Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards Has Enhanced Chinese Company Transparency

The research reported here shows that China＇s recent adoption （ASBE） has increased the quality of Chinese financial reporting of Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises With China＇s decade of World Trade Organization （WTO） membership marked by dazzling economic growth, it is useful to reflect on how financial reporting itself can assist in the country＇s future progress. Critical to the success of ensuring strength for this burgeoning economy is attraction of foreign investment capital. As China＇s internal consumption grows,     

International Accounting Standards for Line-of-Business Reporting and Oligopoly Competition*

Abstract. This article presents a model in which the impact of international accounting standards on product market competition can be assessed. Formulating the choice of disclosure rules as the first stage in a multistage game between countries and representative incumbent and entrant firms, we establish conditions under which an enforceable international standard to require line-of-business (LOB) reporting could lead to strict improvement in the expected national welfare of participating countries over the equilibrium that would otherwise be attained. Additional results consider the effects of changes in certain model assumptions and the addition of tariffs as further trade policy instruments. Résumé. Les auteurs proposent un modèle permettant d'évaluer l'incidence des normes comptables internationales sur la concurrence, sur les marchés de produits. Ils posent d'abord le choix des règles de présentation de l'information comme étant la première étape d'un jeu à multiples épisodes entre les pays et entre les sociétés en place représentatives du secteur et les nouvelles venues. Ils établissent ensuite les conditions dans lesquelles l'application possible d'une norme internationale exigeant la publication d'information sectorielle pourrait mener à une stricte amélioration de la prospérité nationale attendue des pays participants, au-delà du niveau d'équilibre qui serait autrement atteint. Les auteurs s'intéressent entre autres, dans leurs travaux, aux répercussions de la modification de certaines hypothèses du modèle et de l'introduction des tarifs douaniers à titre d'instruments de la politique d'échange.     

The Impact of Legal and Voluntary Investor Protection on the Early Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

Summary Prior studies explain the early adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by firm-specific benefits. However, IFRS adoption also leads to increased disclosure and reduced accounting choices, resulting in a loss of private benefits for company insiders. This paper argues that this loss depends on characteristics of the institutional environment (i.e. the level of investor protection). We find that in countries with strong laws or extensive corporate governance codes IFRS is more likely adopted as the loss of private benefits for company insiders is smaller. Furthermore, corporate governance recommendations are as effective as laws in stimulating IFRS adoption and become more important when laws are weaker. We thank the FWO for the financial support (FWO-project G.0244.02). We gratefully acknowledge the comments of the participants of the 26th Annual European Accounting Association Congress in Seville (2003), and of the International Accounting Section Mid-year Conference of the American Accounting Association in San Diego (2004). We acknowledge the comments of the discussant and participants of the Accounting Research Day in Antwerp (May 2004). Special thanks go to M. Willekens, J. Suys, and W. Landsman and two anonymous referees.     

我国政府财务报告的现状、问题和对策

改革政府财务报告是当前国际社会共同关注的会计问题之一。从世界范围看,建立一套完整的政府会计准则体系,定期编制政府财务报告,反映政府财务信息已成为国际上加强政府公共管理、提高财政透明度的重要手段和通行惯例。我国已提出“立党为公、执政为民”的执政纲领和建立透明政府、绩效政府的目标。财政从单纯“分配”向综合“管理”转型,这需要改革政府会计及其报告制度。本文对政府组织活动、政府会计报告、美国政府会计的规范与报表、我国政府预算会计体系的现状和问题,以及改进政府会计报告及其分析方法的对策和建议进行阐述。这将有利于改革和完善我国政府财务报告制度,以及信息使用者的决策分析。     

构建国际金融中心：全球眼光、国际标准与世界经验

最近以来，“构建”金融中心成为中国大都市关注的热点，也成为中国大都市竞争的焦点。但对于一个城市能否“构建”金融中心，“构建”什么样的金融中心，怎样“构建”金融中心，目前国内还缺乏相当的理论探索和经验总结。在对全球金融中心发展历史观察和国际金融中心研究献消化的基础上，本试图以全球眼光，审视金融中心的竞争和发展格局；提炼国际标准，比较名国际金融中心的优势与不足；运用空间经济学理论，结合金融中心发展实践，构建国际金融中心发展和竞争的解释框架，总结国际金融中心发展和竞争的基本经验。这对于试图“构建”金融中心的中国城市，把握趋势，瞄准定位，借鉴经验，具有一定的参考意义。     

