National Accounting, Government Budgeting and the Accounting Discipline

National accounting and government budgeting include two kinds of financial reporting that are not influenced by, but have an increasing influence on, the accounting discipline. The government budget has changed, over the last sixty years, from a financial statement that was recognisably part of the accounting discipline to one in which national accounting and government budgeting have the dominant influence. There were early attempts to reconcile national accounting and the discipline but these have largely disappeared. Although the three forms of accounting measure the same phenomena, each is different in fundamental ways, in terms of both relevance and reliability.     

论会计学的学科性质

目前我国高等教育的会计学专业被置于管理学门类之下,而在学科分类与代码国家标准等规定中则列为经济学门类,由此带来了会计学学科是经济学还是管理学的疑问及争论。本文通过相关文献回顾,讨论分析了不同的观点,从会计学的内涵出发,通过会计学与经济学的内在联系及逻辑推演,论证了会计学学科属性的经济学性质,分析了会计学学科回归经济学对会计学思维、会计学基础理论、深化会计研究、促进会计学科建设和专业建设等方面的影响。     

论高等教育会计学科文化

高教会计学科文化是高教会计学科领域中的一种文化形态和文化现象,从广义上讲,既包括高教会计学科的物质文化,又包括高教会计学科的制度文化和精神文化。从狭义上说,高教会计学科文化是关于高教会计人的思想观念、价值体系、行为规范、社会认同、制度体制和文化产品等一系列范畴的总和。高教会计学科文化是高教会计学科建设的思想基础、精神动力、智力支撑、行为和道德规范。不同国度的高教会计学科文化是同一性和多样性的统一,同一国度高等教育体系中会计学科文化是共性与个性的和谐。     

IPO Placement Risk and the Number of Co‐Managers

Previous studies show that co‐managers mainly affect initial public offering (IPO) aftermarket activities. We investigate the role of co‐managers in IPO pre‐market activities. We argue that co‐managers help reduce IPO placement risk and hypothesize that IPO issuers hire more co‐managers when placement risk is higher. We find the number of co‐managers is positively associated with three proxies for placement risk. IPOs with more price uncertainty and high‐tech IPOs hire more co‐managers, while IPOs in regulated industries hire fewer co‐managers. We also find larger IPOs, recent IPOs, and IPOs with more reputable lead underwriters hire more co‐managers.     

Co‐evolved genetic programs for stock market trading

The profitability of trading rules evolved by three different optimised genetic programs, namely a single population genetic program (GP), a co‐operative co‐evolved GP, and a competitive co‐evolved GP is compared. Profitability is determined by trading thirteen listed shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over a period of April 2003 to June 2008. An empirical study presented here shows that GPs can generate profitable trading rules across a variety of industries and market conditions. The results show that the co‐operative co‐evolved GP generates trading rules perform significantly worse than a single population GP and a competitively co‐evolved GP. The results also show that a competitive co‐evolved GP and the single population GP produce similar trading rules. The profits returned by the evolved trading rules are compared to the profit returned by the buy‐and‐hold trading strategy. The evolved trading rules significantly outperform the buy‐and‐hold strategy when the market trends downwards. No significant difference is identified among the buy‐and‐hold strategy, the competitive co‐evolved GP, and single population GP when the market trends upwards.     

Cyclically‐Neutral Generational Accounting

This paper introduces a key methodological innovation into generational accounting. By incorporating cyclically‐adjusted balances into the forward‐looking budget projections underlying the concept, we isolate pure policy effects, which render comparisons of the fiscal sustainability indicators obtained across time and countries truly meaningful. We also show that a demographic effect and a debt effect may drive fiscal sustainability measures over time, and establish a routine to control for these effects in the generational accounting framework. An empirical application for Spain illustrates that our proposed decomposition of indicators is empirically relevant. Standard generational accounting suggests that fiscal sustainability in Spain improved substantially in preparing for EMU. However, calculation of the pure policy effects reveals that this has not been the case.     

网络会计对传统会计的影响研究

互联网经济的到来催生了网络会计这一全新的会计模式,它具有更加便捷、高效、不受时空限制的特点,为网络经济的发展保驾护航.网络会计不仅动摇了传统会计理论的框架,也弥补了传统会计实务的不足,还在会计人才需求上形成了新方向.面对这些变化,我们应在信息安全、技术开展和人才培养方面做出相应对策,以保证网络会计的健康发展.     

