MANAGERIAL REMUNERATION AND ACCOUNTING FOR RECURRING EXTRAORDINARY ITEMS

The Australian standard on income statements (AAS 1) was recently amended to require that extraordinary items be non-recurring. Although the amendment applies from 1990, the Corporations Law requires that comparative financial statements for 1989, complying with the new rule, be included with the 1990 financial statements. Comparison of these with actual financial statements for 1989 indicates how the statements would have differed in 1989 if the standard had then required extraordinary items to be non-recurring. The differences are investigated to partially explain cross sectional differences in firms' classification criteria. Results imply that managers who are remunerated highly (relative to the magnitude of the earnings of the firm) prefer to classify gains as operating and losses as extraordinary.     

THEATRE AND INTOLERANCE IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING RESEARCH

Much of the process of financial accounting research is merelytheatre, a ritual with a façade of sophistication and scientism. This paper outlines the causes, manifestations and outcomes of such theatricality and provides a critical, introspective assessment of the state of contemporary financial accounting research. The view that financial accounting research is worthy and scientific only if it imitates research methods in the physical sciences is contested. The need to re-think the way the financial accounting research community selects research topics, motivates research and directs doctoral education is emphasised. How influential, but rather narrow and dubiously-conceived attitudes towards contemporary financial accounting research are associated with an onset of cultural illiteracy is the subject of speculation. The paper calls for greater tolerance by financial accounting researchers of scholarly work which embraces subject matter, research modes and guiding paradigms, other than their own.     

THE RATE OF RETURN FROM INTERIM FINANCIAL REPORTS AND THE ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING

Estimation theory in accounting explains how accountants allocate noncash expenditures to estimate such concepts as the firm's long run rate of return. If the accountant's goal in estimation is some high degree of precision, the usefulness of financial reports can be evaluated in light of that goal. In this study, the property of unbiasedness is identified with respect to the purposes of interim financial reports. Furthermore, the magnitude of the bias in estimates from financial reports is measured.     

阿根廷金融危机的成因剖析和经验教训

从全球范围看,阿根廷金融危机是21世纪的第一场金融危机,它的形成和爆发不仅对阿国本身的经济和社会生活造成很大破坏,也对整个拉美经济和世界经济产生深远的影响.本文深入分析了阿根廷金融危机的成因,指出阿根廷金融危机的根本原因是汇率制度选择一成不变导致币值真实高估,降低了出口竞争力;加之巨额财政赤字和债务危机以及领导人频繁更替等,共同促成了金融危机.作者建议采用"相机抉择"原则制定汇率制度;审慎对待财政赤字和外债问题,财政赤字不宜过大,外债应该合理,并进行良好的控制、监督与管理;加强IMF等国际金融机构的危机预警与国际救援能力.     

CAPITAL ACCOUNTING IN MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS 1884-1914: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Municipal corporations wielded a vast amount of economic power throughout the period covered by this paper and, as a result, they were the subject of envy, suspicion and criticism. The question of whether depreciation should be charged could not be dismissed as a mere matter of book-keeping. The inclusion of a charge involved the earmarking of an equivalent amount of money for future use, and the matter was therefore regarded as of fundamental importance for current levels of local taxation and long term financial stability. Public and private sector based accountants, municipal officers, town councillors, ratepayers and academics engaged in a debate which, although stirring strong emotions, was thoughtful, wide ranging and constructive. This paper examines the discourse and its outcomes.     

RECAP OF NINTH CONFERENCE ON FINANCIAL ECONOMICS AND ACCOUNTING

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting -     

TALKING ACCOUNTING: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE IN BRITISH AND GERMAN BREWERS

The organisational functionings of accounting hinge on its combination with other forms of organisational knowledge in talk. This paper analyses some of the talk observed in paired situations in British and German brewers, to contrast the intertwining of accounting and other expertise and relate it to the enactment of different organisational orders. Through accounting talk, organisational members air their shifting conceptions of order and, thereby, point to its precariousness and ambivalence. The focus on accounting talk emerges as an approach to the study of the organisational practice of accounting which promises insight into the complex processes of enacting the orders which accounting engenders, their flexibility and fragility. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd     

ACCOUNTING CHOICE AND A THEORY OF CRISIS: THE CASES OF POST-PRIVATIZATION BRITISH TELECOM AND BRITISH GAS

In examining the accounting choices of two UK utilities, it is argued that positive accounting theory is devoid of explanatory power. In its place the paper proposes a neo-Marxist theory of crisis management, largely based on the work of Habermas. It analyses the financial statements of British Telecom and British Gas, and shows how their accounting choices may be more satisfactorily explained as responses to avoid crises that otherwise might be faced by these two entities in the general context of crisis tendencies in the UK socio-economic system. © 1997 Published by Elsevier Science LtdEditorial Note. Since preparing this version of the paper, Tony Puxty has died. Prior to his death, the paper had been sent back for relatively minor revisions. Although these were not undertaken, the reviewers and myself think that the paper should be published. We do this hoping that it will serve to remind us of a serious and thoughtful scholar of accounting whose wisdom and contributions are very much missed.