The Measurement of International Harmonisation in Financial Reporting

Several developments in the harmonisation of accounting standards are described in the accompanying article by Howieson. This article explains how harmonisation can be measured and refers to studies of the harmonisation of accounting standards and of financial reporting in practice. These studies have measured harmonisation in Europe, the US and Japan, as well as comparing accounting standards and reporting practices under Australian accounting standards (AASBs) and international accounting standards (LASS).     

Measuring convergence of National Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards

This paper analyses three methods for measuring the success achieved in effecting convergence between any two sets of accounting standards. We begin by reviewing a measurement method based on the concept of Euclidean distances. We then propose two better measures (involving Jaccard's coefficients and Spearman's coefficients) to assess the progress of National Accounting Standards setting bodies in converging their standards with International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS]. For illustrative purposes, we measure the convergence of National Accounting Standards in Portugal with International Accounting Standards [IAS] and IFRS over the period 1977–2003.     

与资产评估业务相关的国际财务报告准则

2004年3月,国际财务报告准则经修订后重新发布,修订后的国际财务报告准则对于资产评估的需求大幅度增加.而根据惯例,相关的资产评估业务一般要求由独立的评估师来完成.近年来,国际财务报告准则(IFRS)日益受到各国的重视,2005年1月1日,欧盟上市公司已全面采用国际财务报告准则.同时,许多国家的会计准则也纷纷致力于与国际财务报告准则的接轨.     

Measurement in Financial Reporting: Half a Century of Research and Practice

The paper explores developments in the choice of measurement method in financial reporting over the half century that has elapsed since the foundation of Abacus in 1965. The discussion is confined to the specific problem of measuring individual assets and liabilities, rather than the wider problems of the choice of measurement unit (as in inflation accounting) or capital maintenance (as in income measurement). Changes in financial reporting practice and standards are considered in relation to developments in academic research. This has been a two‐way process: research has been stimulated by problems of practice, and practice, particularly as embodied in standards, has been influenced by the results of research. Both have been influenced by significant events in the world economy, notably the inflation of the 1970s and the global financial crisis that started in 2007. Historical cost has retained its position as the predominant measurement technique in practice, but considerable progress has been made in the implementation and understanding of current value measurements, although the principles for choosing between alternative current values (particularly ‘entry’ values as opposed to ‘exit’ values) require further exploration by standard setters, assisted by academic research.     

Objectives of Financial Reporting

Conceptual framework documents can be evaluated in terms of four criteria: clarity of expression, consistency of assumptions with knowledge of commercial practices and the behaviour of external users of accounting information, internal consistency, and comprehensiveness as a guide to financial reporting practice. On this basis, the Australian Accounting Research Foundation's (AARF's) Statements of Accounting Concepts No. 2 (AARF, 1990a), Objectives of General Purpose Financial Reporting , is found wanting. SAC 2 is inappropriately drafted in terms of normative statements, and incorporates considerable ambiguity because of its allusions to inconsistent objectives without guidance as to weightings or how apparently inconsistent statements might be reconciled. Supporting analysis is rudimentary at best and it relies on an inappropriate use of terminology, while statements lack empirical support and are not linked to any analysis of users' needs for information. Six recommendations for the redrafting of a more narrowly focused SAC 2 (concentrating on annual reports by profit-seeking entities) are presented.     

Canadian Financial Reporting Institutions

The recently published Easy Prey Investors: Why Broken Safety Nets Threaten Your Wealth lambastes virtually every aspect of Canadian financial reporting in exceptionally harsh terms. Although the authors' assertions about the implications of financial reporting violations they have seen are mostly unsubstantiated or overblown, publications like theirs are useful if they stimulate continual, thoughtful consideration of Canada's institutional arrangements. I discuss various methodologies for doing this and present some novel evidence indicating that some of the authors' assertions are simply incorrect. Canada's financial reporting institutions, like all institutions, are not perfect, so we must always listen to their critics' suggestions for reforming them; however, our institutions are in much better shape than Easy Prey Investors asserts.     

