1988–1990. The results showed that disclosures by larger companies increased during this time. Rates of disclosure varied considerably depending on the auditor and was positively associated with the size of the organisation. Companies with audit committees are encouraged to consider enhanced methods of disclosure such as those outlined in AUP 31 Communication with an Audit Committee.     

Constituent Participation in the Australian Public Sector Accounting Standard-Setting Process: The Case of ED 55

The Australian public sector has recently undergone a period of intense reform including a comprehensive reform of financial reporting policies. A major aspect of this reform is the involvement of the Australian accounting profession in the formulation of financial reporting standards through the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (PSASB). Despite this extensive change, scant research has examined constituent participation in the Australian public sector accounting standard-setting 'due process'. This paper considers the regulatory model adopted for accounting standard-setting in the public sector in Australia and identifies the implications of this model for constituent access to the 'due process'. In particular, the co-operation between the PSASB and the various regulatory bodies in each Australian jurisdiction suggests that these bodies may have more direct influence over the standard-setters than other constituents. The submissions made on ED 55 Financial Reporting by Government Departments are examined as a case study of the 'due process' as it operates in the public sector. Different constituent groups were found to respond in varying proportions, to hold conflicting positions on some issues contained in ED 55 and to use different strategies to present these positions. The research identifies a lack of input by the major group affected by the proposed standard, the account preparers (government departments). In addition, account preparers which did respond to ED 55 were found to use less sophisticated lobbying strategies than other respondents who weighted their responses by commenting on a greater number of issues and by supporting their position with conceptual arguments. These results support the contention that some constituents have favourable access to the 'due process' and that standard-setters may not have received all pertinent information from affected and/or knowledgeable constituents.     

Toward Transparency: New Approaches and Their Application to Financial Markets

The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s not only highlightedthe welfare consequences of transparency in the financial sectorbut also linked this relatively narrow problem to the broadercontext of transparency in governance. It has been observedthat objections to transparency, often on flimsy pretexts, arecommon even in industrialized countries. This article arguesthat transparency is indispensable to the financial sector anddescribes its desirable characteristics: access, timeliness,relevance, and quality. The authors emphasize the need to weighthe costs and benefits of a more transparent regulatory policy,and they explore the connection between information imperfections,macroeconomic policy, and questions of risk. The article arguesfor developing institutional infrastructure, standards, andaccounting practices that promote transparency, implementingincentives for disclosure and establishing regulations to minimizethe perverse incentives generated by safety net arrangements,such as deposit insurance. Because institutional developmentis gradual, the authors contend that relatively simple regulations,such as limits on credit expansion, may be the most reasonableoption for developing countries. They show that transparencyhas absolute limits because of the lack of adequate enforcementand argue that adequate enforcement may be predicated on broaderreforms in the public sector.      

Cost of capital and valuation in the public and private sectors: Tax,risk and debt capacity

Cost of capital and valuation differ in the private and public sectors, because taxes are a cost to the private sector but are only a transfer to the public sector. We show how to transform the after-tax private sector cost of capital into its pre-tax equivalent, for comparison with the public sector cost of capital. We establish the existence of a tax induced wedge between these two costs of capital. The wedge introduces a preference on the part of the private sector for assets with rapid tax depreciation, high debt capacity and low risk. We show that, in circumstances where an asset has identical public and private sector valuation in the absence of taxes, the tax induced difference in valuation is identical to the change in government tax receipts that results from having the asset owned by the private rather than the public sector. We provide some examples of distortions that result from failure to adjust for changes in tax revenues, and show how to effect such adjustment.     

Corporate Social Responsibility: The Link Between Sustainability Disclosure and Sustainability Performance

This paper explores the relation between sustainability performance and sustainability disclosure within the Australian extractive industries. The study utilizes Ullmann's (1985) stakeholder framework, which depicts sustainability disclosure and performance as two components of management strategy for dealing with stakeholder demands. Consistent with this framework, we predict a positive performance–disclosure relation. Extending prior research that has utilized problematic environmental performance indices such as CEP indices or toxic emissions levels, we develop a sustainability performance index based on the International Finance Corporation's Measuring Sustainability Framework (2001). Using data from 339 mining and energy firms listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2006, we find that corporate sustainability performance is strongly associated with disclosure as expected. Sustainability disclosure is also greater for firms with a proactive communication strategy as manifested through press release activity. Finally, asset age and firm size are both positively associated with sustainability, consistent with predictions from the stakeholder framework.     

Are Private Sector Standards Enough? An Example From Public Sector Hospitals in New Zealand

The aim of this paper is to assess whether and to what extent public sector hospital reports in New Zealand disclose information which best support the public interest. We analyse the content of the annual reports of Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs) for 1994, 1995 and 1996. It is concluded that the developments in public sector accounting, with respect to the public interest, have not permeated these reports to any significant extent. The following changes would improve these reportings: Reports providing costs relative to non-financial accomplishments; removing the traditional 'revenue' disclosure; disclosing non-financial as well as financial resources and obligations; providing further disaggregation in the reports; disclosing budgetary information and valuing assets alternatively. Implications of the lens used for the analysis are also considered.     