从“G7时代”到“G20时代”——国际金融治理机制的变迁

2008年9月,美国金融危机的爆发对世界经济构成了严重威胁,也对始于1975年以七国集团(G7)为核心的国际金融治理模式提出了严峻挑战。由于传统国际金融治理机制的失灵,已经运转了十年的二十国集团(G20)从部长级会议正式提升为首脑级会议,并且在两年的时间里召开了五次首脑峰会,开创了既有国际机制的先例。在2009年的匹兹堡峰会上,二十国集团首脑峰会被正式制度化,并被提升为治理国际金融体系最主要的制度平台。国际金融治理机制发生了从G7时代向G20时代的重大转变。此次国际金融治理机制变迁的原因在于国际经济的权力结构发生了变化,传统的治理模式难以为继,而国际金融危机的爆发加剧了传统机制的失灵。作为一种新的制度模式,二十国集团适应了国际经济权力结构的变迁,而且在节约制度建设成本上具有相当大的优势。正因如此,二十国集团取代了七国集团成为国际社会应对金融危机最核心的机制,进而实现了国际金融治理机制的变迁。     

论财务会计报告改革背景下的企业效绩评价

本文对我国现行效绩评价体系的适用范围及其行为导向进行了分析，并在探讨我国企业财务会计报告的现实改革、未来改革需求及其对企业效绩评价（体系）的影响基础上，结合我国财务会计报告的现实，以平衡计分卡理论的依据，提出了改进效绩评价的具体建议。     

Flight to Quality in International Markets: Investors’ Demand for Financial Reporting Quality during Political Uncertainty Events

We examine whether international equity mutual fund managers shift their portfolios toward stocks with higher financial reporting quality (FRQ) during periods of high political uncertainty. Our study is motivated by two primary factors. First, prior research shows evidence of fund managers’ “flight to quality” (e.g., to less risky securities) during periods of uncertainty. Second, recent theoretical research concludes that stocks with higher FRQ are assessed as less sensitive to systematic risk (such as political uncertainty). We employ national elections as exogenous increases in systematic risk in the local markets and accordingly use an international sample of mutual funds that focus on local markets. We find that mutual fund managers shift their equity holdings to stocks with higher FRQ during election periods when political uncertainty is higher. Such a flight‐to‐quality effect is less pronounced for elections with larger expected electoral margins in the pre‐election period (i.e., when the incumbent is more likely to win the election) and for countries with higher transactions costs. In contrast, the effect is more pronounced when governments have greater involvement in the local economy. Our inferences are robust to alternative proxies for political uncertainty and FRQ and to numerous other sensitivity analyses.     

Discretion in Financial Reporting: The Voluntary Disclosure of Compensation Peer Groups in Proxy Statement Performance Graphs*

We examine the 49 Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 firms that voluntarily disclosed in their 1993 proxy statements, the composition of the comparison group used by each board's compensation committee to set executive compensation policies. We hypothesize that the net benefits of this disclosure are largest when (1) there is a high degree of stakeholder concern about compensation, (2) compensation policies are defensible, and (3) corporate governance is strong. Consistent with our stakeholder concern prediction, disclosing firms have higher compensation levels and are more apt to have received prior shareholder proposals about executive compensation. Contrary to this prediction, we find a negative association between financial press coverage of compensation policies and the probability of disclosure. Additionally, the disclosure decision is unrelated to the defensibility of compensation policies and the firm's corporate governance profile. Industry-adjusted firm performance, managerial entrenchment, CEO tenure, institutional holdings, and compensation committee independence variables are insignificant. We also compare the financial performance and compensation practices of compensation peers to two yardsticks — performance and pay practices at the sample firms and the corresponding S&P industry index firms. The compensation levels of compensation peers exceed those of the firms in the corresponding S&P industry indexes. Because (1) compensation levels and performance sensitivities at sample firms are more similar to those at compensation peers than to those at S&P industry index firms, and (2) the superior financial performance and higher performance sensitivities of disclosing firms justify high pay, this evidence suggests that the compensation peers of disclosing firms are an appropriate comparison group.     