报表改良

财务报表作为公司对外报告的主要载体,其结构、内容及繁简在国际上充满争议。如何使财务报表及时、准确、有效地给使用者传递公司财务信息,是理论和实务界的共同努力方向。2008年10月16日,国际会计准则理事会(IASB)和美国财务会计准则委员会(FASB)联合发布了《财务报表列报初步意见》(讨论稿)(以下简称《讨论稿》),该《讨论稿》是世界     

Corporate Financial Reporting in Nigeria

This paper reports on the extent of financial reporting by a sample of publicly quoted companies in Nigeria. Rather than examine the disclosure of specific items of information, the paper deals with the entire contents of the corporate annual report and highlights its different parts. The index of disclosure methodology is used to describe the trend of reporting practices between 1982 and 1986.     

Trust and Financial Reporting Quality

Using unique survey data from Great Place to Work® Institute, we investigate the association of intraorganizational trust (i.e., employees’ trust in management) with three aspects of financial reporting: accruals quality, misstatements, and internal control quality. We find that trust is associated with better accrual quality, lower likelihood of financial statement misstatements, and lower likelihood of internal control material weakness disclosures. However, these effects are not uniform across all companies. Consistent with trust improving financial reporting quality through improved information production and information sharing, we find that trust is significantly associated with financial reporting quality in relatively decentralized firms, but not in firms that are relatively centralized. Our results are robust to several analyses that attempt to control for potential alternative explanations.     

Banks’ Financial Reporting and Financial System Stability

The use of accounting measures and disclosures in banks’ contracts and regulation suggests that the quality of banks’ financial reporting is central to the efficacy of market discipline and nonmarket mechanisms in limiting banks’ development of debt and risk overhangs in economic good times and in mitigating the adverse consequences of those overhangs for the stability of the financial system in downturns. This essay examines how research on banks’ financial reporting, informed by the financial economics literature on banking, can generate insights about how to enhance the stability of the financial system. We begin with a foundational discussion of how aspects of banks’ accounting and disclosures may affect stability. We then evaluate representative papers in the empirical literature on banks’ financial reporting and stability, pointing out the research design issues that empirical accounting researchers need to confront to develop well‐specified tests able to generate reliably interpretable findings. To this end, we provide examples of settings amenable to addressing these issues. We conclude with considerations for accounting standard setters and financial system policy makers.     

虚假财务报告的审计重点

虚假财务报告包括非故意错报或漏报的错误财务报告和故意不实反映的舞弊财务报告。错误主要包括:原始记录和会计数据的计算、抄写错误,对事实的疏忽和误解,对会计政策的误用。舞弊主要包括:伪造、变造记录或凭证,侵占资产,隐瞒或删除交易或事项,记录虚假的交易或事项,蓄意使用不当的会计政策。对虚假财务报告的审计,应抓住虚假财务报告可能出现问题的环节,重点审计。下面就舞弊的资产负债表、损益表、现金流量表以及财务报表附注的审计重点进行分析。 资产负债表的审计重点对虚假资产负债表的审计,应注重搜集资产负债表以外的经济活动资料,…     

互联网金融征信模式选择

通过分析互联网金融征信对于互联网金融发展的必要性和重要性,提出构建央行牵头的独立、集中、统一互联网金融信用信息数据库的征信模式,实现对互联网金融信息阶段性、有序性、技术性的整合和采集,并在此基础上总结完善我国互联网金融征信的政策制度保障措施.     

对虚假财务报告的防范对策

对虚假财务报告可定义为:不符合公认会计准则以及现行法律法规制度规定,不能如实对外提供反映企业某一特定日期财务状况和某一会计期间经营成果、现金流量的财务报告.虚假财务报告的产生有其深刻的历史原因和现实原因,也有其内在的主观因素和外在的客观因素,其对正常的社会经济秩序、良好公平的市场经济环境的危害巨大.对虚假财务报告的防范,应标本兼治,在此,笔者就如何防范谈几点看法.     

Testing the Information Set Perspective of UK Financial Reporting Standard No.3: Reporting Financial Performance

Abstract:  This study investigates whether a broader range of financial performance measures as required by FRS No.3 ( FRS3 ) provides incremental price information beyond a single earnings-based performance measure. I find that the additional performance components reported in the layered statement of performance and reconciliation of movements in shareholders' funds and alternative earnings per share that are voluntarily disclosed by UK firms are generally associated with share returns, and provide incremental price information beyond FRS3 all-inclusive earnings. This finding supports the information set perspective underlying FRS3 , and has important implications for setting a global accounting standard on reporting financial performance.