A Comparative International Analysis of the Impact of Accounting Principles on Profits: The USA versus the UK,Sweden and The Netherlands

This paper explores the extent to which there are material quantitative differences in profits reported under US GAAP compared to profits reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands. From an analysis of Form 20-F reports filed with the SEC in the USA, there is support for the hypothesis that UK GAAP are significantly less conservative than US GAAP. On the basis of a case study approach, it seems that Swedish GAAP tend to be more conservative than US GAAP, particularly when the transfers to reserves are analysed, but there is insufficient evidence to establish a systematic pattern. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, there is evidence to suggest that Dutch GAAP are at the less conservative end of the spectrum of financial reporting measurement practices, in a position relatively similar to that of UK GAAP, although again the evidence is insufficient to establish a systematic pattern.     

公允价值计量改革对公司利润分配的影响

新会计准则引入了公允价值计量属性,改变了营业利润的构成,也改变了净利润的计量方法。未实现的公允价值变动损益和资产减值损失不具备可分配利润的特点,但因为改革后所得税会计采用的是资产负债表债务法,不能直接以净利润减公允价值变动收益作为利润分配基数,必须考虑递延所得税的影响。本文提出应尽快修改《公司法》中利润分配条款。这对规范公司利润分配行为,抑制公司利润分配中机会主义倾向、保持公司持续发展是很有必要的。     

The Information Contained in Reconciliations to Earnings Based on US Accounting Principles By Non-US Companies

To improve comparability of financial statements across countries, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires non-US registrants to either issue financial statements based on US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or provide in their footnotes a reconciliation of their foreign accounts to their US GAAP counterparts. The New York Stock Exchange has requested the elimination of this requirement on the basis that it serves as a barrier to non-US companies that desire to enter the US market. The SEC maintains that the reconciliations provide important information to investors when assessing the value of a company's stock. This study investigates the information content claim made by the SEC. An event study methodology is utilised that measures the stock price reaction within a short window surrounding the SEC filing date of the firm's 20-F (analogous to the 10-K for US firms). A significantly positive correlation is documented between the stock price reaction and the change in the aggregate reconciliation. This result implies that US GAAP disclosures provide information to the market when the 20-F arrives at the SEC.     

关于会计基本原则选择与会计核算原则排序的新思考

本文提出会计公正原则是会计信息使用者普遍接受或“一致同意”的原则,理应成为会计的基本原则,并尝试以这个基本原则为依据对现行会计制度中的会计核算原则排出一个先后顺序。从理论层面选择公正原则作为会计的基本原则并作为指导对会计核算原则排序来消除现有会计核算原则之间存在的重叠和冲突,从而使会计信息产生的过程和结果尽可能地公正。在利益多元化的社会,特别是在促进社会公正和构建和谐社会的今天,研究会计信息产生过程和结果的公正性无疑具有重要的理论价值和实践价值。     

Properties of Market Expectations of Accounting Earnings by Financial Analysts: UK versus US

This paper compares patterns and properties of financial analysts' forecasts (FAFs) of earnings between the UK and the US. Using 299 UK and 400 US firms from the same data source—Institutional Brokers Estimate System tapes—the accuracy of forecasts is examined and the sources of errors analysed. The results reveal that FAFs errors in the UK are much smaller than those in the US, and that this disparity persists even after controlling for firm size and industry effects. Further, FAFs of US firms demonstrate consistent overestimation of earnings over the sample period 1988–1990, while UK firms show overestimation in only one of three years. A model developed to test the determinants of forecast error reveals that forecasters of UK firms are influenced in a somewhat different fashion from those of US firms. While dispersion, predisclosure information (market capitalisation or number of analysts), and industry are common determinants of forecast error for both countries, the percentage of forecasts revised is a major determinant only for UK firms.     

The Impact of the Secondary Market on Life Insurers' Surrender Profits

Life insurers often claim that the life settlement industry reduces their surrender profits and leads to an adverse shift in their portfolio of insured risks; that is, high risks remain in the portfolio instead of surrendering. In this article, we aim to quantify the effect of altered surrender behavior––subject to the health status of an insured––in a portfolio of life insurance contracts on the surrender profits of primary insurers. Our model includes mortality heterogeneity by applying a stochastic frailty factor to a mortality table. We additionally analyze the impact of the premium payment method by comparing results for annual and single premium payments.     

