Accounting Discretion in Goodwill Impairments: UK Evidence

This study examines managers’ use of discretion in determining goodwill impairment losses following the mandatory adoption of IFRS 3 “Business Combinations,” and whether this discretion reflects opportunistic reporting by managers or the provision of their private information. Although IFRS 3 was issued to improve the accounting treatment for goodwill and provide users with more useful and value‐relevant information regarding the underlying economic value of goodwill, it has been criticized on the grounds of the managerial discretion inherent in impairment testing. Therefore, ex‐ante, it is unclear how the impairment‐only approach has affected the reporting of goodwill impairment losses. After controlling for economic factors, empirical results reveal that managers are exercising discretion in the reporting of goodwill impairments following the adoption of IFRS 3. Specifically, goodwill impairments are more likely to be associated with recent CEO changes, income smoothing and “big bath” reporting behaviors. However, the results also indicate that goodwill impairments are strongly associated with effective governance mechanisms suggesting that managers are more likely to be exercising their accounting discretion to convey their private information about the underlying performance of the firm rather than acting opportunistically. These inferences are robust to various modeling specifications and variable definitions, suggesting that IFRS 3 has provided managers with a framework to reliably convey their private information about future cash flows consistent with the IASB's objectives in developing the impairment standard.     

合并财务报表、母公司个别财务报表与会计稳健性——来自沪深A股的经验证据

在回顾相关研究文献的基础上,分析了合并财务报表与个别财务报表对会计稳健性的影响,并采用Basu逆回归模型及其扩展的Basu模型,构建Vuong统计量和Basu值,以2005年-2008年的上市公司为研究样本进行实证分析,由此得出结论:合并财务报表的信息比母公司的个别财务报表的信息具有更差的稳健性,而基于主体理论编制的合并财务报表比基于母公司理论编制的合并财务报表具有更稳健的会计信息。     

会计报表附注与财务分析的关联

财务报告贵在真实,重在分析。要对一家企业出具的财务报告进行分析,其中重要的一项就是对报告相关联的会计报表附注进行通俗易懂的、重点突出的、分析深入的、术语准确的分析。报表附注反映的就是企业生产力和生产水平之外的变动因素,要做到对会计报告准确的分析并做进一步的预测,就要对变动因素有效地进行控制或者全面的考虑,以便及时的报送企业决策者或者投资者做投资参考。     

会计准则中的财务报表要素问题

在研究和制定会计准则时，要明确会计要素、会计对象要素和财务报表要素这三个基本概念。在基本会计准则中应有财务赧表要素的明确说明。收入要素应包括正常的商品（劳务）和让渡资产使用权的经营收入、对外投资收入和非常收入（利得）。费用要素应包括计入当期损益的产品（劳务）成本、税前生产和对外投资以外的正常经营费用、对外投资损失、非常费用和所得税费用等。利润要素应按收入与费用要素的具体内容进行收支组合，形成五项利润指标。现金流量应是财务报表的一个构成要素。     

商誉会计概述

商誉是不可辨认的无形资产,通常指企业在一定条件下能获取高于正常投资报酬率所形成的价值。商誉是企业经营过程中长期积累,受多种因素影响而形成的,也有的是外购的。本文认为,只要当商誉有客观的计价依据时,无论其自身形成还是外购都应当确认。     

利益相关者会计的提出与会计信息披露的外部性

企业的同一性正在逐渐减弱，而企业的个性化则正在逐渐增强，基于企业的同一性并以解释委托代理关系为核心的传统会计理论的解释力变得越来越弱，用一种全新的会计理论——利益相关者会计理论来取代传统的会计理论，是顺应社会发展趋势的明智之举。本文在分析阐述建立利益相关者会计必要性的基础上，封与会计信息质量特徵这一基本会计理论问题具有重要联系的“会计信息披露的外部性”概念进行了分析研究，指出会计信息披露的外部性与会计信息所反映的企业经济活动的外部性是两个不同的概念，并将会计信息披露的外部性定义为“由于会计信息披露主体封会计信息的不当披露所导致的其他利益相关者经济利益偏离其原本应得经济利益的差异”。     

会计国际协调中的财务报告披露电子模式

会计标准的国际协调，已成为各个国家不能回避的现实。可扩展商业报告语言（Extensible business reporting system，XBRL）是简化财务报告、业绩报告、会计记录以及其它财务信息于不同系统之间交换数据的一种电子格式。XBRL为免费的、开放性资源，用以降低公司财务信息披露成本，井可使全球金融市场的投资者、相关机构以及其他参与者更方便地查询和管理财务信息。本文阐述了XBRL国际组织的商业报告分类法框架，分析了XBRL在中国证券业的初步尝试，提出建立符合中国会计准则和会计制度的财务信息分类法的若干建议。     