The Association between the Legal and Financial Reporting Environments and Forecast Performance of Individual Analysts*

We test the ability of analyst characteristics to explain relative forecast accuracy across legal origins (common law versus civil law). Common‐law countries generally have more effective corporate governance mechanisms, including stronger investor protection laws and inputs provided through higher‐quality financial reporting systems. In this type of environment, we predict that analysts with superior ability and resources in common‐law countries will more consistently outperform their peers because appropriate market‐based incentives exist. In civil‐law countries, where the demand for earnings information is reduced because of weaker corporate governance mechanisms and lower‐quality financial reporting, we predict that analysts with superior ability will less consistently provide superior forecasts. Results are consistent with our expectations and suggest an association between legal and financial reporting environments and analysts' forecast behavior.     

捷克"大众投资基金"的成败--兼评"后华盛顿共识"的相关看法

一、共同基金,还是持股公司? 在"起点平等"与效率改进的结合中,捷克模式把投资基金摆在了一个关键位置:投资基金本身的股东大众化体现了起点平等,而基金代表大众股东对企业行使的治理权则被看作是既优于官营经济衙门式管理,又避免"无政府"管理真空的一种改革.这种改革被期望带来效率改进.然而这一期望看来出了问题.人们所讲的一些时弊,如投资基金控制的企业缺乏效率激励、基金与银行的交叉控股造成捷克的金融问题,等等,都只是表面现象.根本的问题是投资基金这种制度设计内在的主要矛盾,即维持"平等的起点"状态的努力与发展有效的竞争机制的矛盾.正如J·E·斯蒂格利茨指出的那样,"投资基金比它们所拥有的公司本身还存在着更严重的‘公司治理'问题.基金股份持有者占了总人口的很大比例.因此股东们对基金管理的影响几乎为零."[1]     

M&A Due Diligence,Post‐Acquisition Performance,and Financial Reporting for Business Combinations

Before completing merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions, acquiring firms conduct due diligence. This process provides acquiring firms with a more informed assessment of the expected costs, benefits, and risks of an acquisition and offers one last opportunity to renegotiate or terminate an M&A transaction. However, acquiring firms must trade off the costs and benefits of performing additional due diligence versus completing the acquisition. Based on an analysis of the time to negotiate the acquisition agreement and complete the transaction, I predict and find that competitive pressures, short‐term financial reporting incentives, and agency problems are associated with less due diligence. I also find that less due diligence is associated with lower post‐acquisition profitability, a higher probability of acquisition‐related goodwill impairments, and lower quality fair value estimates for the acquired assets and liabilities. These findings highlight due diligence as an important factor explaining cross‐sectional variation in post‐acquisition performance and financial reporting for business combinations.     

农业增长:新疆农业财政投入绩效分析

本文通过对新疆农业投资效益分析评价,分析表明农业产出的增长主要依靠农业投资的增长而获得,投入产出效益还有很大潜力,新疆农业今后要发展,仍然要靠投入的增加。本文运用比较分析法,对比分析了农业财政投入、农户投入和农业信贷投入对农业产出的影响,表明财政投入是新疆农业增长的重要源泉,今后增加财政对农业的投入是农业获得持续增长的手段。     

The Economic Impact of the Lack of Transparency in Financial Reporting

Off-balance-sheet amounts are in the trillions of dollars, not including all transactions with off-balance-sheet implications. Financial managers and consultants intentionally structure transactions that are abusive of off-balance sheet accounting rules, which leads to a lack of transparency in financial reporting. This paper explores several ways in which companies manipulate off-balance sheet transactions to satisfy personal and business objectives as well as the impact of such manipulations. It is time for regulatory bodies to close the loopholes, eliminate overly rules-based standards, clearly state the economic objective of each standard, and require firms to disclose the economic motivations for the accounting practices they adopt.      

Measuring Barriers to International Division of Labor in East Asia*

International fragmentation has developed dramatically in East Asia since the 1990s. The purpose of the present paper is to measure border barriers in transactions of intermediate goods in East Asian countries. We find that the barriers in each country have steadily declined since 1985. The barriers in China and Taiwan have declined remarkably since the 1980s, whereas those in Indonesia experienced a slight increase in the 1980s. These results are qualitatively unchanged even if we control the effect of agglomeration on intra‐national inputs.     

企业财务报告质量问题及其治理对策

近年来,一些企业采用编造、变造、伪造等手法粉饰财务报告,以失真的财务信息误导企业利益相关者的行为十分普遍,严重扰乱了经济秩序,动摇了投资者的信心,对我国经济造成严重损害。本文对该问题产生的原因进行了分析,并根据财务报告应＂客观、充分地反映会计主体的财务状况、经营成果和现金流量,为利益相关者提供有用的财务信息＂的要求提出了治理对策。