This text discusses the costs and benefits of the convergence of local generally accepted accounting standards (GAAPs) with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Proponents of IFRS adoption cite improved efficiency in valuing foreign mergers and acquisitions (M&A), expedient...

This chapter summarizes the research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts and investments made by firms and how relevant research topics have been incorporated within accounting research. The term CSR has been widely used to describe explicit firm efforts to attain business...

The aim of this research is to determine whether the stress tests designed by the European Banking Authority have flaws that prevent them from providing an accurate picture of banks’ annual accounts. Based on the model defined by the European Banking Authority, ordinary least squares...

The use of non-GAAP measures in financial reporting has grown exponentially over the last two decades and is now effectively used by almost all publicly traded corporations. The SEC’s former chief accountant of the Enforcement Division, Howard Scheck, called non-GAAP metrics a “fraud risk...

Accounting deceptions have very negative consequences for a large number of economic agents and for the credibility of the system. For this reason, it is important to strengthen preventive measures to avoid the occurrence of deception and to detect it before it is too late. The objective of this...

Companies’ financial statements reflect climate change when environmental costs are internalized. However, financial accounting does not capture externalities (i.e., the unintended environmental costs that companies produce with their activity). This chapter explores the financial implications...

Sustainability reporting (SR) is going through crucial times with an increasing demand from stakeholders for useful, reliable and comparable information, and SR regulation plays a key role in its SR’s evolution and potential improvement. In this chapter we analyze the current developments...

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) has taken an active role in the development of improved Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting standards in Europe. In line with the EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan, EFRAG has been working to develop a comprehensive...

Over the past three decades, sustainability and integrated reporting have become common but there remains considerable variation in the interpretation and application of applicable reporting guidelines, in part because of differences in how ‘materiality’ is defined and operationalised for...

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has permitted or mandated increasing use of fair value accounting. This has been associated by the academic community with a neoliberal objective of financial accounting. Nevertheless, historic cost accounting, associated with a stewardship...