The Profits of the Dutch East India Company's Japan Trade

This article analyses the eighteenth-century accounting practices of the Japanese trading station or factory of the Dutch East India Company ( Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC). The factory's trade and its reported profits declined during the eighteenth century, but because of the complexity of the accounting issues involved, contemporaries held different views on whether the accounting data supported a continuation of the factory's operations. For similar reasons, some historians have argued that the maintenance of the factory in the face of declining profits illustrates the poor quality of the VOC's management, while others have argued in favour of the economic viability of the factory. The purpose of this article is to a more comprehensive analysis of the accounting issues facing the Japanese factory present in the eighteenth century than offered to date, in order to propose a way in which the accounting records may be approached as a source of data for historical research.
The conclusions are twofold. First, there were three main accounting issues facing the factory that should be considered when interpreting the accounting records. These issues can be summarized as transfer pricing, currency translation and overhead allocation. While all these issues have been recognized in the literature at some stage, they have never been considered in combination. Second, we tentatively conclude that if the recorded accounting figures are adjusted as proposed, they support the view that keeping the factory open was a correct decision from a commercial point of view.     

The Impact of Portfolio Diversification on Trading Rules Profits: Some Evidence for UK Share Portfolios

This paper demonstrates how the autocorrelation structure of UK portfolio returns is linked to dynamic interrelationships among the component securities of that portfolio. Moreover, portfolio return autocorrelation is shown to be an increasing function of the number of securities in the portfolio. Since the security interrelationships seemed to be more a product of their history of non-synchronous trading than of systematic industry-related phenomena, it should not be possible to exploit the high levels of return persistence using trading rules. We show that rules designed to exploit this portfolio autocorrelation structure do not produce economic profits.     

A Temporal Analysis of Earnings Surprises: Profits versus Losses

I show that median earnings surprise has shifted rightward from small negative (miss analyst estimates by a small amount) to zero (meet analyst estimates exactly) to small positive (beat analyst estimates by a small amount) during the 16 years, 1984 to 1999. I show that a rightward temporal shift in median surprise from negative to positive describes earnings, but neither profits nor losses. Median profit surprise shifts within the positive quadrant, from zero to one cent per share. Median loss surprise shifts within the negative quadrant from extreme negative (about -33 cents per share) to zero. I show that the median surprise for profits exceeds that for losses in every year. I document significant positive temporal trends in both meet and beat analyst estimates for both profits and losses, but I find a greater frequency of profits that either meet or beat analyst estimates in every year. I find a significant positive temporal trend in positive profits that are "a little bit of good news," and a significant negative temporal trend in managers who report losses that are an "extreme amount of bad news." My results are robust to the four internal validity threats I consider—namely temporal changes in: (1) analyst forecast accuracy, (2) the mix of earnings of one sign preceded by earnings of another sign four quarters ago, (3) the timeliness of the most recent analyst forecast, and (4) the I/B/E/S definition of actual earnings. I find that managers of growth firms are relatively more likely than managers of value firms to report good news profits. I show that when they do report positive profit surprises, managers of growth firms are more likely to report "a little bit of good news" in every year.     

当心会计利润对企业经营业绩的歪曲反映

假定一个案例某设备加工公司2004年一季度的各月利润如表一:(货币单位:万元)表一行次1234567项目销售收入销售成本销售毛利期间费用利润总额预提所得税(33%)净利润1月10008501501005016.533.52月80056024010014046.293.83月1200114060100-40-13.2-26.8合计3000255045030015049.5100.5注:-13.2系1、2月多提所得税的冲回在经济分析会上,公司董事长非常气愤地质问财务总监:“一季度各月售价相同即每台均平均1万元,1月份销售额1000万元,2月份销售额800万元,3月份销售额1200万元,但1月份盈利50万元,3月份却亏损40万元,特别是2月份企业的销售量最…     

会计准则制定导向的博弈论分析

本文从博弈论分析的角度,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二者之问的效用进行了分析.从分析的结果来看,严格会计监管下的规则导向会计准则将会实现投资者与企业管理当局的纳什均衡,也将使得整个社会的经济秩序良好、社会效益最优化.     

