An empirical study of the value-relevance of using proportionate consolidation accounting for investments in joint ventures

This research examines bond risk premiums to determine whether creditors of companies with investments in joint ventures reflect legal or implicit measures of the debts of joint ventures. The legal view suggests that the amount of potential loss from an investment in a joint venture is limited to the investment. The implicit view suggests that the operations of the joint venture and the venturer are interdependent. Equity method accounting reflects the legal view and proportionate consolidation reflects the implicit view.The study examines whether bond risk premiums are more highly associated with accounting numbers from proportionate consolidation than equity method accounting. The study uses data from 10Ks, the Wall Street Journal, and Moody's Bond Record from May 1, 1995 through April 30, 1998. These 4 years are used because US interest rates were fairly stable during this period, which is an important factor when examining bond risk premiums. Additionally, the companies in the study needed to remain stable across the window of study – no mergers, acquisitions, buy-outs, or liquidations – in order to maintain a comparative sample over the entire time period. The risk premium model uses measures of default that change between equity method accounting and proportionate consolidation. Differences in the explanatory power of the model determine how creditors view the joint venture debts.The study shows that approximately half of equity investments represent investments in joint ventures. Furthermore, the average joint venture uses debt to finance about two-thirds of the assets. The results show that proportionate consolidation fails to improve the explanatory power of the model when examining the entire set of companies that invest in joint ventures. However, the data reject the null hypothesis of no improvement with proportionate consolidation when examining companies who guarantee the debt of their joint venture. The policy implication of this study indicates that a change to proportionate consolidation would provide more value-relevant information to creditors when companies guarantee the debt of the joint venture.     

DERIVATIVES AND THE FASB: VISIBILITY AND TRANSPARENCY?

In June 1998, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued its Statement No. 133 addressing the accounting for derivative instruments and for hedging activities.This Statement addresses old issues regarding the way companies report their activities in derivatives and how those instruments are used to hedge some types of risks. However, the impact of this standard could be very negative, and it could be not useful for investors and creditors for making good decisions. In fact, SFAS 133 presents serious problems and the Board doesn’t appear to have obtained its goals of increased financial statements transparency and comparability.The problems of implementing this standard are commented in this article. At the same time, an alternative is offered to improve the issue of comparability among different companies using derivatives to hedging purposes.     

FAS 133: What Is Accounting Truth?

FAS 133, the rule that governs accounting for derivatives, has been controversial since its inception. Besides being expensive to implement and maintain, the rules often cause accounting treatment to diverge markedly from economic reality, making financial statements less transparent and less useful. For example, by marking to market only one side of what are in fact two‐sided (hedged) positions, FAS 133 often introduces artificial volatility into earnings and, in so doing, discourages companies from hedging. How should companies tackle financial disclosure and balance the economic and accounting effects of hedging? This article recommends that companies make economically sensible hedging decisions and then present two sets of earnings numbers to the investment community: (1) the first prepared and audited in strict accordance with GAAP; and (2) a supplemental calculation showing what earnings would have been had the firm qualified for hedge accounting treatment. This kind of supplemental disclosure should be viewed by companies as an opportunity to explain to their investors, creditors, and counterparties how they conceptualize, measure, and manage risk.     

Measuring the Degree of International Harmony in Selected Accounting Measurement Practices

This research assesses empirically the extent to which selected accounting measurement practices of companies from France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US are harmonised in the context of major international efforts to enhance the comparability of company financial statements. The findings suggest that significant differences continue in accounting measurement practices between companies originating in each of these countries. The results of the study have important implications for international standard-setters, investors, creditors and those interested in international accounting.     

Equity Accounting: Empirical Evidence and Lessons from the Past

This paper analyses the recently issued accounting standard prAASB 1016 and its predecessor ED 71 in the light of the historical development of equity accounting in Australia and overseas. Empirical research shows that equity accounting was not universally adopted before being banned and that, given a voluntary choice of accounting method, firms are more likely to adopt equity accounting when they hold material investments in associated companies, when the investments in associates are unlisted and when there is a greater level of interdependency between the investor and investee, as evidenced by the existence of cross-guarantees or the level of non-capital transactions which take place. There is no empirical evidence supporting the degree of influence as an important consideration in the adoption decision.     

