Purpose: To explore the role of accounting discretion in a principal-agent setting, where accounting information is used in performance evaluation. The agent, who is to be evaluated, may choose one from among several allowable accounting methods. However, limited audit resources allow only for...

We review the development of structured financial products, discuss their accounting treatment and illustrate their valuation using simple numerical examples. The crucial element we incorporate is the possibility that the underlying assets in structured financial products have correlated...

Accounting is often viewed from a legalistic rather than economic perspective. Finance, on the other hand, is deeply rooted in economic theory, but at its heart is built on assumptions of frictionless markets. Neither perspective fully incorporates the rich economic environment in which we find...