Thèses sur le sujet « Fair value reporting FASB »

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 sparked a debate over the usefulness of fair value accounting. Many banks and other financial institutions claim that the strict rules of fair value accounting exacerbated the financial crisis. To fix the problem of fair value accounting, FASB issued FAS 157-4, FAS 115-2 and FAS 124-2. These Staff Positions relax the rules for fair value accounting by providing entities more flexibility in fair value estimates and OTTI reporting. This study explores the merits of these changes to fair value accounting and analyzes whether they will improve banks’ financial reporting. First, I examine the role of fair value accounting in the recent financial crisis. Next, I evaluate whether these Staff Positions result in more useful information to investors and other decision makers. I find evidence that suggests that fair value accounting had a limited role in the financial crisis and did not contribute to banks’ financial burdens. These findings bring into question the purpose and necessity of FAS 157-4, FAS 115-2 and FAS 124-2. Furthermore, my analysis shows that these Staff Positions do not enhance the usefulness of information to decision makers. In fact, they appear to weaken the usefulness of financial information.

2007/2008
FASB introduction of FIN 46/R variable interest consolidation model proved revolutionary as it ties up the accounting to the economic/financial frameworks and the judicial one. Legal structures and agreements among stakeholders of entities, creating net assets’ variability, have from now on to be compared with expected losses and expected returns distribution, prior to identify which stakeholder will need to consolidate pursuant this Interpretation. As a result, return variability gains weight in the definition of variable interest entity with consequences still to be completely digested by practitioners and reporting enterprises. Because of the implementation of this Interpretation, consolidation by a party that absorbs most of the entity expected losses will have precedence even over stock-ownership’s control by the parent company (voting rights driven). The revolution though is only meant for a wide, yet selected, subset of entities' classes being securitisations, life and health insurances and governmental organisations aimed for profit, left outside the scope of this Interpretation. Consolidation through variable interest model is the result of four major steps. First alone is the definition of entity, being any legal structure to conduct activities and hold assets. Second, the identification of the variable interests in it, deriving from recognition of the aggregate which fair value changes with changes in fair value of net assets, exclusive of variable interests. These changes in fair value are considered regardless of embedded voting rights; hence, mezzanine finance, preferred stock and any hybrid equity instrument in general need to be detailed in their features prior to taking further decision. Third, the estimate of expected losses and residual returns whose value relevance has been given vast insight in this paper. Fourth and last step, the recognition of the primary beneficiary, when it exists, which is the party that absorbs the greatest share of expected losses and/or that benefits the most from expected residual returns and ultimately, the party that will consolidate the variable interest in object. Throughout the variable interest consolidation process, the concept of ‘equity at risk’ is introduced by FASB to define which is the effective portion of equity that absorbs variability created by net assets of the variable interest entity. Notwithstanding an introduced sufficiency test, aimed at deducting from US GAAP equity, all components that are not legal obligations to capitalise the entity, still difficulties exist. This is due to a series of exclusions namely; legal equity is to be deducted of fees, loans or guarantees thereof, shares issued in exchange of subordinated interests in other VIEs shall be subtracted as well from equity at risk, in the end also investments to be considered non significant shall be deducted. In this regard, valuations are either explicitly or implicitly to be done at fair value, hence book values need to make room for financial analysis giving in this respect value relevance to the Interpretation. The ‘equity at risk’ concept is the result of deductions that run through both sides of the balance sheet. Particular judgment shall be used in evaluating guarantees and other off-balance sheet obligations. This paper takes also in consideration the test proposed by FASB for ‘non significant investments’ proposing a refined method to reduce variability in interpretative judgment by the reporting entity. Furthermore, FASB identifies a new category of VIEs: variable interests in specified subset of assets of a VIE (i.e. a guarantee) which can be treated as distinctive VIEs by FASB only if the fair value of the same assets is greater than 50% of the whole fair value of the entity. If so happens, then equity at risk is to be deducted accordingly and expected losses/residual returns (EXLS/EXRR) of this subset of assets is not considered for sake of determining the primary beneficiary. The distinct VIE, which in accounting goes also under the name of Silo, will have to be treated separately as another VIE. From this analysis on assets and financial structure, which is derived from CON 6, FASB correctly deconstructs the accountancy legacy notion of control by segregating the decision making ability on the VIE from the variability absorption rights and obligations. The former, given by the financial decisions on VIE’s financial structure and by investment on net assets, the latter dictated by obligation to fund losses and to receive residual returns, i.e. by assigning the right to receive future residual returns and the obligation to make future capital contributions. Under a valuation viewpoint, assets and liabilities of newly consolidated VIE are measured at fair value while the ones already pertaining to a primary beneficiary, which is already a parent, remain reported at carrying value being already in the consolidated balance sheet of the controlling company. FIN 46/R in this way allows goodwill to be recognised for acquisitions of VIEs, which constitute businesses for use in this Interpretation. If the consideration paid for the VIE interest (carrying value plus premium/discount) is instead lower than the fair value of its net assets at consolidation, then a decrease in value of the newly consolidated assets shall be reported. Exception is made by cash & marketable securities, tax assets, post retirement plans and the likes. In this regard VIEs, which are not businesses will originate extraordinary gains or losses accordingly, in case of extraordinary gains, the value of the newly acquired assets is stepped-up pro quota. While FIN 46/R valuation principles of expected losses, expected residual returns and definition of balance sheets arising from VIE consolidation, resides on fair values, practitioners and reporting enterprises alike base their forecast from use of private information. This in turn, gives birth to entity-specific values, which take into account private information comprising of entity plans and current competitive strategy, which are a function of present industry positioning. Part of the process in determining EXLS/EXRR and the existence or not of a primary beneficiary, in line with the variable interest consolidation model, is to go through a profit variability analysis to be done through discounted cash flow models. To try to shed some more light on this regard we have first refreshed the mathematics of series of random variables with the objective to estimate VIEs’ expected cash flows of income. VIEs are generally modelled as a random variable with statistic mean different from statistic mode, a fact omitted in some passages of FIN 46/R exposition. Subsequently we have underlined that the variability of returns is directly related with the interval of confidence set for distribution functions representing random variables when computing the reporting entity forecast of expected variability. The potential deadlock could be widening when different interest holders are implementing different modelling of the reporting entity which yield to different results, but still acceptable under the Interpretation prescriptions. FASB introduction of non-previous US GAAP measures like EXLS/EXRR are, as we believe, in need to be backed up by a more robust theoretical framework. To do so, we needed to characterise the choice of the discount rate. In this framework, we have once again taken the theoretical basis of cost of capital, highlighting the equivalence of the results of other methods; including pros and cons of the utility functions and certainty equivalence method and the risk adjusted probability method. We have then given evidence on why FASB should use the cost of capital method as the discount rate to compute income variability together with income streams. In fact, by using the cost of capital method, and the WACC deriving from CAPM, all financial risk is embedded in the discount rate leaving the reporting enterprise free to express in the books the operational risks known or of most suitable estimation. Nowadays marginal cost of debt and market value of equity are used in common practice, according with CAPM theory, and have their use extended to private businesses. The cost of capital for private enterprises make use of sensitivity correlation coefficient of the enterprise return over the market return (beta coefficient) are of difficult estimate for private entities although betas can be computed in a number of ways using assumptions which are proper of the enterprise and its industry peers. To close the chapter related to valuation, finally we have focused on how these methodologies are being implemented by corporate America realising that the fears for value relevancy and hardship in tailoring the application to the single entities is a shared feeling and still a process far from crystallisation. In particular, FASB does not impose a clear conversion from book values to either fair values or value-in-use ones. It neither rules out the use of different valuation methods, if not for particular aspects treated within its FSP 46/R-S, in the exercise of computation of expected variability, which we have to recognise has not been proper of the accountancy function until lately. This thesis proposes an algorithm that goes in detail in the application of FIN 46/R for a reporting enterprise taking into account all possible interrelations among interest holders and distinct interest in subset of assets. The algorithm brings to light the weaknesses in application of the Interpretation caused by potential interrelations between expected losses assessment and variable interests in specified assets, wherever the fair value of these is more than 50% of net assets, i.e. distinctive VIEs. The algorithm, despite being in line with FIN 46/R prescriptions, does not cope with situations of cross default of related parties’ investors in the same VIE. However while the application of a cause and effect model is not always possible we think increased consolidation constraints would highly reduce these possibilities. In the process for determining if the reporting entity is a VIE, FASB develops also the ‘at risk’ test, highlighting once again the relevant weaknesses of the concepts of ‘previous ability to finance operations without subordinate financial support’ and ‘comparability with other similar entities which autonomously finance themselves without subordinated support’. We believe that the "at risk test" should only be a numeric test to iron out misinterpretations and gain relevance in consistency. FASB introduction of an exclusion sufficiency test to exclude variable interests for being classified as VIEs leaves, in our opinion, some uncertainties to the ‘participation in VIE design’ concept or to the ‘non significant interest’ one. This test, we believe, ought not to be a determinant factor, the level of polarisation of risk/reward of the consideration should instead be the sole paramount predictor for exclusion. As far as the conditions used to determine if the entity has sufficient equity to sustain its operations without financial support, the condition sine qua non of the minimum 10% of equity value over total assets, coupled with the triad of valuation methods proposed by FASB, should have been more stringent and concise in its ruling. In fact, these methods leave again interpretative flexibility about the inputs used to demonstrate sufficiency. From a thorough profit variability analysis the thesis compares how the responsibilities and efforts to cope with FIN 46/R requirements are distributed among VIE stakeholders, namely auditors, reporting enterprises, standard setters and regulators. This has been done comparing the use of CON 7 approach to the traditional cost of capital approach used in corporate finance. Furthermore, we have put in evidence that by implementing FIN 46/R VIEs entities tend naturally to overstate income variability valuations, being income streams discounted at Rf, heightening capital requirements. We would like to close by making a forecast on long-term developments that we envisage this Interpretation will bring forward, by starting to think on which are the VIEs stakeholders that are bound to be the most disadvantaged. This is again the class of primary beneficiaries of smaller sizes, which will have either to recourse to more lending to cover for capitalisation requirements and increased financial leverage, or face financial distress. Both cases are precursors to industry consolidation and forebears of globalisation, while the class most favoured will be the banking industry.
