This paper examines whether the level of enforcement shapes the complexity in accounting standards. First, in order to identify the level of complexity in accounting standards, we calculated a new measure that conceptualizes accounting complexity based on the theoretical dimensions of...

Purpose - The study aims to identify whether international financial reporting standards (IFRS) or local generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) reporting provides investors and senior management of acquirer banks with superior information on target banks under post-merger bank...

The loan impairment rules recently introduced by IFRS 9 require banks to estimate their future credit losses by using forward-looking information. We use supervisory loan-level data from Germany to investigate how banks apply their reporting discretion and adjust their lending upon the...

Purpose: Testing a total of five hypotheses, the paper contributes to overall comparison of the two regimes, as it scrutinises whether these improvements have helped regulate this sector. Although it appears that, for the first time, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) had a more...

We examine how the implementation of the K-IFRS No.1116 Lease affects firm value. This new accounting standard mandates capitalization of all leases, resulting in changes in the key accounting leverage ratios and rates of return. The contracting costs hypothesis suggests that changes in...

The mainstream theoretical and empirical research presented in the study is a comparative analysis of comprehensive income reporting by groups listed in the Polish and German capital markets. The theoretical part of the article is dedicated to a scientific discussion on the determinants of the...

Financial ratios are ratios that are used to measure a company’s performance by analyzing its financial records. In light of this claim, this study investigates the effect of IFRS on the financial ratios among seventeen (17) Ethiopian commercial banks. The research hypotheses are addressed by...

We propose a dynamic bank theory with a delayed loss recognition mechanism and a regulatory capital constraint at its core. The estimated model matches four facts about banks' Tobin's Q that summarize bank leverage dynamics. (1) Book and market equity values diverge, especially during crises;...

The aim of this historical account is to set forth the background behind the three petitions that Arthur Andersen & Co. submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) between 1954 and 1965 – two rejected and one accepted – to reform GAAP for SEC registrants. This is the first time...

The Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) recently issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-01 which requires firms to report unrealized gains and losses on available-for-sale (AFS) equity securities in net income, thus reducing firms’ ability to manage or smooth earnings. Previously,...

This paper examines regulators' optimal design for banks' expected credit loss impairment rules. Recognizing expected credit losses imposes market discipline and thus sound risk-taking ex ante (social gain) while it potentially distorts the bank's socially desirable liquidity provision ex...

We hypothesize that firms required by SFAS No. 131 to begin disclosing segment information attempt to counteract potential competitive harm by increasing information redaction. Using a difference-in-difference setting, we find that firms increasing the number of reported segments after the rule...

This study finds that the requirement of ASC 842 for firms to capitalize operating leases in financial statements beginning in 2019 resulted in firms affected by the standard reducing existing debt amounts on average between 7% and 10% relative to unaffected firms. We also find that firms with...

This study analyzes the effect of the mandatory adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the level of both accruals-based (AEM) and real earnings management (REM) in a comprehensive sample of firms from emerging markets. It also analyzes whether this effect differs...

This paper analyzes the impact of a large-scale adoption of uniform accounting standards on the competition for global IPOs. Using a difference-in-difference design around the adoption of IFRS in multiple countries, I examine how the uniformization of accounting standards around the world...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the adoption of converged to IFRS national standards on accounting conservatism (AC) and to investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG) attributes (government ownership, management ownership, concentration of ownership, board size,...

We propose a dynamic bank theory with a delayed loss recognition mechanism and a regulatory capital constraint at its core. The estimated model matches four facts about banks' Tobin's Q that summarize bank leverage dynamics. (1) Book and market equity values diverge, especially during crises;...

In 2009, the G-20 in London recommended that accounting standard setters, strengthen accounting recognition of loan-loss provisions by incorporating a broader range of credit information (G20 2009). In response, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued International Financial...

We document five facts about banks: (1) market and book leverage diverged during the 2008 crisis, (2) Tobin's Q predicts future profitability, (3) neither book nor market leverage appears constrained, (4) banks maintain a market-leverage target that is reached slowly, and (5) precrisis, leverage...

This study investigates discretionary earnings management practices, tracing the changes over the years in selected top performing and highly liquid listed Indian firms. It empirically measures the impact of corporate governance, financial legislation and global reporting standards on the firms'...

