Free cash flow, debt-monitoring and managers' LIFO/FIFO policy choice

This paper explores the explanatory power of Jensen's free cash flow hypothesis in managers' choice of LIFO versus FIFO. The association between FCF, and choice of inventory methods is based on the assumption that there is a potential conflict of interest between managers and shareholders when LIFO is the tax minimization method and that non-value-maximizing managers of firms with the FCF problem have incentives to choose FIFO, an income increasing method, in order to increase their compensation. However, since debt can act as a monitoring device and mitigate the agency problems of FCF, managers of firms with high FCF and high debt are less likely to choose FIFO than managers of firms with high FCF and low debt. The evidence is consistent with this expectation.     

Goodwill—an Example of Puzzle-Solving in Accounting—a Reply

Grinyer and Russell's (G&R, 1992) contention that Ma and Hopkins (1988) have imposed the mutually exclusive rules of the valuation-based paradigm on the matching-based paradigm that underlies accounting practice is overly defensive and misguided. Our 1988 paper was an attempt to throw light on why there was so little agreement on the rules governing the treatment of goodwill. G&R's comment does not change our view that the only answer to the 'puzzle' lies in the lack of a full understanding of the nature of goodwill.     

An Important Field： Environmental Accounting

With the environmental crisis, the government has issued many regulations, and the importance of environmental accounting also become more and more attached. This paper will focus on the standards and information of environmental accounting.     

加强中小企业财务会计管理工作的探讨

中小企业对我国国民经济的发展起着重要的作用,然而中小企业的财务会计管理工作却存在人才缺乏、机制不健全等问题。针对这一问题,本文提出了加强中小企业的会计核算与财务管理工作的对策。     

管理会计应用调查与反思

本文基于管理会计应用缺乏广泛性及效果不理想的原因进行调查分析,认为迫切需要解决的是降低管理会计技术操作难度,实现管理会计规范化和ERP与管理会计系统的融合的两个突破。     

Investment Opportunities and the Relation Between Equity Value and Employees' Bonus

A sample of firms where employee stock options and other long‐term incentives are absent but an annual bonus is required is examined. A positive relation is found between firm equity value and stock bonus but not cash bonus. The positive relation is stronger when the firm has greater investment opportunities. Additionally, the relation is shown to be nonlinear in the sense that the marginal effect of stock bonus on equity value is positive but decreasing (negative) when the stock bonus is below (above) the breakpoint. Overall, the annual stock bonus is valued positively by investors even though it is linked to the firm's contemporaneous but not future performance.     

浅谈会计信息供求的特殊性

会计信息作为一种特殊的商品和普通商品一样,也存在供给方和需求方,会计信息要实现其价值和使用价值,必须在供求双方之间进行交易,因此,会计信息也遵循一般商品的交换规律。但是,由于会计信息既具有公共物品的属性又具有私人物品的属性,所以在供求交换的过程中,又具有自己的特殊性。而正是这种特殊性,使得会计信息市场处于混乱状态,因此,探讨会计信息供求的特殊性具有重要的现实意义。     

我国会计学专业本科教育培养目标研究

会计教育培养目标作为会计教育实践的逻辑起点，对会计教育的发展方向和会计人才的培养起着制约作用，对会计教育实践活动起着支配、调节和控制作用。本文在对我国会计教育培养目标现状分析的基础上，从纵向（历史）和横向（国际）的角度探究了影响会计教育培养目标形成的因素和规律性，提出了构建会计教育培养目标的原则和我国会计教育培养目标的基本架构。     

Differential reporting in Germany - A historical analysis

Based on a contingent perspective of accounting change, this paper reviews the historical development of differential reporting in Germany, by drawing on primary and secondary sources. The main objective of the paper is to shed light on the driving forces and main influential parameters that have shaped the existing differential reporting framework. This historical approach supplies interesting insights for the current discussion on differential reporting in Germany produced by the EU Regulation on the application of International Accounting Standards.     

National Income Accounting and Public Policy

Modern national income accounting was designed in the early 20th century for the purpose of providing improved indicators about the performance of the economy so that government policy makers could better control the economy. The way that performance is measured affects the types of policies used to try to accomplish policy goals. Two attributes of national income accounting are analyzed for their effects on economic policy. First, government production is included in the national income accounts at cost, rather than at market value as private sector output is measured. This biases policy toward a larger public sector. Second, output is measured as a homogeneous dollar amount. This biases policy toward focusing on increasing quantities of inputs and outputs in the production process, rather than on innovation and entrepreneurship, which are the true engines of economic progress. Economic policy could be improved by focusing less on national income as an indicator of policy, and more on the underlying processes that foster economic progress.