RIASSUNTO (ITALIAN): L’introduzione del FIN 46/R (FASB Interpretazione N. 46/R) da parte del FASB (Financial Accounting and Standards Board) si è dimostrata rivoluzionaria grazie al nuovo modello di consolidamento che si interpone tra il contesto economico finanziario e quello legale delle entità oggetto di questa interpretazione. Forma legale e relativi accordi tra stakeholders delle entità, definite come qualsiasi forma legale di impresa e veicolo finanziario, devono d’ora in poi essere confrontati con un’analisi della variabilità attesa degli utili prima di identificare quale stakeholder debba consolidare l’entità in oggetto (beneficiario primario). Di conseguenza il concetto di variabilità (varianza) dei redditi acquista un peso determinante nella definizione di variable interest entity (VIE) con conseguenze che devono essere ancora completamente digerite da professionisti e imprese che devono adeguarsi a questa interpretazione contabile. In virtù della stessa il consolidamento da parte del portatore di interessi che assorbe la maggioranza delle perdite attese ora avrà la precedenza perfino sull’azionista o sulla controllante che dovesse detenere la maggioranza assoluta dei diritti di voto. Questa rivoluzione è stata per ora intesa per un vasto, ma selezionato, insieme di classi di imprese, essendo ad esempio SPV di assicurazioni vita e veicoli finanziari di enti governativi a scopo di lucro lasciati (per ora) fuori dall’ambito di questa interpretazione. Il consolidamento attraverso il modello variable interest (VI) è il risultato di quattro passi. Innanzitutto, la definizione di entità comprendente qualsiasi forma legale intesa a compiere un’attività economica o a possedere degli attivi. Secondariamente l’identificazione dei cosiddetti interessi variabili nell’entità precedentemente definita; questi VI derivano dall’identificazione dell’aggregato dell’entità in analisi il cui fair value muta di valore al variare del valore dei net assets dell’entità al netto degli stessi interessi variabili. Le variazioni del fair value di questi asset sono considerate indipendentemente dai diritti di voto a loro associati, quindi forme ibride di capitale azionario quali azioni privilegiate, mezzanini e altri strumenti affini devono avere chiaramente dettagliate le loro caratteristiche prima di poter analizzare il loro comportamento e poter prendere una decisione. Terzo punto, la stima della variabilità attesa degli utili (perdite potenziali attese e utili residui attesi) della VIE la cui rilevanza ai fini della teoria del valore è stata data ampia trattazione in questa tesi. Quarto e ultimo passo, l’identificazione del beneficiario primario, quando questo esista, definito come la parte che assorbe la porzione maggiore di perdite e/o beneficia maggiormente degli utili residui e che, in ultima analisi, deve consolidare l’entità a interesse variabile in oggetto. Altrimenti la VIE è considerata tale da distribuire sufficientemente il rischio tra gli stakeholder. Attraverso il processo di consolidamento il concetto di ‘capitale azionario a rischio’ (Equity at risk) è introdotto da FASB per definire la frazione del capitale azionario che assorbe effettivamente la variabilità creata dal capitale investito netto (Net Assets) della VIE. Nonostante un apposito test (condizione sufficiente) sia stato proposto da FASB alcune difficoltà interpretative sono ancora presenti. Queste sono dovute ad una serie di deduzioni dal capitale legale che deve essere dedotto di pagamenti per servizi, prestiti o garanzie degli stessi. Azioni emesse in cambio di interessi subordinati in altre VIE dovranno altresì essere dedotti dal totale dell’Equity at Risk, così pure per gli investimenti di valore cosiddetto trascurabile (non-significant). Tutte le valutazioni al riguardo devono essere fatte al fair value, quindi i valori contabili dovranno sempre fare spazio all’analisi finanziaria dando rilevanza ai fini del valore a questa interpretazione. Il concetto di ‘equity at risk’ è il risultato di deduzioni prese da entrambi i lati dello stato patrimoniale. Particolare attenzione è richiesta nella valutazione delle garanzie e altri obblighi fuori bilancio. Questa tesi prende in considerazione anche il test proposto da FASB per valutare gli investimenti trascurabili (non-significant) proponendone uno alternativo che, secondo il nostro giudizio, ne riduce la varianza interpretativa in ambito di redazione del bilancio. Da questa analisi sugli asset e sulla struttura finanziaria, in accordo con i concetti CON 6, FASB correttamente smonta la nozione di controllo ereditata dall’attuale contabilità separando la capacità di prendere decisioni di gestione della VIE da obblighi e diritti di assorbimento della variabilità dei risultati economici della stessa. La prima è data dalle decisioni sulla struttura finanziaria e da quelle in merito agli investimenti nel capitale investito, la seconda dettata dagli obblighi di ricapitalizzare le perdite e di ricevere utili residui. All’atto del consolidamento gli elementi di stato patrimoniale della VIE vengono misurati al fair value mentre quelli che già sono di pertinenza del beneficiario primario con precedente ruolo di controllante (Parent Company) rimangono iscritte a bilancio al valore di carico essendo già parte del bilancio. In questo modo FIN 46/R permette il riconoscimento di un avviamento (goodwill) all’acquisizione di una VIE che si possa considerare come un’impresa ai fini di questa interpretazione. Se invece il prezzo corrisposto per l’interesse acquisito (valore di carico +/- premium/discount) è inferiore al fair value dei suoi net assets per effetto del consolidamento si dovrà registrare una diminuzione di valore degli asset appena consolidati. Eccezion fatta per cassa, crediti di imposta, fondi TFR e simili. In questo caso VIE che non sono assimilabili ad imprese origineranno conseguentemente una perdita (o utile) straordinaria, in caso di utile straordinario il valore del nuovo asset acquisito è aumentato pro-quota. Mente i principi di valutazione del FIN 46/R che riguardano la definizione di valori di bilancio originatisi dal consolidamento della VIE, risiedono interamente nel fair value, a professionisti e imprese è richiesto invece di basare le loro previsioni di variabilità degli utili su informazioni private, che quindi danno origine a valori di tipo entity-specific, comprensive dei piani aziendali in accordo con la strategia industriale adottata, che sono funzione dell’attuale posizionamento competitivo di settore. Questo è causa di problemi legati alla divulgazione di informazioni e indirettamente alla tracciabilità dei risultati. Parte del processo utilizzato per l’applicazione del VIE model passa per la stima della variabilità degli utili (Expected Lossess, Expected Residual Returns, EXLS/EXRR) e per la verifica dell’esistenza o meno del beneficiario primario. La stima è il frutto di un’analisi di variabilità (varianza) dei redditi attraverso l’uso di DCF (discounted cash flow models). Per fare chiarezza su questo punto abbiamo prima rivisitato alcuni aspetti delle serie di variabili aleatorie con l’obiettivo di caratterizzare il contesto teorico a corredo della stima del reddito/utile atteso della VIE. VIE possono essere generalmente modellizzate come una variabile aleatoria con una media statistica in generale diversa dalla moda statistica, un fatto omesso in alcuni passaggi dell’esposizione del FIN 46/R che può portare ad incertezze in fase implementativa dell’interpretazione. Successivamente abbiamo sottolineato che la variabilità dei redditi è direttamente connessa all’intervallo di confidenza fissato per le funzioni di distribuzione rappresentanti variabili aleatorie durante il calcolo della variabilità attesa della VIE. Il potenziale impasse si potrebbe allargare qualora differenti stakeholders dovessero usare un modello di stima diverso della VIE che potrebbe portare a risultati, seppur diversi, ugualmente accettabili secondo le prescrizioni di questa interpretazione. L’introduzione di definizioni quali EXLS/EXRR, precedentemente non parte dei principi US GAAP, crediamo necessitino di una più robusta trattazione teorica. Per fare questo abbiamo caratterizzato anche la scelta del saggio di sconto che FASB indica come il tasso privo di rischio. In questo contesto abbiamo preso come base la teoria del costo del capitale per poi evidenziare i punti deboli e quelli di forza di alcuni metodi quali l’equivalente certo, il metodo del costo del capitale e quello della probabilità corretta per il rischio (risk adjusted probability). Abbiamo quindi dato evidenza alle ragioni per cui FASB dovrebbe usare il metodo del costo del capitale che è dato dal tasso di sconto impiegato per calcolare la variabilità del reddito derivante dall’attualizzazione dei flussi di reddito. Infatti, usando il metodo del costo del capitale, il WACC derivante dall’implementazione del CAPM sconta tutto il rischio finanziario nel tasso, lasciando all’impresa libertà di esprimere nei libri contabili, e quindi nei flussi di reddito corrispondenti, il rischio operativo che è invece affine all’attività di impresa e reporting. Al giorno d’oggi il costo marginale del debito e il valore di mercato del capitale azionario sono concetti consolidati nella pratica contabile e possono essere estesi a imprese private. Il costo del capitale per queste ultime deriva dall’uso del coefficiente di correlazione degli utili d’impresa su quelli di mercato (coefficiente beta) di difficile stima per aziende private, sebbene questo possa essere ricavato in più di un modo, implementando ipotesi che sono proprie del contesto dove l’impresa e i suoi concorrenti operano. Abbiamo riassunto i modelli emergenti dal modo come queste metodologie vengano correntemente impiegate dalle imprese americane, realizzando che i sentimenti connessi all’adattamento dell’interpretazione FIN 46/R alle caratteristiche proprie dell’impresa siano di timore e incertezza dati da una notevole difficoltà di applicazione compresa quella di estrapolare un sufficiente grado di rilevanza ai fini del valore dai propri eventi contabili. La situazione é prodroma di processo ancora lontano dalla cristallizzazione. In particolare FASB non impone una chiara conversione dei valori contabili in fair value oppure in value in use. Nemmeno sono esclusi metodi alternativi di valutazione a quelli menzionati di sopra se non fosse per alcuni aspetti trattati dall’FSP 46/R-S nell’esercizio di determinare la variabilità attesa degli utili che dobbiamo riconoscere non è stata propria della contabilità fino a poco tempo fa. Per entrare in dettaglio nel processo applicativo di identificazione di una VIE questa tesi propone un algoritmo che entra in dettaglio nell’applicazione del FIN 46/R da parte di un’impresa e tiene in considerazione tutte le possibili interrelazioni tra portatori di interessi nella VIE e/o solamente in specifici asset della stessa. L’algorimo pone in luce le debolezze sul piano applicativo causate da possibili interrelazioni tra la stima delle perdite attese e interessi in asset specifici, laddove il fair value di questi sia superiore al 50% del capitale investito netto. L’algoritmo, nonostante sia in accordo con le prescrizioni dettate dal FIN 46/R, essendo di tipo causa-effetto non affronta situazioni di cross-default di parti correlate con investimenti nella stessa VIE. Benchè l’applicazione di un modello causa-effetto non sia sempre possibile, pensiamo che un aumento dei vincoli che portano al consolidamento riduca ampiamente queste possibilità di difficile modellizzazione. Nel processo per la determinazione se l’impresa sia o meno una VIE, FASB sviluppa un test ‘at-risk’ che contiene a nostro avviso alcuni passi nella propria trattazione di relativa debolezza quali ‘precedente abilita a finanziare le attività senza supporto finanziario subordinato’ e ‘ confrontabilità con simili entità che autonomamente si finanziano senza supporto finanziario subordinato’. Crediamo che questo test ‘at-risk’ dovrebbe essere solamente un test di tipo numerico per appianare qualsiasi fonte di erronea interpretazione ed incrementarne quindi la rilevanza e consistenza. L’introduzione di FASB di una condizione sufficiente da applicare ad una entità per la sua esclusione dalla categoria delle VIE lascia a nostro avviso alcune incertezze nell’interpretazione del concetto di ‘partecipazione nella definizione della VIE’ o in quella di ‘interesse trascurabile’. Questo test crediamo non debba essere trattato come un fattore determinante; la polarizzazione tra rischio e rendimento invece crediamo debba essere il fattore primario per l’esclusione o meno. Per quanto riguarda le condizioni in uso per determinare se l’entità ha sufficiente capitale per sostenere le proprie attività senza sostegno finanziario, conditio sine qua non del 10% di equity sul capitale investito netto, accoppiata ad una triade di metodi valutativi sempre proposti da FASB, pensiamo avesse dovuto essere maggiormente concisa e vincolante nelle sue pronunciazioni. Infatti siamo dell’opinione che questi metodi lascino troppa flessibilità interpretativa circa l’uso delle ipotesi concesse per dimostrare la sufficienza del capitale investito. Questi temi sono stati trattati dal punto di vista operativo con una serie di esempi creati ad hoc per illustrare i passi più significativi, dal punto di vista finanziario, nell’applicazione del VIE model e sollevare potenziali criticità proponendone una loro soluzione. Infine, questa tesi confronta come le responsabilità e gli sforzi nell’affrontare le disposizioni del FIN 46/R siano distribuite tra gli stakeholders di una VIE, cioè imprese che redigono il bilancio, parti correlate, revisori, standard setters ed enti di controllo. Abbiamo messo in evidenza come l’implementazione del FIN 46/R spinga naturalmente ad una sovrastima della variabilità stimata degli utili, innalzando i requisiti di capitalizzazione in accordo con questo modello di rischio/rendimento. Questo a svantaggio di beneficiari primari di modeste capitalizzazioni, che dovranno affrontare sia il rischio di essere acquisiti che quello di un maggiore ricorso al debito. Le classi più avvantaggiate saranno invece il settore del credito, seppure lo stesso sarà portato internamente verso il consolidamento.
XXI Ciclo
1972

