政府会计环境与政府会计改革研究:回顾和展望

影响政府会计改革的环境因素问题是“政府会计国际比较研究”(CIGAR)中的重要命题。政府会计环境的变化是政府会计改革的动因,并且能有效地评价政府会计改革的可行性和可操作性。本文对这一领域相关研究文献进行归纳和分析,目的是勾勒出此类研究的框架,以明晰研究思路,更好地指导未来的研究。     

Australian – USA Federal Government Accounting: Convergence or Divergence?

Despite moves toward international harmonisation of accounting standards, there is evidence that standards regulating government accounting in various countries are diverging. This paper argues that, despite their similar federal systems and ostensibly similar objectives for federal government reporting, the accounting standards of the USA and Australia differ significantly in detail. A comparison of their objectives and standards reveals that the standards particularly differ in relation to accounting for assets, and in determining the performance of a reporting entity. Although these divergences emanate from differing philosophies underlying the standards of the two countries, they have implications for international harmonisation of accounting standards, and for reciprocity agreements.     

基于会计和治理信息的财务困境预测模型研究

本文以2005年上半年沪深两市中首次被ST的52家公司和52家非ST公司为研究对象，同时利用这些上市公司的会计信息和公司治理信息来构建财务困境预测模型。研究结果表明：（1）公司治理特征对公司陷入财务困境具有显著影响；（2）公司治理信息不能为财务信息所覆盖。一方面，说明公司治理结构对公司的财务安全具有重要影响，另一方面也说明今后在研究和构建财务困境预测模型时，不仅要考虑会计信息，还应考虑公司治理信息等，以构建出更为有效的预测模型。     

公允价值具有价值相关性吗?基于金融资产的研究

本文以构成我国证券市场主体的A股上市公司为研究样本,考察了公允价值相对于历史成本以及公允价值自身变动产生的未实现收益的价值相关性问题。实证结果发现:相对于历史成本,公允价值具有增量的价值相关性;金融资产公允价值变动产生的未实现收益具有价值相关性;两种金融资产中,只有可供出售金融资产产生的未实现收益具有价值相关性,交易性金融资产不具有价值相关性。此研究结果不仅为国际会计准则在中国证券市场的应用和实施效果提供了经验证据,同时也能够帮助监管层和实务界正确认识公允价值在股票市场上信息传递方面所起的作用。     

Accounting System Reform in Japanese Local Governments

The New Public Management (NPM), of which the change from cash accounting to accrual accounting is considered an important tool, has been in fashion in many developed countries. Japanese governments, however, have preserved control of expenditures on a cash basis, though recently financial management reforms in local government have begun to adopt NPM ideas. Using a contingency framework which views the reform of accounting sub-systems (management accounting, financial accounting and auditing) as stimulated by a combination of internal and external pressures, this paper explores why Japanese local governments managed to survive without accrual accounting and the prospects for further reform in the future. It is suggested that system change itself can be accomplished by internal pressures, in the form of mandated policies, alone but that sustained external pressures by citizens are required in order to achieve the intended outcomes of accounting reform.     

Management accounting practices in Europe: a perspective from the States

I provide a perspective from the States on four questions primarily based on information inManagement Accounting: European Perspectivesedited by Al Bhimani (1996). First, seven factors are identified as having shaped management accounting practices in European nations—academics, education, government, professional associations, consultants, technology, and the inter-nation transfer of information. Second, evidence supports the view that, across European nations, more changes are occurring in management accounting practice terminology and techniques than in the purposes and styles of using management accounting techniques. Third, evidence indicates that there is convergence across European nations in management accounting practices, especially in terminology and techniques, but less convergence in the purposes and styles of using techniques. Fourth, management accounting practices in European nations, particularly terminology and techniques, is converging on a global management accounting practice model. I propose that management accounting practices—particularly terminology and techniques—is converging across nations (at least for those firms that are affected by the global economy)anddiverging across industries both within and between nations.     

Decentralisation and Management Accounting in Central Government: Recycling Old Ideas?

This paper examines the Next Steps development from both contemporaneous and historical perspectives. Specifically, it traces the reliance on a distinct model of management and accounting in Next Steps (1988) and its predecessors (FMI, 1982; and Fulton, 1968). This shows not only that there are a series of commonalities within the details of these various reforms of central government, over the past three decades, but also that these various reforms share foundations which are embedded in 'management thought' on best practice in the 1950s and 1960s. We identify contemporaneous studies in both management and management accounting which could have informed these reforms, and make suggestions for situationally specific means of improving management and accounting in central government.     