上市公司利用减值准备进行盈余管理的实证研究--以吉林省上市公司为例

上市公司于2001年1月1日起开始执行新的企业会计制度,新的会计制度与原会计制度相比最显著的变化就是在原来四项资产减值准备计提的基础上又增加四项减值准备。这八项减值准备的计提,充分体现了谨慎性原则对历史成本原则的修正,目的是为了挤出上市公司资产中的水分,保护所有者和债权人的利益,从而化解其投资风险。通过对吉林省上市公司八项资产减值准备计提情况的分析,可以反映出吉林省上市公司利用减值准备进行盈余管理的实际情况。     

我国上市公司盈余管理对股价影响的实证分析

盈余管理在西方被称为“市场参与者的游戏”,近年来日益受到我国会计学界的关注。证券市场的迅速发展要求上市公司提供高质量的会计信息,由于盈余管理与会计信息质量关系密切,使得对上市公司盈余管理问题的研究成为投资者、债权人、政府主管部门以及会计准则制定机构关注的重点。另一方面,证券市场经验数据证明,股价的波动也同盈余管理密切相关,而利益相关者很可能利用盈余管理手段来影响股价从而获取利益。因此,加强我国上市公司盈余管理和股价相关性的研究,对提高上市公司会计信息质量和改善证券市场资源优化配置功能有着重要意义。本文运用实证分析方法,选取了竞争性强的家电行业和竞争性弱的石油行业的上市公司,从盈余管理度量着手,研究竞争性不同行业的上市公司盈余管理对股价的影响大小,并对投资者的行为提出相关建议。     

The effect of sovereign wealth funds on the credit risk of their portfolio companies

We study how sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investments affect the credit risk of target companies as measured by the change in their credit default swap (CDS) spreads around the investment announcement. We find that the CDS spread of target companies decreases, on average, following an SWF investment. The reduction in the CDS spread is higher when the SWF is established by a politically stable non-democratic country that has a neutral political relationship with the host country of the target company. Our results suggest that creditors expect SWFs to protect target companies from bankruptcy when it is in the interest of their home country to build political goodwill in the host country of the company.     

Comparing numerical data and text information from annual reports using self-organizing maps

More and more companies provide their accounting information in electronic form today. The accounting information in electronic form can be found in large commercial databases or on the web. This information is of great interest for different stakeholders, i.e., stockholders, creditors, auditors, financial analysts, and management. For the stakeholders it is important to be able to extract both quantitative and qualitative information concerning the companies they are interested in. The annual reports contain information both in numerical and symbolic form. So far, only the numerical information has been analyzed with help of computers. However, technology has evolved and in particular neural networks in the form of self-organizing maps (SOMs) provide a new tool for analyzing also text information. In this paper, we compare results on quantitative data with results on qualitative data from annual reports. We use smart encoding, SOMs, and document histograms for comparing the performance of forest companies worldwide. Firstly, we cluster the companies according to, on the one hand, quantitative information, and on the other hand, qualitative information. Secondly, we compare the results produced by the clustering methods. Our results of the comparison show that there is a difference between the results.     

The accounting treatment of intangibles – A critical review of the literature

Intangible investments have become the main value creators for many companies and economic sectors. However, these investments are rarely recognized as assets by current accounting standards. We provide a critical review of the literature on the consequences of this lack of accounting recognition of intangibles for the value-relevance of financial information, resource allocation in the capital market, growth of intangible investments, and the firm's market value. We then review recent empirical research on voluntary disclosure of information on intangibles. Our survey concludes that disclosure can considered as a solution to the negative consequences of non-recognition of intangibles in financial statements.     

Pre-IPO券商股权投资:鉴证功能还是独立受损?