Uma crítica que corrobora a não convergência entre o Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) e o International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) baseia-se na discordância quanto a mensuração a valor justo de alguns tipos de instrumentos financeiros, pois argumenta-se que essa prática pode aferir volatilidade aos resultados das empresas, o que impactaria o desempenho de suas ações no mercado de capitais. Assim, o presente trabalho propõe-se a verificar se a adoção das International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) no tocante a mensuração e reconhecimento dos instrumentos financeiros, mais especificamente para o grupo classificado em \"Ativos e Passivos Financeiros Mensurados a Valor Justo por meio do Resultado\", levou a uma maior volatilidade dos resultados contábeis. Para isso, optou-se por analisar o caso brasileiro, porque tal país passou pelo processo de Full Adoption das IFRS. Desse modo, adotou-se testes estatísticos que analisaram a diferença entre as variâncias dos lucros líquidos que consideram instrumentos financeiros avaliados a valor justo e a custo histórico amortizado, no período entre 2010 e 2016, das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto não financeiras e bancos com maior Presença em Bolsa. Após analisar o efeito dos ganhos e perdas não realizados, oriundos do ajuste a valor justo, de instrumentos financeiros sob o resultado, constatou-se uma tendência a suavização, redução da volatilidade, dos lucros líquidos, tanto para a amostra de empresas não-financeiras quanto para a de bancos, e não de aumento da volatilidade como era argumentado por alguns críticos a adoção do valor justo. Com base nas análises da amostra de empresas não-financeiras, o reconhecimento do ajuste a valor justo de instrumentos financeiros no resultado afetou significativamente a volatilidade do resultado contábil, contudo, segundo essas analises não se pode afirmar quanto ao efeito desse impacto, se houve propensão ao aumento da volatilidade ou a suavização dos lucros. Ao realizar as análises descritivas dessa amostra, observou-se um efeito de suavização na média, uma vez que o desvio-padrão do lucro líquido que considera instrumentos financeiros avaliados a valor justo apresentou uma média e um desvio-padrão inferiores ao do desvio-padrão do lucro líquido que os considera a custo histórico. Já as análises da amostra de bancos evidenciaram que o reconhecimento do ajuste a valor justo de instrumentos financeiros no resultado tendeu a reduzir significativamente a volatilidade, observando-se em média uma suavização do resultado contábil. Essa tendência a redução da volatilidade pode ser advinda de: gestões de risco responsáveis; uso de instrumentos financeiros, predominante, para fins de hedge; uma provável escassez do uso da classificação de \"instrumentos financeiros avaliados a valor justo por meio do resultado\"; ou, gestões que realizem escolhas do tipo \"cherry-pincking\". Inclusive, um dos modelos aplicados identificou, em ambas amostras, indícios da realização da prática de \"cherry-pincking\", um tipo de gerenciamento de resultado baseado em escolhas operacionais vantajosas e oportunistas que têm consequências na classificação contábil. Além disso, tal tendência a redução da volatilidade pode apresentar um impacto positivo na avaliação dessas empresas pelo mercado de capitais e por seus credores, já que tais usuários primários da informação contábil apresentam uma preferência por lucros consistentes ao longo do tempo, devido a sua aversão ao risco
One of the criticisms that supports the non-convergence between the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is based on disagreement with the measurement at fair value of certain types of financial instruments, because it is argued that this practice can measure volatility to earnings, which would impact the performance of its shares in the capital market. Thus, this study aims to verify whether the adoption of standards International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) regarding the measurement and recognition of financial instruments, specifically for the group classified as \"Financial Asset or Financial Liability at Fair Value through Profit or Loss\" or \"Held for Trading\", caused greater volatility of earnings. For this, we chose to analyze the Brazilian case, because that country passed through the Full Adoption of IFRS process. Accordingly, it adopted statistical tests that analyzes the difference between the variances of the net incomes that consider financial instruments measured at fair value and amortized historical cost of Brazilian publicly traded non-financial companies and banks, with a greater Presence on the Stock Market, during the period between 2010 and 2016. After analyzing the effect of the unrealized gain and loss, resulting from the adjustment to fair value, of financial instruments recognized in net income, there was a tendency to income smoothing, reduce volatility, both for non-financial companies and for banks, rather than increased volatility as some critics argued the adoption of fair value. Based on the analysis of the non-financial companies sample, the recognition of the fair value adjustment of financial instruments in the result significantly affected the volatility of the accounting profit, however, according to these analyzes, it cannot be stated as to the effect of this impact, if there was a trend increasing volatility or smoothing profits. When conducting the descriptive analyzes of this sample, a smoothing effect was observed in the mean, since the standard deviation of the net profit that considers financial instruments evaluated at fair value presented a mean and a standard deviation lower than the standard deviation of the net profit that considers them at historical cost. The analysis of the banks sample showed that the recognition of the adjustment to fair value of financial instruments in the result tended to significantly reduce the volatility, observing, on average, a smoothing of the accounting profit. This trend to reduce volatility can be derived from: responsible risk management; use of financial instruments predominantly for hedge purposes; a probable shortfall in the use of the classification of \"financial instruments measured at fair value through profit or loss\"; or, cherry-pincking choices. In addition, one of the applied models identified, in both samples, indications of the practice of cherry-pincking, a type of result management based on advantageous and opportunistic operational choices that have consequences in accounting assignment. Furthermore, this trend of reducing volatilitymay have a positive impact on the valuation of these companies by the stock markets and by their creditors, since such primary users of accounting information show a preference for consistent profits over time due to their risk aversion