Literature section

This study investigates whether secondary school accounting, mathematics and Tertiary Entrance score have any effect on the deep learning and surface learning components of the first-year university accounting examination. In addition, it examines whether these school factors have same relative predictive value in explaining the performance of male and female accounting students. Results show that while they were relevant in explaining success in the surface learning component, none of the perdictors had any significant predictive power for the deep learning component. Results also indicate that the performance of males was best explained by school accounting. On the other hand, the effect of general academic ability on female performance was greater than that of specific cognate subjects.     

Justifying accounting change through global discourses and legitimation strategies. The case of the UK central government

Accounting has been viewed, especially through the lens of the recent managerial reforms, as a neutral technology that, in the hands of rational managers, can support effective and efficient decision-making. However, the introduction of new accounting practices can be framed in a variety of ways, from value-neutral procedures to ideologically charged instruments. Focusing on financial accounting, budgeting and performance management changes in the UK central government, and through extensive textual analysis and interviews in three government departments, this paper investigates: how accounting changes are discussed and introduced at the political level through the use of global discourses; and what strategies organisational actors subsequently use to talk about and legitimate such discourses at different organisational levels. The results show that in political discussions there is a consistency between the discourses (largely New Public Management) and the accounting-related changes that took place. The research suggests that a cocktail of legitimation strategies was used by organisational actors to construct a sense of the changes, with authorisation, often in combination with, at the very least, rationalisation strategies most widely utilised. While previous literature posits that different actors tend to use the same rhetorical sequences during periods of change, this study highlights differences at different organisational levels.     

Governmental Accounting in Spain and the European Monetary Union: A Critical Perspective

During the last twenty-five years, the changes in Spanish accounting have been radical and significant, especially since 1986 when Spain joined the European Union. Those changes were first introduced in business accounting, following the patterns of the Fourth Directive, but governmental accounting has also been affected by structural reforms that have modified the financial reporting system, the accounting standards and the accounting principles to be applied. However, the governmental accounting system needs further improvement, particularly given the EMU framework and the relationship between governmental accounting and national accounting.     

Dissemination and institutionalization of public sector accounting reforms in less developed countries: A comparative study of the Nepalese and Sri Lankan central governments

One of the major issues in the developing world today is the alleviation of poverty and it is acknowledged that public sector accounting has a key role to play in this through the effective allocation of resources. Implementing public sector accounting changes in developing nations has been a key agenda of international organizations since the 1980s. This study, drawing on the ideas of new institutionalism, strives to explore the implementation of public sector accounting reforms in two less developed countries (LDCs), namely Nepal and Sri Lanka. The empirical findings of the study demonstrate that, while internationally propagated public sector accounting reform ideas have not gone beyond the trial/proposal stage in Nepal, colonialism has bequeathed on Sri Lanka the promotion of accounting education and training, enabling the country to implement some of these reform ideas. However, increasing resistance to accounting changes at the lower administrative level, witnessed in both countries, indicates a need to understand the contexts of LDCs and to fulfil basic preconditions prior to disseminating/embarking on reforms there.     

The Use and Abuse of Accounting in the Public Sector Financial Management Reform Program in Australia

Accrual accounting has been central to financial management reforms designed to promote greater efficiency, effectiveness and accountability in the Australian public sector. This is the setting for the article; however, the issues covered apply to all nations that have reformed their public sectors over recent years. The results of the reforms have been mixed. While accrual accounting has had some beneficial results for the above purposes, the benefits have been offset by aspects of accounting misuse resulting largely from adoption of the business model of accrual accounting, termination of the former cash accounting system, and adoption of some questionable marketization reforms which appear to be more driven by the objective of reducing the size of government rather than enhancing efficiency of operations. Because Treasury believed that the business model was not appropriate for budget fiscal policy purposes, it introduced a second combined accrual and cash accounting system—the Government Finance Statistics system. The use of two accrual accounting systems reporting different results caused much confusion in parliament.     

The power of language in legitimating public-sector reforms: When politicians “talk” accounting

Language can play an essential role in shaping how accounting reforms and the information around them are communicated and legitimated. However, scant consideration has been given to study what happens when politicians are the decision makers of accounting changes. This paper explores the political use of language by investigating how the Members of Parliament discuss about public-sector accounting reforms, and deploy different rhetorical strategies to legitimate or de-legitimate them. Through the analysis of Italian parliamentary debates in the 1990s and 2000s, this study highlights how the use of language can facilitate the exercise of power by deploying arguments rhetorically dominated by authorisation and moralisation strategies. The rhetorical arguments brought forward allow politicians to disguise their loss of power in favour of the European Union, depicting their actions and proposals as necessary and/or in favour of the public interest.     

