The Role and Current Status of IFRS in the Completion of National Accounting Rules – Evidence from European Countries

Abstract

I present a summary and analysis of a series of papers from this special issue of Accounting in Europe that examine the role and current status of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) in the completion of National Accounting Rules applicable to large ‘non-listed in a regulated market’ non-financial undertakings trading for gain in 25 European countries following the recent implementation of the new European Accounting Directive 2013/34/EU. IFRS has had a varying degree of influence across European countries. Some refer and are closely aligned to IFRS or to IFRS for small and medium-sized entities, some while influenced by IFRS retain complete independence and some show limited influence mostly when accounts are for other purposes such as taxation, dividend distribution or creditor protection. I present a number of classification schemes and contrast these with Nobes [(2008). Accounting classification in the IFRS Era. Australian Accounting Review, 18(3), 191–198] two group accounting classification of European accounting systems as strong equity/commercially driven versus weak equity/government driven/tax-dominated systems.     

Building a culture of personal benefits responsibility

Successfully having employees take personal responsibility for their benefits plans requires going beyond the rapid rollout of new benefit plan designs; it requires employers to invest in understanding the complexity of their workforce. This article reviews the evolution of benefit plans and what has arisen as the current state of employee benefits. It then discusses steps employers can take to build a successful total benefit strategy that recognizes the importance of the emerging workforce's racial, ethnic and cultural diversity.     

Estimation of foreign MNEs spillovers in Spain

Using Spanish firm-level data, we estimate productivity effects of spillovers from foreign multinationals to domestic firms in both manufacturing and service sectors. We find evidence of a positive productivity effect from multinationals on domestic firms operating in the same industry. Analyzing inter-industry linkages, we find evidence consistent with positive productivity spillovers from forward linkages (i.e. from suppliers to buyers) and negative productivity spillovers from backward linkages (i.e. from buyers to suppliers). Our main results hold when analyzing differences between multinational and domestic firms, and for periods of economic growth and recession, although some differences arise. Interestingly, we find evidence supporting a positive role of spillovers during the last recession period.     

Did the U.S. Treasury’s capital purchase program (CPP) help bank lending and business activity?

The 2008 financial crisis led the U.S. Treasury to implement the capital purchase program (CPP) to revive commercial bank lending and hence stimulate business activity. Employing dynamic panel techniques and methodologies from the bank lending channel literature we find that after controlling for asset size, bank capital, and macroeconomic variables (real GDP growth rate and interest rate spreads), the impact of the CPP program is statistically significant only for money center banks. However, over our sample period from 2008Q3 to 2009Q4 we find a very modest impact on lending by only the largest banks. Overall, our results suggest that CPP’s business objective to boost loan growth and hence business activity during the crisis remained unfulfilled.     

A Minimizing Risk Strategy for Brazilian Fixed-Income Portfolios

This study presents various risk immunization strategies for fixed-income portfolios, including not only classical measures like duration, convexity, and dispersion but also modern measures such as VaR (value-at-risk) and ES (expected shortfall). Empirical tests are conducted in the Brazilian domestic and international bond market. Because it has had one of highest interest rates since the 1990s, Brazil offers an interesting case study for fixed-income studies. Our results are different for domestic and international bonds. For domestic bonds, using the highest convexity criterion to choose the best portfolio is better than using minimum dispersion, and there is a coincidence between the optimum portfolio selected by the convexity, historical VaR, and ES criteria. For international bonds, our findings indicate that the minimum dispersion strategy performs much better than the maximum convexity strategy. The overall performance of portfolios chosen by minimum VaR and ES criteria is also good, with satisfactory realized returns and squared errors.     

Trade Patterns in the Automobile Industry: Some Evidence from South Africa

In this article the authors analyze trade patterns in the South African automobile industry using disaggregated harmonized system product-level data. The significance of intraindustry trade is estimated and separated into patterns of horizontally differentiated (by variety) intraindustry trade and vertically differentiated (by quality) intraindustry trade. The results indicate the presence of significant levels of intraindustry trade in automotive trade flows between South Africa and bilateral trading partners. In accordance with theoretical expectations, the empirical investigation reveals that intraindustry trade in South Africa's automobile industry is dominated by vertical intraindustry trade. Moreover, in recent years the analysis reveals some evidence that, within vertical intraindustry trade, South Africa's automobile industry produces and exports high-quality automotive products aligned with international fragmentation-based production and trade.     

Microenterprise,Multinational Business Support,and Poverty Alleviation in South Africa's Informal Economy

The authors examine corporate programs that support microenterprise development in Africa. Specifically, the analysis assesses the extent to which local income and sales are affected by Coca-Cola's initiatives to assist South Africa's microenterprise in the retail trade sector. To quantify the impact, questionnaires were obtained from owners of small-scale retail establishments in the country's vast informal economy. Regression analysis is performed on key variables from the survey, testing hypotheses advanced to explain the size of an owner's income and sales. In addition to business development support, the explanatory variables include startup capital, size, and male/female ownership. It appears that business development support has a positive effect on lifting income and reducing poverty for microenterprise owners, after controlling for other influences.