A major feature of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is the use of fair value accounting for financial assets and liabilities. IFRS 7 requires reporting entities to disclose fair values based on a ‘Three-Level’ hierarchy in order to provide financial statement users with useful information about valuations, methodologies and the uncertainty associated with fair value measurements. Level 1 and Level 2 measurements include observable and indirectly observable inputs such as quoted prices of identical or comparable assets or liabilities from active markets. However, Level 3 measurements include unobservable inputs computed by using price models or discounted cash flow methodologies or other information reflecting the reporting entity’s own assumptions and judgments. Research results generally confirm that managers use the discretion provided under fair value accounting opportunistically to increase firm performance and cash flows (Chong et al., 2012; Fiechter and Meyer, 2010; Henry, 2009), to smooth earnings volatility (Barth et al., 1995; Hodder et al., 2006; Li and Sloan, 2015), to meet analysts’ forecasts (Song, 2008) and to increase management compensation (Ramanna and Watts, 2009; Dechow et al., 2010; Shalev et al., 2013; Livne et al., 2011). Barth and Taylor (2010) call for more research to investigate the role of discretion in fair value estimates. Using the language of the fair value measurement hierarchy, Level 3 inputs are discretionary in nature. However, the incentive of bankers to use Level 3 inputs remains an empirical question.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Busines School
Griffith Business School
Full Text

