Private firms are likely to use the financial reporting process more for other objectives, such as tax savings, than for communicating performance. However, observing firms choosing accounting policies for tax-minimisation purposes is not straightforward due to (i) tax and non-tax costs of...

We use the British real estate and investment fund industries as experimental settings where historic cost (HC) and fair value accounting (FVA) can be compared. Both industries have the majority of their assets marked to market and hence the difference between the two accounting systems is...

Consolidated accounting for corporations in Spain was rare before the Seventh European Directive, adopted by the European Union in 1983, and only became compulsory in 1991. During the intervening years a number of firms elected to adopt consolidated accounting even though they were not required...