The Role of International Financial Reporting Standards in Accounting Quality: Evidence from the European Union

Previous studies on the effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on accounting quality often have difficulties to control for confounding factors on accounting quality. As a result, the observed changes in accounting quality could not be attributed mainly to IFRS. We use a unique research setting to address this issue by comparing the accounting quality of publicly listed companies in 15 member states of the European Union (EU) before and after the full adoption of IFRS in 2005. We use five indicators as proxies for accounting quality. We find that the majority of accounting quality indicators improved after IFRS adoption in the EU. That is, there is less of managing earnings toward a target, a lower magnitude of absolute discretionary accruals, and higher accruals quality. But our results also show that firms engage in more earnings smoothing and recognize large losses in a less timely manner in post‐IFRS periods. In addition, we examine the effects of institutional variables on financial reporting quality. Our contribution to the literature is that we show the improved accounting quality is attributable to IFRS, rather than changes in managerial incentives, institutional features of capital markets, and general business environment, etc.     

应收债权的融资策略、会计处理及信息披露

我国资本市场的不断发展和完善,进一步拓宽了企业的融资渠道,利用股票、债券等方式进行融资成为我国企业的一种现实选择。但这些方式对企业高规格、高品质的要求,实际上又把大多数企业拒之门外,融资困难仍是困扰企业生存和发展的大问题。商业信用的普及和市场竞争的加剧,使许多企业拥有大量的应收债权,而重于管理、疏于利用却是持有者的通病,这一问题正日渐被企业所关注,开始利用应收债权开辟新的融资渠道。目前,利用应收债权进行融资的方式主要有质押借款、出售、贴现和置换,这些方式中蕴含着不同的与应收债权有关的风险和报酬的转移形式,进而有不同的会计处理方式和信息披露要求。     

On the Relationship between Voluntary Disclosure,Earnings Smoothing and the Value-Relevance of Earnings: The Case of Switzerland

Abstract

This paper examines whether voluntary disclosure by Swiss firms constrains the use of discretionary accruals to smooth earnings, and explores the effect of voluntary disclosure on the value relevance of earnings. We focus on Swiss firms because Switzerland's financial reporting system provides managers with extensive discretion in corporate disclosure, and there are important variations in the level of information provided in their annual reports. We consider that managers can choose two different ways to voluntarily convey information, either through the quality and quantity of annual report disclosure or, through compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Relying on a simultaneous equations approach, our results suggest that Swiss firms use discretionary accruals to smooth earnings. However, this relation is reduced for firms that voluntarily disclose more information in their annual report or comply with IAS/IFRS or US GAAP. Moreover, we show that discretionary accruals of high disclosers or of firms voluntarily complying with IAS/IFRS or US GAAP receive a lower valuation weight.     

会计准则全球趋同背景下公司财务报告披露的设想

笔者从会计准则全球趋同背景出发,提出改进公司财务报告披露的三层框架模式设想。该模式将在全 球范围内增强公司财务报告的透明度,提高财务信息的质量。     

The Economic Consequences of Increased Disclosure: Evidence from Cross-Listings of Chinese Firms

In this paper, we investigate the impact of cross‐listings on information asymmetry risk, the cost of capital and firm value of a group of cross‐listed Chinese companies. Our paper is the first to examine the effect of cross‐listing on information asymmetry risk. Because cross‐listed firms are subject to increased disclosure requirements, increased regulatory scrutiny and increased legal liability, we propose that Chinese cross‐listed firms have lower information asymmetry risk, lower cost of capital and higher firm value than their non‐cross‐listed counterparts. We find in both univariate and multivariate tests that cross‐listed firms enjoyed lower information asymmetry risk in the domestic market compared with the non‐cross‐listed firms. We also find that cross‐listed firms have lower cost of capital in the cross‐listing market than non‐cross‐listed firms in the domestic markets. Finally, we find that cross‐listed firms are associated with higher firm value as measured by Tobin's Q. These results have implications for international investors and companies seeking cross‐listing opportunities.     

刍议契约会计与衍生金融工具的确认

契约会计的发展为衍生金融工具在财务报表内进行确认提供了理论依据。会计确认是一个过程,意味着某些项目的确认并不是一次完成。衍生金融工具交易是一个过程,其确认要经过初始确认、后续确认和终止确认。供应链契约所涉及的权利与义务具有“确定性”的特点,对其是否可在签约时确认及对会计确认问题的影响值得进一步探讨。     

刍议契约会计与衍生金融工具的确认

契约会计的发展为衍生金融工具在财务报表内进行确认提供了理论依据.会计确认是一个过程,意味着某些项目的确认并不是一次完成.衍生金融工具交易是一个过程,其确认要经过初始确认、后续确认和终止确认.供应链契约所涉及的权利与义务具有"确定性"的特点,对其是否可在签约时确认及对会计确认问题的影响值得进一步探讨.     