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of fair value measurement of tangible long-lived assets under IAS/IFRS. It is objective is to assess the impact of revaluation of long-lived assets from their historical prices to their fair value. The work further characterizes the harmonization of the accounting systems and detailed described IFRS 13 – Fair Value Measurement. The work is focused on company describing particular the valuation methodology as well as specific data on the asset. At the end of the work the potential risks of users of the financial statements are displayed.

During the financial crisis, many assets became illiquid and ceased trading on the open market, thus classifying them as level three assets. This study attempts to determine whether fair value asset disclosures, especially level three assets, were viewed by the market as valued correctly, given the amount of subjectivity involved. This paper will discuss prior literature on the topics of fair value accounting, various earnings quality measures, and corporate governance impact on fair value disclosures. Using models similar to prior papers, many of the coefficients of interest proved insignificant. However, the models improved when examining only the least credible firms.

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
Companies are increasing their investment properties; however they are not disclosing the information that is required by the IAS 40. It regulates the financial reporting of those assets, it defines the scope and the models that companies may use when measuring their investments properties. This research provides insights to understand which model the companies choose (fair value or the cost model) and why. The findings suggest that the Portuguese listed companies do not provide satisfying information about investment properties, as increases the financial leverage or the age of a company, it is more likely to adopt the fair value model.

This thesis investigates the role of auditors’ valuation specialists in determining reporting quality of Level 3 fair value measurements (FVMs). Using a sample of international banks, I find that using valuation specialists in auditing Level 3 FVMs can effectively improve the reporting quality of Level 3 FVMs, reflected in less earnings management, higher earnings persistence, and higher value relevance. The findings suggest valuation specialists play an essential role in enhancing auditors’ fair value expertise. Standard setters may need to pay more attention to the requirements of disclosing the involvement of valuation specialists in fair value auditing.