The climate change‐related disclosures and accountability practices of NGOs: Evidence from Australia

This paper focusses on non‐governmental organisations’ (NGOs) broader social accountability, investigating their public disclosures on climate change commitment and performance. Using a synthesised disclosure index, we analyse the annual reports of 30 NGOs, all signatories to the Australian Council for International Development's Code of Conduct. Overall disclosure rates from 2008 to 2013 were higher for commitment than performance, but were very low overall. However, the number of NGOs disclosing information rose markedly over the period. Although it is not directly possible to attribute the change in disclosure levels to the implementation of the Code, the enactment of the new Code could be one of the motivating factors for NGOs’ disclosure practices and their demonstrations of greater social accountability.      

Searching for a listed infrastructure asset class using mean–variance spanning

This study examines the portfolio-diversification benefits of listed infrastructure stocks. We employ three different definitions of listed infrastructure and tests of mean–variance spanning. The evidence shows that viewing infrastructure as an asset class is misguided. We employ different schemes of infrastructure asset selection (both traditional asset classes and factor exposures) and discover that they do not provide portfolio-diversification benefits to existing asset allocation choices. We also find that defining and selecting infrastructure investments by business model as opposed to industrial sectors can reveal a very different investment profile, albeit one that improves the mean–variance efficient frontier since the global financial crisis. This study provides new insights into defining and benchmarking infrastructure equity investments in general, as well as into the extent to which public markets can be used to proxy the risk-adjusted performance of privately held infrastructure investments.     

Immediate Disclosure or Secrecy? The Release of Information in Experimental Asset Markets

This paper reports the results of experimental asset markets designed to investigate how the public disclosure of uncertain information affects market and individual outcomes. In some markets, no information is released as trading starts, and in others, an imperfect pre‐announcement is disclosed. The reliability of the pre‐announcement varies across markets. Our data indicate under‐reaction to a pre‐announcement that is highly reliable and over‐reaction to one with much lower reliability. Price volatility is higher and allocational efficiency is lower with a pre‐announcement that reflects substantial uncertainty. Furthermore, when the reliability of the pre‐announcement is low, traders extract a smaller proportion of the total attainable profit. Thus, in a highly uncertain environment better outcomes may result when information is withheld. These results have important policy implications regarding the disclosure of information by the Federal Reserve. In a highly uncertain environment, better outcomes may actually result with less information.     

GAAP,GFS and AASB 1049: perceptions of public sector stakeholders

Efforts by Australian standard‐setters to harmonise public sector financial reporting resulted in AASB 1049, which sought to bridge the divide between generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)‐based and government finance statistics (GFS)‐based financial statements. However, whether AASB 1049 has resulted in information that is considered appropriate for the public sector has not been examined. We explore this issue by comparing the requirements of AASB 1049 with the responses from a survey of public sector stakeholders on the appropriate accounting treatment and presentation of selected financial items. The analysis suggests consensus with AASB 1049 on presentation issues but less consensus on accounting treatments.     

Disclosure frequency and information asymmetry

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate whether more frequent disclosure by firms is associated with lower levels of information asymmetry among investors. Using a panel of 386 firms in the US retail sector, I find that the practice of regularly providing monthly revenue disclosures is not associated with reduced information asymmetry. In contrast, I find that more detailed (greater quantity) disclosure is associated with reduced information asymmetry. I provide preliminary evidence that the distinction between disclosure frequency and disclosure quantity is due to more frequent disclosure providing an incentive for increased private information acquisition by sophisticated investors. The results indicate that the relation between disclosure and information asymmetry is multi-dimensional and varies depending on the disclosure attribute being studied.     

An Experimental Market's Investigation of Discretionary Financial Disclosure

The extent to which market forces can induce full financial disclosure by managers has long been an issue of interest to regulators. Investigating this phenomenon with naturally occurring data produces a major obstacle: since managers' private information sets are unknown, it is necessary to make assumptions about them in order to interpret the nature (e.g., favourable or unfavourable, income increasing or income decreasing) of the information that is disclosed. The validity of the inferences relies critically on the validity of these assumptions. The present study uses a laboratory experiment to test three hypotheses derived from prior analytical and empirical research: (H1) When disclosure costs are zero, managers voluntarily disclose all (good and bad) news; (H2) When disclosure costs are positive. managers only disclose news which exceeds some threshold: and (H3) The mandatory disclosure of non-proprietary information induces an increase in the disclosure of correlated. proprietary information. One hundred and fifty-six subjects participated in markets with one firm manager and three investors. Over thirteen independent periods, the managers decided whether to truthfully disclose the liquidation value of the asset under their stewardship, and the investors submitted competing bids for the asset. With costless disclosure. investors price-protected themselves when managers withheld information, but the price penalty that they imposed was insufficient to induce full disclosure. With positive disclosure cost, investors reduced the price penalty that they imposed for non-disclosure, and managers disclosed proportionally fewer of the less extreme good news. Finally, mandatory disclosure of information had no significant impact on the voluntary disclosure of correlated proprietary information. Discussion centres on our failure to support the (equilibrium) prediction from analytical research that full disclosure should obtain when disclosures are costless. Several limitations of the study are examined. and it remains an open question whether additional trials (periods) in the present study might have provided full disclosure.