省级政府财务信息网络披露质量研究——以广东省为例

文章借鉴现有研究,采用财务信息披露指数DI值法,对广东省政府23个组成部门2012-2014年公开数据进行分析,研究发现:(1)广东省政府部门财务信息披露质量的范围和力度逐年提高,但总体水平依然偏低;(2)广东省政府部门三公经费的披露质量持续提高,但披露程度仍显不足;(3)社会关注度越高,部门DI值越高。基于此,文章提出以下建议:健全政府部门财务报告体系,设立财务信息披露考核机制,统一财务信息披露规范,提高工作人员综合素质。     

The Decision Usefulness of Financial Accounting Measurement Concepts: Evidence from an Online Survey of Professional Investors and their Advisors

In their current framework project, the IASB and the FASB identify decision usefulness as the objective of financial reporting. Unfortunately, accounting research has neither yet come up with an undisputed measure of decision usefulness, nor with a satisfying method to rank competing measurement concepts, such as fair value or historical cost, with regard to their relative decision usefulness. Thus, assessing the decision usefulness of different accounting measurement concepts ultimately poses an empirical question. We provide evidence to this question by surveying an important user group, namely professional investors and their advisors, about their opinions on the decision usefulness of different accounting measurement concepts. We find that our respondents clearly differentiate between mark-to-market and mark-to-model fair values. While they consistently rank mark-to-market fair values as most decision-useful, they generally rank mark-to-model fair values as least decision-useful. In addition, the ranking differs across asset classes.     

The Risk-Relevance of Accounting Data: Evidence from the Spanish Stock Market

This paper analyses the relevance of accounting fundamentals to inform about equity risk as measured by the cost of equity capital. Assuming the latter is a summary measure of how investors make decisions regarding the allocation of resources, the strength of the association between the cost of capital and the accounting‐based measures of risk indicates how important these measures are for market participants when making economic decisions. To infer the cost of equity capital, we use the O'Hanlon and Steele's method, which is based on the residual income valuation model. Moreover, we use the insights from this model to provide a theoretical underpinning for the choice of the accounting variables related to risk. The sample refers to the non‐financial firms listed in the Madrid Stock Exchange along the period 1987–2002. Our results support our initial expectations regarding the association between the cost of equity capital and the accounting‐based risk variables, thereby supporting the usefulness of fundamental analysis to determine the risk inherent in share's future payoffs. In particular, we highlight the role of investing risk, which has been ignored in previous research. Our results are also robust to measures of risk other than the cost of capital such as the variability in total returns and the firm's systematic risk (β).     

中国企业社会责任信息披露影响因素研究——基于润灵环球评级社会责任报告

文章以263家上市公司2009年—2015年的面板数据为基础,实证分析了企业内外部因素对企业社会责任信息披露的影响。研究结果显示政府、媒体所造成的外部压力对企业社会责任信息披露水平具有正向相关性;企业内部因素中的企业规模对社会责任信息披露水平具有正向影响、盈利能力与社会责任信息披露水平不显著相关、财务风险则对社会责任信息披露水平存在负向影响,表明企业规模越大越有压力和动力提高披露水平,盈利能力强弱对社会责任披露水平推动作用不明显,但若企业负债经营则只会更关注生存问题。     

An Evaluation of the Value Relevance of Consolidated versus Unconsolidated Accounting Information: Evidence from Quoted Spanish Firms

In this paper we investigate the value-relevance of consolidated versus parent company accounting information. In particular we investigate the value relevance of the minority interest components of net total assets and earnings as currently reported and under the full entity approach to consolidated reporting. An Edwards-Bell-Ohlson valuation framework is used to generate results. By this means we cast light on the suitability of accounting regulation being developed based upon the entity or parent company theories of consolidation. We carry out the analysis in the Spanish context and the sample contains 474 observations of non-financial firms quoted in the Madrid Stock Exchange for the period 1991–97. The results from this analysis not only have domestic relevance but provide guidance of a more international nature relating to the impact of group definition, concepts of control and the most value relevant method of consolidated disclosure. The results show that, from a valuation perspective, consolidated information dominates non-consolidated, or parent company, information. However, neither the currently reported minority interest components of net total assets and earnings, nor their values under the full equity method of consolidation, are found to be value relevant. These results raise the question of whether group definitions based on the equity theory of consolidation are the most useful to investors.     

财务报表分析的作用及局限性

在企业的财务管理中,财务报表分析是一项非常重要的内容,能够对企业的管理者提供有效参考。在对财务报表进行分析的时候,报表本身和分析方法之间都存在一定的局限性,从而导致分析的局限性。因此需要企业进行报表分析的不断完善,如此才能更好地适应经济发展的需求。