Zugl.: Köln, Univ., Diss., 2008 u.d.T.: Rohlfs, Torsten J. W.: Der @Einfluss der unternehmensspezifischen Bonität auf die Zeitwert-Bilanzierung von versicherungstechnischen Verpflichtungen eines Schaden-/Unfallversicherungsunternehmens

O sistema de Normalização Contabilística (SNC) entrou em vigor no dia 1de janeiro de 2010, revogando o POC e legislação complementar. 0 novo modelo contabilístico configura uma adaptação em Portugal das IAS/IFRS emitidas pelo IASB, tai como adotadas pela União Europeia, harmonizando a prática contabilística nacional corn as normas internacionais de contabilidade, permitindo a comparabilidade das demonstrações financeiras à escala universal, e diferencia-se do anterior pela introdução de dois novas paradigmas que são o reporting e o justo valor. 0 presente trabalho de projeto visa elencar os conceitos métodos e técnicas que constituem as melhores práticas ao nível das finanças empresariais, ilustrando a sua aplicação no seio das normas contabilísticas e de relato financeiro (NCRF), disponibilizando aos preparadores e stakeholders da informação financeira as ferramentas necessárias para produzir e analisar demonstrações financeiras de finalidades gerais, que passam a ser vistas como um referencial único e comum, onde a contabilidade e as finanças empresariais estão cada vez mais próximas e interdependentes; ### Abstract: The Accounting Standards System (SNC) entered into force on January 1,2010, revoking the POC and complementary legislation. The new accounting model in Portugal configures an adaptation of IAS/IFRS issued by the IASB,as adopted by the European Union by harmonizing national accounting practice with international accounting standards, allowing comparability of financial statements to a universal scale, and differs from the previous by introducing two new paradigms are reporting and fair value. This research project aims to list the concepts methods and techniques that constitute best practices in terms of corporate finance, illustrating its application within the accounting standards and financial reporting (NCRF), providing preparers and stakeholders of financial reporting tools needed to produce and analyze general purpose financial statements, which come to be seen as a single, common reference, where accounting and corporate finance are increasingly close and interdependent.

Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertationsschrift befasst sich mit den konzeptionellen Grundlagen und der historischen Entstehung verschiedener Aspekte der Rechnungslegung. Der erste Artikel setzt sich mit den konzeptionellen Grundlagen des amerikanischen Standardsetzers FASB auseinander und zeigt, dass die Entstehung des amerikanischen Rahmenkonzepts in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren stark von Umweltfaktoren abhing. Im zweiten Beitrag wird dargelegt, dass das vom internationalen und amerikanischen Standardsetzer im Jahr 2010 überarbeitete Rahmenkonzept, mithin die qualitativen Anforderungen an nützliche Finanzinformationen, im konditional-normativen Sinne keine ausreichende Basis für die Entwicklung von Rechnungslegungsnormen ist. Der dritte Artikel fokussiert auf die regulatorische Entwicklung der Bewertung von Vermögenswerten in Deutschland und stellt regulatorische Änderungen sozioökonomischen und politischen Umweltfaktoren gegenüber. Der abschließende vierte Beitrag enthält eine historisch-kritische Analyse des der Rechnungslegung zugrunde liegenden Rechenschaftskonzepts, welches zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus an einer deutschen Hochschule untersucht wird. Dabei werden insbesondere die Grenzen von Rechnungsanforderungen analysiert und dargelegt
This cumulative dissertation covers the conceptual foundations and historical evolution of various aspects in accounting. The first article discusses the conceptual framework of the U.S. standard setter FASB and shows that the evolution of the U.S. GAAP conceptual framework in the 1970s and 1980s was considerably influenced by economic factors. The second manuscript employs a conditional-normative approach to analyze the 2010 joint conceptual framework of the international and the U.S. standard setter, in particular the qualitative characteristics of useful financial information. The paper shows that the qualitative characteristics are not a sufficient basis for developing accounting standards. The third article focuses on the regulatory history of asset valuation in Germany and explains regulatory changes by socio-economic and political events. The fourth and final article contains a historical-critical analysis of the concept of accountability, which forms the basis of accounting. The article analyzes accountability at a German university during the Nazi regime and illustrates the limits of the concept

Cette thèse se compose de trois chapitres distincts. Le premier chapitre étudie la tentative d'harmonisation de la réglementation financière et de la divulgation de l'information financière par l'Union Européenne. Ces réglementations financières sont appliquées à travers un ensemble de directives avec un objectif commun. Nous étudions l'impact de ces changements sur l'asymétrie d'information. Nous considérons également le rôle des caractéristiques du pays et des entreprises. Nos résultats montrent que l'asymétrie d'information a diminué après le changement de régime réglementaire de l'UE. Nous démontrons que les pays dont la règlementation antérieure est d'un niveau de qualité élevé avec un système juridique efficient ont connu une réduction d'asymétrie d'information plus importante. Selon les résultats, l'impact des réglementations sur l'asymétrie d'information est plus important pour les entreprises qui avaient un meilleur environnement avant le changement de régime. Le deuxième chapitre étudie l'efficacité de l'utilisation de la juste valeur en comptabilité pour fournir des informations plus pertinentes sur la valeur des banques. Les études pertinence de la valeur ont été menées en quatre étapes. Tout d'abord, nous comparons la pertinence de la valeur des actifs et passifs tels qu'ils sont inscrits dans les bilans. Nous constatons que les actifs et passifs pris à la juste valeur sont plus pertinents pour expliquer la valeur de marché des capitaux propres. En outre, on observe que la crise financière de mi-2008 n'a pas d'impact significatif sur la pertinence des actifs et des passifs pris en FV et, que la qualité de l'audit améliore la pertinence des actifs pris en FV. Dans la deuxième étape, nous nous concentrons sur la mesure de la juste valeur et nous trouvons que les actifs basés sur « marked-to-market » sont plus pertinents que les actifs « marked-to-model » et que la haute qualité de l'audit a un impact positif sur la pertinence des actifs basés sur les niveaux de FV 1 et 2. Dans la troisième étape, nous examinons la pertinence de la valeur incrémentale des justes valeurs, en étudiant la pertinence du contenu de l'information fournie par la différence entre les justes valeurs et les coûts historiques. Pour terminer, nous évaluerons la pertinence des deux modèles que nous proposons en comparant les résultats obtenus au titre de celui de « la juste valeur totale » à ceux obtenus par le modèle « du coût historique ». Dans le troisième chapitre, nous cherchons à savoir dans quelle mesure la juste valeur en comptabilité permet de mesurer l'exposition aux risques prise par les banques. Nous étudions le rôle de la taille des banques et celui de la situation économique du marché financier. Nous démontrons que pour un échantillon global, les ratios d'endettement de coût historique et la GAAP, sont plus liés au risque de la banque que les ratios fondées sur les justes valeurs. Pour les petites banques le ratio de levier financier de la GAAP et du HC expliquent mieux le risque de défaut des banques que le ratio de levier financier de FV, et pour les grandes banques cet ordre s'inverse. Nos résultats fournissent la preuve que, pendant les périodes stables, le ou la GAAP et le ou la HC sont plus pertinentes que le risque par FV. En période de crise cet ordre s'inverse, et les ratios de FV expliquent mieux les attentes du marché concernant le risque de défaut de toutes les banques
This dissertation consist three distinct essays that study the effectiveness of financial disclosure regulations. The first essay studies the effectiveness of EU regulatory changes aimed to harmonize and enhance EU financial information environment. Unlike literatures that study the adoption of a single regulation, we consider a set of EU regulations that have common objectives. We find that the adoption of these regulation have decreased information asymmetry in financial markets. We also show that the effectiveness of regulatory changes varies across counties. We find that firms that needed the improvement in financial information environment the most benefited the least from implementation of regulations under study. We argue that EU capital market impacts generally attributed to the adoption of IFRS are likely to come from regulatory changes concomitant to IFRS. We then focus on banks and find that EU regulatory changes had a more significant impact on banks than other firms. The second essay studies the effectiveness of fair value accounting in providing more value-relevant information. The value relevance studies have been conducted in four stages. First, we compare the value relevance of assets and liabilities as they are carried in balance sheets and find that assets and liabilities carried at fair value are more value-relevant than those carried at cost. Furthermore, we illustrate that the 2008 financial crisis had no significant impact on the value relevance of FV assets and liabilities. Also high audit quality improves the value relevance of assets carried at FV. Second, we focus on fair value measurement levels and find marked-to-marked fair values to be more value-relevant than marked-to-model fair value assets and high audit quality has a positive impact on value relevance of assets carries at FV levels 1 and 2. Third, we focus on the incremental value relevance of fair values, where we study the value relevance of fair value information over those conveyed by costs data. Finally, we compare the relative value relevance of a full fair value versus full cost accounting. The third essay looks at the risk relevance of fair value accounting. We compare the accounting-based debt ratio with fair values, cost and US GAAP data for explaining market assessments of bank risk. We find that although in overall US GAAP information and cost accounting are more risk relevant than fair values, relative value-relevance of the ratios depends on bank size and general economic condition. During financial crisis and for large banks fair values are more risk-relevant than HC and GAAP. Overall, this dissertation sheds light on the effectiveness of financial regulations regarding information disclosure and the impact of influential factors with an emphasis on banks