The aim of this paper is to provide a stochastic model useful for assessing the capital requirement for demographic risk in a framework coherent with the Solvency II Directive. The model extends to the market consistent context classical methodologies developed in a local accounting framework....

The study investigates the value relevance of accounting information for Islamic, conventional and hybrid banks. It also investigates the moderation impact of IFRS adoption and AAOIFI mandatory adoption on value relevance of accounting information. Using value relevance models, we run panel data...

While comparability across firms and consistency over time are generally held to be fundamental goals of financial reporting, I provide an analytic representation of a concept that explains why concepts-based accounting standards cannot assure comparability and why their induced consistency may...

This study examines whether financial accounting standards moderate the effectiveness of tax policy. Specifically, we examine whether myopic managers’ focus on short-term financial reporting reduces the effectiveness of tax subsidies that incentivize innovation. We employ a novel setting, the...

This study investigates how sophisticated market participants use tax-based information by examining whether analysts’ street effective tax rates (ETRs) are informative. When assessing firm performance, analysts exclude items they believe do not reflect current performance, resulting in...

While federal administrative agencies are authorized to coordinate with private entities, it is outside their authorization to delegate their authority to the private entity. Accounting standards, which affect how publicly traded companies disclose their financial information to stockholders and...

Quantitative investing relies on historical data and limited day-to-day human involvement, which could create short-term inflexibility in the face of changing economic conditions. In this study, we examine quantitative investors’ ability to navigate a common and occasionally material change to...

We propose a dynamic bank theory with a delayed loss recognition mechanism and a regulatory capital constraint at its core. The estimated model matches four facts about banks’ Tobin’s Q that summarize bank leverage dynamics. (1) Book and market equity values diverge, especially...

The paper explores the use of accounting standards for insurer solvency assessment in the context of the implementation of IFRS 17. The paper is based on the results of a survey of 20 insurance supervisors. Overall, IFRS 17 is a welcome development but there will be challenges of implementation....

We examine whether the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Codification reduced financial reporting complexity by making it easier for preparers to locate and apply relevant accounting guidance. We find that areas of U.S. GAAP with more dispersed and voluminous guidance before the...

Financial statement preparers often make accounting judgments with considerable uncertainty about what future accounting standards will require. We conduct a study in the experimental economics tradition to investigate how such uncertainty affects preparers’ current period accounting...

This monograph reviews the academic literature on market outcomes, reporting practices and the political economy behind the global use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We start with a conceptual discussion of expected benefits and costs of an international harmonization of...

We study the optimal level of commonality of accounting standards when firms' investments exhibit beauty-contest features as in, e.g., Arya and Mittendorf (2016). We model more commonality of accounting standards as more correlated noises in firms' reports, consistent with the "more harmonized"...

Shortly before the COVID-19 crisis emerged worldwide accounting standard boards reformed the accounting requirements for the modeling and the accounting of credit loss allowances. The Financial Standards Board (FASB) issues new requirements effective 2020 and the International Accounting...

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the relations between audit outcomes and accounting standard design (principles-based vs. rules-based) for US firms. Considering that audit outcomes may vary with audit risk, which may differ under different accounting standards, we examine and...

We examine how the qualitative characteristics of a non-GAAP earnings disclosure reveal the quality of the non-GAAP performance metric itself. We measure the qualitative aspects of the non-GAAP disclosure using an index of 12 hand-coded characteristics and presentation choices that provide...

In Incomprehensible!, Wendy Wagner highlights a blind spot in the design of many legal programs: they demand that market players share as much information as possible, but neglect to demand that the information be conveyed comprehensibly. Wagner shows how the neglect of comprehensibility...

We examine the association between I/B/E/S's disclosure of non-GAAP earnings and investor uncertainty around earnings announcements. On one hand, investor uncertainty may decrease with I/B/E/S's non-GAAP disclosure because these disclosures make investors aware of alternative performance...

I define moral accounting as the crafting of accountability systems that improve moral performance in a moral way. I also propose that accountants are well-positioned to offer Moral Accounting Engagements (MAEs), which evaluate how a client’s systems fall short of moral accounting’s...