<heading id="h1" level="1" implicit="yes" format="display">ABSTRACT</heading>This paper examines interpretation of accounting standards that provide implementation guidance via affirmative or counter examples. Based on prior psychology research, we predict that practitioners engage in "example-based reasoning" such that they are more likely to conclude that their...

We survey recent (mainly US) research on the effects of earnings presentation attributes on manager and user behavior. The literature we discuss relates to three primary earnings presentation attributes: (1) disaggregation (vertical and horizontal), (2) location (recognition vs. disclosure,...

We examine whether information in footnotes might lack reliability because auditors permit more misstatement in disclosed, as opposed to recognized, amounts. In both the stock-compensation and lease settings, audit partners require greater correction of misstatements in recognized amounts than...