Nos travaux, dans le prolongement de recherches envisageant l’harmonisation comptable internationale (IAS/IFRS) et la mise en place des indicateurs de Responsabilité Sociale de l’Entreprise (RSE) sous un angle processuel et « historico évolutif », tendent à s’en démarquer en recherchant les moyens d’analyser l’information issue du reporting financier (IAS/IFRS) et extra-financier (RSE) dispensée durant la période 2006-2010 par les sociétés cotées composant les indices boursiers français du CAC 40 et du SBF 120, d’une part, et allemands du DAX 30 et du DAX 100, d’autre part, et en substituant à une approche souvent inductive dans ce domaine une démarche hypothético-déductive. Ils mettent en regard, d’une part, les données recueillies et, d’autre part, les intérêts des actionnaires/investisseurs ainsi que de l’ensemble des parties prenantes de part et d’autre du Rhin, sur le fondement théorique de la théorie de l’agence et la théorie des parties prenantes. La méthode employée, à la fois quantitative et qualitative, vise d’abord à utiliser des outils de mesure se fondant sur des moyennes, médianes et analyses de régression combinant plusieurs variables exprimées pour l’essentiel sous la forme de ratios comptables et financiers (IAS/IFRS) ; cette mesure s’étend à un recensement de l’occurrence de mots dans les supports d’information extra-financière (rapports RSE et de développement durable). Puis à interroger les responsables administratifs et financiers en charge de l’application du référentiel IAS/IFRS ainsi que les responsables de la communication RSE et du développement durable des sociétés de notre panel, au moyen de questionnaires se fondant sur les outils de « logique floue ». Nous ne cherchons pas à mesurer l’incidence des normes IAS/IFRS et des indicateurs RSE ni sur la performance financière, ni en taux de retour sur la valeur boursière. Nous observons par nos résultats des nuances de perception des normes IAS/IFRS et des objectifs de RSE dans le reporting financier et extra-financier susceptibles d’être imputées à des facteurs socioculturels, et répondant à une gouvernance plus actionnariale en France qu’en Allemagne
This study, in the extension of researches aimed at harmonising accounting internationally (IAS/IFRS) and implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) indicators from a processual and “historical evolutional” angle, tends to differ from them by focusing on the means to analyse the information issued from financial (IAS/IFRS) and extra-financial (CSR) reporting released during the 2006-2010 period by the listed companies which compose the French and German stock market indexes respectively CAC40/SBF120 and DAX30/DAX100, and replacing an oftentimes inductive approach in this field with a hypothetical and deductive process. It compares the collected data on the one hand, and the needs of shareholders/investors and third parties as a whole on the other hand, on either side of the Rhine, on the basis of the theoretical frame of the agency theory and the stakeholder theory.The method employed, which is both quantitative and qualitative, aims to do as follows. First use of tools for measuring based on averages, medians and regression studies combining many variables essentially expressed in the form of accounting and financial ratios (IAS/IFRS); this measure extends to the listing of words occurrence in the extra-financial information supports (CSR and sustainability reports). Then question the administrative and financial managers in charge of the application of the IAS/IFRS referential and the managers responsible for the CSR and sustainability communication within these companies we selected with reference to matrixes based on the “fuzzy logic” theory tools. We do not investigate the influence of IAS/IFRS standards/CSR indicators neither on financial performance nor in terms of expected return on the capital asset. We can observe that our results show nuances of perception of IAS/IFRS standards and CSR goals in the financial and extra-financial reporting that are likely to be attributed to socio-cultural factors, and reflecting a governance much more aimed at shareholders in France than in Germany

Revenue recognition is one of the most crucial issues in financial reporting and the prevalent source for recent accounting scandals. International financial reporting standard setters are conducting a major project rethinking revenue recognition. Tentative proposals of the project Revenue Recognition feature an asset-liability approach relying on measurement at fair values or at allocated customer consideration amounts. This paper chooses construction contracts to illustrate and to evaluate the far-reaching changes implied by the proposals in a multi-period context. Main results suggest that the proposals are ambivalent in terms of relevance but critical in terms of reliability compared to the recent treatment under IAS 11. Particularly, a pure fair value approach yields irritating patterns of revenue recognition found inappropriate for stewardship purposes. While its adoption for revenue recognition under IFRSs is unlikely due to regulatory incompatibilities, measuring performance obligations at allocated consideration amount partly mitigates the concerns.