Pre-IPO券商股权投资的经济后果是财务研究领域热点话题,具体到中国,Pre-IP券商股权投资是否损害承销商的独立性引起社会公众极大的关注,本文选取2009~2011年中国IPO的样本进行了初步研究。研究发现,整体上,有券商股权投资的公司其上市前盈余管理程度显著高于其他公司,券商早期入股的公司其盈余管理程度更为明显,有券商股权投资的公司其上市之后会计业绩下滑幅度更大。进一步研究发现,有券商股权投资的公司其承销费显著更高,发行折价的幅度明显更大。这意味着作为金融创新的券商股权投资一定程度上损害了承销商的独立性,进而导致IPO市场融资效率的损害。     

Debtholders’ Demand for Conservatism: Evidence from Changes in Directors’ Fiduciary Duties

Debtholders’ demand has been widely discussed as a key determinant of conservatism but clear causal evidence is not yet established. Using a natural experiment setting, wherein a Delaware court ruled that the fiduciary duties of directors in near insolvent Delaware companies extend to creditors, we predict and find that firms subject to the ruling significantly increased their accounting conservatism. In addition, our results suggest that the increase in conservatism is more pronounced in near insolvent Delaware firms with stronger boards, confirming that the court ruling takes effect through the channel of the board of directors. Our results are robust to using alternative measures of conservatism and near insolvency status, and controlling for potential confounding factors and other stakeholders’ demand for conservatism. Overall, our study provides empirical evidence to support the causal relation between debtholders’ demand and accounting conservatism previously suggested in the literature, and offers some insights into the role of the board of directors in financial reporting.     

Accounting Conservatism and the Relation Between Returns and Accounting Data

This study adds change in cash investments and change in lagged operating assets to the regression of returns on earnings levels and earnings changes examined in Easton and Harris (1991). We argue that a positive coefficient on change in cash investments captures conservatism associated with investments in positive net present value projects the effects of which will not flow into the accounting statements until the expected future benefits are realized. A positive coefficient on change in lagged operating assets implies accounting conservatism associated with the application of accounting rules to operating assets in place. Our empirical results are, in general, consistent with these arguments. We examine differences in conservatism across samples with different market to book ratios, we compare firms with non-negative returns with firms with negative returns, we compare firms reporting losses with firms reporting profits, and we examine firms in different industries, firms with different levels of research and development expenditure, different amounts of depreciation, different amounts of advertising expense, and firms that adopt LIFO inventory valuation compared with those that adopt an alternative to LIFO.JEL Classification: M41     

Investment Strategies and Market Structure: An Empirical Analysis of Bank Branching Decisions

This paper analyzes the relationship between the competitive environment faced by depository institutions and the decisions these institutions make regarding the size of their branch networks. Specifically, we consider branches as a sunk investment that potentially increases utility for consumers and examine how local competition and product differentiation affect firms’ decisions regarding whether to make such investments. We account for endogenous market structure using an equilibrium structural model, which corrects for bias caused by correlation in the unobservables associated with market structure and branching activity. We estimate the model using data from 1,882 concentrated rural markets. Our results demonstrate the importance of accounting for market structure and product differentiation, and are consistent with a potential entry-deterring effect of bank branch investments.     

Discretionary accounting choices: the case of IAS 19 pension accounting

Based on a sample of 3207 firm-year observations for the years 2005–2013, we investigate how stock-listed companies in France, Germany and the UK use two discretionary choices in their accounting for defined benefit pension plans under International Accounting Standard (IAS) 19 Employee Benefits. We first analyse companies’ decision whether to voluntarily early adopt the equity method of accounting for actuarial gains and losses. Second, we analyse companies’ choice to present pension interest cost and expected return on plan assets, or, in 2013, net pension interest cost, in operating or financial income. Our findings provide evidence that companies’ decisions to early adopt the equity method in 2005, the first year this accounting choice was available, were motivated by short-term effects on equity. Our analyses also indicate that the choice regarding where to present interest cost and expected return on plan assets in the income statement is associated with the resulting effect on Earnings before Interest and Tax. Finally, we document country-specific differences in the use of the discretion provided under IAS 19, suggesting that discretionary pension accounting choices may impede comparability.     