人力资源会计对象的缺陷分析

本文以会计对象为分析的基本元素,将人力资源会计按会计对象分为三个子系统：人力资源成本会计、人力资源资产会计、人力资源权益会计,在此基础上对人力资源会计的缺陷进行了分析,为人力资源会计的改进和发展奠定了基础。     

New development: Governmental accounting reforms in Latin America. The case of the municipality of Medellín,Colombia

ABSTRACT

Government accounting reforms in Medellín (Colombia) were promoted with the adoption of New Public Management principles. The reforms began by introducing accrual accounting, using this financial information for decision-making and, finally, adopting international standardization and comparability. This article shows how and why the government of Medellín modernized its public financial management systems to achieve transparency, accountability and efficiency.     

Deadlines and software: disentangling local government accounting reforms in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This paper shows how ongoing accounting reforms in Brazilian local governments were affected by a shift from a universal to a gradual implementation approach. Deadlines being postponed led to a decrease in local governments’ willingness to reform. This effect varied according whether the accountants involved depended on commercial software to operate a particular accounting policy. An important finding from this research was that software providers are to some extent setting the IPSAS implementation agenda in Brazil.     

Participatory and incremental development in an African local government accounting reform

Despite significant donor funding, government accounting reforms seeking transparent and effective management of public resources often fail or have limited success, especially in Africa, prompting questions about donors’ implementation approach and calls for studies of successful reforms. This paper investigates a local government accounting reform in Benin supported by a German development agency–perceived as successful due to the participatory, pragmatic, and incremental approach reinforced by conditionalities in the face of neo‐patrimonial leadership.     

Do Macro-economic Crises Determine Accounting Value Relevance?

Abstract

We investigate whether the value relevance of earnings and book values in Turkey significantly changed across periods of financial uncertainty. Our enquiry differs from the mainstream literature that posits a unidirectional association determined by the ‘quality’ of individual firm accounts towards price. We find divergence in accounting value relevance components across the 1997–2012 period. Dominant value relevance shifts from earnings and negative interest rates in hyper-inflation, to the balance sheet after IFRS in 2005. On the other hand, the global financial crisis (GFC) is associated with diminished accounting value relevance for all variables. Policy issues are raised about value relevance consistency, the use of negative (low) interest rates as fiscal policies and the asymmetric application of market based valuations in emerging economies.     

Development of Accounting Regulatory Framework in China: An Empirical Evaluation

In China, the government has long been involved in directly regulating accounting work. The rule-based accounting regulations have been formulated for different industry and business ownership structure by the central government since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. Remarkable changes have, however, taken place in Chinese accounting which have resulted from the wide-ranged economic and accounting reforms in the last two decades. Recently, an accounting regulatory framework based on accounting standards has been introduced, with great efforts to develop a set of practical accounting standards. A survey study was conducted to empirically investigate the prevailing perceptions of the users and providers of business accounting in respect of four major conceptual and practical issues underlying the construction of the accounting regulatory framework in the changing business environment in China. The study results demonstrate that the respondents from various interest groups possessed mixed views. They generally endorsed the current progress in the accounting reforms. On the other hand, the majority of the respondents were supportive of further changes in reshaping accounting regulatory framework to accommodate the growth of market-oriented economy in China.     

The Informational Effect of Corporate Lobbying Against Proposed Accounting Standards

Accounting standard setting has been described as a highly political process. Different interest groups are often quite ready to criticize any proposed accounting standard and lobby the accounting standard setting body. This study explores the possibility that certain information might be revealed through corporate lobbying behavior. A game-theoretic model is formulated to examine the implications of a proposed accounting standard which, if passed, would require the financial statement recording of some previously undisclosed liabilities. In this model, management has incentive to lobby against the standard and prevent the mandatory reporting of the liabilities. Lobbying against the standard, however, may itself reveal to the market information about the liabilities. Results of the equilibrium analysis show that, because of this informational effect, a company may choose not to lobby even though the company may have a high liability and can be adversely affected by the proposed standard. On the other hand, a company may avoid revealing its liability level if it can adopt the "always-lobby" strategy. Furthermore, a company may not have to lobby at all if it can "free-ride" on other companies' lobbying effort. Companies may even be able to enjoy "free-riding" at least some of the time if each company can share the responsibilities and lobby on a probabilistic and what otherwise may seem like a random basis.