会计要素属性与企业利润关联性研究——基于广西工业企业的经验数据

本文基于2013~2017年广西统计年鉴数据,利用灰色关联法对广西规模工业企业会计要素的流动性、权益性和损益性与企业利润的关联性进行实证研究。研究发现,不同会计要素对企业利润影响程度不同:从流动性维度看,固定资产与流动资产对利润的关联性影响程度几乎相同;从权益性维度看,所有者权益对利润的关联性影响程度超过对负债的影响程度;从损益性维度看,主营业务收入对利润的关联性影响显著高于成本费用。     

The Impact of Adopting International Accounting Standards on the Harmonization of Accounting Practices

Over the past few decades numerous organizations have been actively participating in the efforts to improve the comparability of financial reporting. Many studies have discussed the benefits and drawbacks of comparability. This study investigated the affect on the harmonization, or comparability, of accounting practices when a sample of companies choose to use international accounting standards (IASs) when preparing financial reports.This study analyzed trends in the I index, a measure of concentration for the use of a particular accounting practice introduced by van der Tas, to determine if the choice of accounting methods by a sample of Swiss companies became more aligned with a sample of companies from three other countries. The study included a control sample of Swiss companies that did not switch from reporting using local Swiss standards during the same time period, 1988 through 1995. Four accounting practices were included; depreciation, inventory, financial statement cost basis, and consolidation practices. The practices used were compared with a sample of companies from three countries; Japan, the UK, and the US.The results indicated that across the 8-year period, the majority of the I indices comparisons were positive and statistically significant. However, the results did not support that these increases were due primarily to the adoption of IASs.     

重新审视美国会计对中国会计国际化的影响

本文从会计实务、会计研究和会计教育三个方面分析了美国会计危机的现状和成因,然后讨论了在中国会计国际化进程中,如何借鉴美国会计的经验与教训,解决好中国自己的会计问题。本文认为,解决中国会计问题在根本上必须充分考虑中国的制度背景。     

非文化会计环境因素对会计价值的影响

借鉴Gray(1988)模型,本文考察政治因素、经济体制、法律渊源、融资系统与税收体系等非文化会计环境因素对会计价值的影响。研究发现:(1)相比自由主义,社会主义意识形态下的政治环境更偏好于法律控制、统一性和稳健主义;政治组织体制的集权程度与职业主义负相关,而与统一性和保密性正相关;(2)相比以计划为主导的经济体制,以市场为配置资源主要方式的国家或地区的会计价值更倾向于职业主义与稳健主义,灵活性和透明度程度也较高;(3)相比成文法,普通法国家或地区的会计价值更倾向于职业主义,灵活性和透明度也较高,而对稳健主义的影响取决于稳健主义的定义;(4)与债权型融资系统相比,股权型融资系统国家或地区的会计价值更倾向于职业主义和乐观主义,且灵活性和透明度较高;(5)税会分离程度与职业主义负相关,而与统一性、稳健主义和保密性正相关。本文有助于进一步丰富会计价值体系的理论框架,对政策制定者和会计准则国际协调具有一定的政策意义。     

试论中国会计准则的国际化协调

随着全球经济一体化进程的逐步加快。会计准则的国际化协调已成为各个国家不可避免的问题。我国加入咖后，意味着我们必须遵循国际通行的贸易规则。会计作为国际通用的商业语言，在促进国际贸易和国际经济交流方面的作用将更为突出，因此我国会计准则国际化问题也就显得更为重要和迫切。     

非经常性损失与监管利润关系及对审计的启示

非经常性损益是我国证监会提出的监管概念,其中,非经常性损失能够调高监管利润,客观上粉饰公司市场形象与融资能力。本文将非经常性损失的确定性程度分为三个等级,作为分类变量;将非经常性损失与利润总额绝对值比率作为考察变量,分析不确定性对监管利润的影响。我们得出的结果是非经常性损失的不确定性越高,监管利润被粉饰的可能性越大。建议在审计实践中关注具有不确定性的非经常性损失,防止企业将正常损失混入非经常性损失。     

Planned Changes in Accounting Principles for UK Life Insurance Companies: A Preliminary Investigation of Stock Market Impact

The Association of British Insurers' (ABI) proposals for an 'accruals' method would have the effect of 'front-loading' profits reported on life assurance business compared with the traditional 'statutory solvency' basis. The ABI argued that adoption of the method would lead to a more realistic valuation of life company shares. This research tests this view by investigating, by means of an event study, the stock market impacts of the announcements of the proposals and the initial releases of 'accruals' profits, utilising a recently developed methodology for allowing for the effect of industry and event date clustering. The results found here do not provide any evidence to substantiate the ABI's view, although they do indicate that, where companies signal a change in the allocation of results as between shareholders and policyholders, share prices do reflect the perceived change in shareholder wealth. Moreover, it is argued that the accruals method itself may be more appropriately seen as reflecting and enabling a more pervasive change in managerial approach, refocusing on adding value for shareholders rather than policyholders. Any improvement in share prices resulting from this development might therefore only be expected to be very gradual and hard to distinguish from the impact of other effects.