城建投资公司会计问题的成因透析及对策

近年来,我国城市基础设施建设领域存在着许多问题,究其根源在于城建投融资体制的滞后,投融资平台的不健全.从会计角度分析城建投资公司存在的问题及其成因,应从统一会计制度与科目、建立城建投资公司现代企业制度以及实现多元化投资主体三个方面进行政策改进.     

The role of accounting in high-technology investments

We present new qualitative empirical evidence from a series of interviews with representatives of venture capital support organisations, which discusses the role of accounting in high-technology investments. Our discussion is framed around three propositions on: whether or not the stewardship role of accounting still holds; the usefulness, or otherwise, of accounting information in the valuation of high-technology investments; and assessing the value of intangible assets in the investment decision. We find that accounting no longer plays such a strong stewardship role, certainly for the venture capital investor. Further, its role in enabling investors to make decisions on how, when and how much to invest is limited. We propose that standard setters take this on board in revising reporting requirements.     

An Investigation of the Relationship between Use of International Accounting Standards and Source of Company Finance in Germany

This study examines the relationship between use of international accounting standards and companies’ source of finance. We investigate the proposition contained in Nobes’ (1998) model that postulates outsider companies (those with a higher level of public finance) in weak equity–outsider markets (capital markets where public equity finance is not the dominant source of finance) are more likely to change their type of accounting system from one focused on information for creditors and tax authorities to one that meets the needs of external financiers. We found strong support for Nobes’ model. Using 408 German listed companies at 1999, we observed that companies with more outsider finance (the proportion of shares held by outsiders and the presence of public debt) were more likely to use international standards (U.S. GAAP or IAS). The results indicate the importance of controlling for source of finance at the company rather than country level in cross‐country studies investigating the benefits of adoption of international standards.     

Audit Fees, Non-Audit Fees and Auditor Going-Concern Reporting Decisions in the United Kingdom

The accounting profession has come under increased scrutiny over recent years about the growing number of non-audit fees received from audit clients and the possible negative impact of such fees on auditor independence. The argument advanced is that providing substantial amounts of non-audit services to clients may make it more likely that auditors concede to the wishes of the client management when difficult judgments are made. Such concerns are particularly salient in the case of reporting decisions related to going-concern uncertainties for financially stressed clients.
 This study empirically examines audit reports provided to financially stressed companies in the United Kingdom and the magnitude of audit and non-audit service fees paid to the company's auditors. We find that the magnitude of both audit fees and non-audit fees are significantly associated with the issuance of a going-concern modified audit opinion. In particular, financially stressed companies with high audit fees are more likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion, whereas companies with high non-audit fees are less likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion. Additional analyses indicate that the results are generally robust across alternative model and variable specifications. Overall, evidence supports the contention that high non-audit fees have a detrimental effect on going-concern reporting judgments for financially stressed U.K. companies.     

Assessing the Impact of Fair‐Value Accounting on Financial Statement Analysis: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

The historical‐cost and prudence principles have guided accounting for financial investments and tangible fixed assets in many jurisdictions around the globe. This situation might change as a consequence of the increasing number of countries adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which, to some extent, permit accounting on a fair‐value basis. It is unclear how such a change would affect the analysis of financial statements and to what extent it could modify analysts' perceptions of companies' condition and performance. This paper attempts to shed some light on this issue by restating the financial investments and tangible fixed assets of a sample of 85 Spanish insurance companies, applying fair value instead of historical‐cost‐based valuations and by simulating analyst perception of these companies' efficiency and profitability for both sets of data using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We find that the numbers on the face of the financial statements change considerably and observe that the magnitude of these changes varies between companies and classes of assets. However, only in a few cases does a change in the valuation basis lead to a relevant change in DEA scores; within our sample, the overall assessment of companies with regard to efficiency and profitability remains largely the same under both valuation bases. These findings seem to indicate that a change from historical‐cost to fair‐value accounting could alter analyst perceptions of a limited number of companies but likely will not have a major impact on the appraisal of the majority of them.