Co‐owned Local Government Organisations: Conditions for Strategy Development

Local governments tend to join resources and create co‐owned organisations to solve the supply of public services. From a strategic perspective on local government cooperation, this paper analyses the conditions for strategy development in a co‐owned municipal organisation. The empirical data stem from a longitudinal case study of a Swedish provider of water and sewerage services. We show that difficulties in formulating and agreeing upon strategies are not dependent on the structural form. Instead, there is an intrinsic dilemma when municipalities are to create a joint strategy at the same time as each municipality is sovereign to decide on all local matters.     

The Co‐movement of Credit Default Swap,Bond and Stock Markets: an Empirical Analysis

We analyse the relationship between credit default swap (CDS), bond and stock markets during 2000–2002. Focusing on the intertemporal co‐movement, we examine monthly, weekly and daily lead‐lag relationships in a vector autoregressive model and the adjustment between markets caused by cointegration. First, we find that stock returns lead CDS and bond spread changes. Second, CDS spread changes Granger cause bond spread changes for a higher number of firms than vice versa. Third, the CDS market is more sensitive to the stock market than the bond market and the strength of the co‐movement increases the lower the credit quality and the larger the bond issues. Finally, the CDS market contributes more to price discovery than the bond market and this effect is stronger for US than for European firms.     

网络会计应用研究

随着网络的不断发展与普及,使会计经历了由电算化到信息化的变革,由传统的会计形式演变为网络会计。网络会计将会得到更广泛的重视和应用,在许多方面发挥它的最大优势。本文在分析网络会计特点的基础上,进行了网络会计应用分析和其发展前景的展望,并指出了目前网络会计应用存在的问题,并为解决这些问题提出了相应对策。     

Modeling Accounting Workplace Interactions with Text‐to‐Video Animation

This article describes a new pedagogical tool, text‐to‐video animation software, that accounting instructors can adopt to easily generate quality videos that address a variety of accounting learning objectives. Although this tool can be used to enhance traditional pedagogical methods, such as case analysis and discussion, it can also be used to address accounting learning objectives not currently addressed by traditional pedagogical methods. This article outlines the benefits of adopting and using this tool in financial and managerial accounting courses, and encourages further study of its effectiveness.     

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.     

Principles‐Based Reasoning about Accounting Estimates

This article proposes a key principle and related concepts for reasoning about accounting estimates. The reasoning is consistent with a principles‐based professional judgment framework proposed by Ross Skinner and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. The principle deals with reasonable ranges and related risk assessments in the audit of accounting estimates. It does so by using concepts first introduced by Boritz and Skinner and updates them for the requirements of CAS/ISA No. 540 and International Financial Reporting Standards. The article identifies the conditions for the existence of the benchmark ranges proposed by Smieliauskas in identifying fairly presented estimates. The need for a professional judgment framework and related guidance has been recognized recently by the International Federation of Accountants, a 2010 EU Green Paper, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board as a result of challenges auditors have been facing in the current reporting environment. This recognition echoes calls first made by Ross Skinner in his pioneering 1995 article, and reinforced by the FASB/IASB 2006 proposal for principles‐based accounting standards.     

Discipline‐Informed Approaches to Water Accounting

Recent decades have witnessed demands for greater transparency and more clearly defined lines of responsibility and accountability in the management of natural resources. Consequently, various approaches to recording and reporting data relating to such resources have emerged, particularly in relation to water. We explore international water accounting developments where different water accounting systems are being developed in different settings, with different origins, and influenced by different disciplines. Australia is developing a general‐purpose water accounting system with its genealogy in financial reporting. We explore its development and implications for regulators and professionals in accounting and water‐related business. We also contemplate the potential for a global water accounting system.     

It Takes Two: The Incidence and Effectiveness of Co‐CEOs

This study examines the phenomenon of co‐CEOs within publicly traded firms. Although shared executive leadership is not widespread, it occurs within some very prominent firms. We find that co‐CEOs generally complement each other in terms of educational background or executive responsibilities. Our results show that firms most likely to appoint co‐CEOs have lower leverage, a more limited firm focus, less independent board structure, fewer advising directors, lower institutional ownership, and greater levels of merger activity. The governance structure of co‐CEO firms suggests that co‐CEOships can serve as an alternative governance mechanism, with co‐CEO mutual monitoring substituting for board or external monitoring and co‐CEO complementary skills substituting for board advising. An event study indicates that the market reacts positively to appointments of co‐CEOs while a propensity score analysis shows that the presence of co‐CEOs increases firm valuation.