En tilltagande globalisering inom redovisning har bidragit till att internationella redovisningsprinciper och regler befinner sig i en harmoniseringsprocess. Bokföringsnämndens K-projekt pekar på att Sverige är del av denna process. Börsnoterade företag inom EU är tvingade att upprätta den finansiella rapporteringen enligt IFRS, men för svenska onoterade företag finns valmöjligheten att tillämpa de svenska reglerna. Argumenten för frivilligt antagande av IFRS bygger på ökad kvalitet, transparens och jämförbarhet i de finansiella rapporterna, vilket ska öka användbarheten för intressenterna. År 2012 inledde IASB ett arbete avseende revidering av den befintliga föreställningsramen, vilken beräknas vara färdigställd under år 2017. Den reviderade föreställningsramen lyfter fram betydelsen av tre primära intressenter, vilka utgörs av investerare, långivare och andra kreditgivare.Syftet med studien är att utreda hur svenska onoterade moderbolags val av att anta IFRS frivilligt, i stället för att tillämpa K3, påverkar de finansiella rapporterna och de primära intressenterna utifrån ett informationsbehovsperspektiv. Detta illustreras med fyra stycken hypotetiska typfall. För att uppnå syftet undersöks vilka skillnader som föreligger vid redovisningen enligt IFRS och K3 avseende finansiella instrument, goodwill vid rörelseförvärv, FoU-kostnader samt förvaltningsfastigheter med fokus på upplysningar. Metoden som tillämpas i studien är en deskriptiv analys med en abduktiv ansats inom ramen för kvalitativ forskning.Resultaten av studien visar på att det föreligger stora skillnader mellan IFRS och K3, vilket får effekten att företag som redovisar enligt IFRS framstår som mer lönsamma och mindre riskfyllda. Ett frivilligt antagande av IFRS bidrar till mer användbar information i de finansiella rapporterna samt att dessa bättre speglar företaget ekonomiska verklighet. Sammantaget framstår redovisningen enligt IFRS som mer attraktiv i förhållande till K3, utifrån de primära intressenternas informationsbehov.
Due to expanding globalization of accounting, the international accounting principles and regulations are currently in a process of harmonization. The K-project of the Swedish accounting authority Bokföringsnämnden, indicates that Sweden is a part of this process. According to EU-regulation listed companies are obligated to prepare financial statements in accordance with IFRS since 2005, but for unlisted Swedish companies there is an option of applying local Swedish regulations. The arguments in favor of a voluntary adoption of IFRS rest on promises of improved quality, transparency and comparability of financial statements, which further will increase its usefulness to stakeholders. In 2012, the IASB initiated a project regarding a revised Conceptual Framework, which is expected to be completed during 2017. The revised Conceptual Framework highlights the importance of three primary stakeholders, consisting of investors, lenders and other creditors.The objective of this study is to examine how unlisted Swedish parent companies’ choice of adopting IFRS voluntarily, instead of applying K3, affects the financial reports and primary stakeholders based on an information need perspective. This is illustrated by four hypothetical scenarios. In order to achieve the objective of this study, the existing differences of reporting under IFRS and K3 regarding financial instruments, goodwill in business combinations, R&D expenses and investment properties focusing on disclosures, are examined. The method used in the study is a descriptive analysis with an abductive approach within the frames of qualitative research.The findings indicate that there are major differences between IFRS and K3, which results in companies reporting according to IFRS appear to be more profitable and less of a risk. A voluntary adoption of IFRS contributes to more useful information in the financial statements and a better reflection of the company's financial reality. Overall, financial reporting according to IFRS appears more favorable than reporting under K3, based on the information need of the primary stakeholder.This paper is written in Swedish.

Recent corporate reporting history is well–known for its corporate failures and questionable accountancy practices, many of which caused the profession to be frowned upon. However, the splodge on the accounting profession?s reputation goes deeper than its corporate reporting failures. The scientific foundation thereof is also being questioned in academic circles. Even though accounting scholars have been trying to formulate foundational accounting theories, it has been the accounting regulators that have been more successful in promoting their versions of what accounting theory should be, which place a question mark on the legitimacy of current day accounting theory. This thesis aims to delve deeper into the foundational philosophies of accounting and its impact on the practice of accounting. With the current accounting globalisation efforts, the profession?s stewardship function is becoming less prominent in its promulgated standards, which in turn brings the focus on the many questionable ethical practices found in the profession. Even though the regulatory bodies require their members to commit themselves to professional codes of conduct, which entails competency, integrity, objectivity and confidentiality, the 1st article in this thesis claims that ethical conduct is more than mere adherence to rules and regulations. It is also about the image of not only the profession, but also accounting research and education. Accounting is broadly practised, researched and taught within its so–called conceptual framework, of which a key objective is to guide and inform accounting practice. The conceptual framework became the basis upon which accounting theory is based. However, many accounting scholars are openly critical of presenting accounting theory as a set of practical guidelines. The 2nd article in the thesis concludes that, from an academic perspective, accounting theory should be based on three quintessential guidelines. The first of which is its primary purpose of reporting on the historic economic events, secondly the provision of useable and comparable information about these events and finally, the facilitation of business decisions based on relevant and reliable information. In the above mentioned business decisions, the concept of value is often taken for granted and many accounting techniques? effectiveness is judged on how well it approximates an item?s value. The 3rd article argues that the multiple purposes for which accounting information is used complicates the issue of value, as reported by accounting. Two key conflicting valuation perspectives are the so–called decision–usefulness and true income perspectives. The current drive towards fair value accounting, as opposed to historic cost accounting, cast doubts on the reliability and relevance of accounting information. Even though it may be argued that value–based techniques are more relevant because it is a better reflection of the current business conditions, the mere subjective nature thereof and the accountant?s objective valuation skills make the true relevance of this information questionable. Furthermore, mixed model valuations found in financial statements makes cross–company information unreliable. Accountancy research of the past four decades focussed on the concept of user decision–usefulness. The user is also pre–eminent in the globalisation of accounting standards of the FASB and the IASB, where users are specified as the equity investors, lenders and capital providers. The 4th article acknowledges that although these user categories are important consumers of the financial data, there are other users which are also impacted by the financial information and the company?s operational performances. There are also concerns over accounting?s key assumptions, such as its quantification and predictive abilities, which are fundamental to the decision–usefulness objective. Furthermore, there are questions around how the regulators decided what information is suppose to be useful and what type of utility is being sought. In summary, the focus on the vocational aspects of accountancy stands in contrast to claims of accounting as an academic discipline in the social sciences. The reality is that the practices of the profession will probably always play a central role in what is taught at university level, and the regulators, as the final authority on accounting standards, will probably remain dictatorial in promulgating their versions of accounting theory. Yet, accounting and its wide spread impact on society, makes it a key discipline within the economical and management sciences. It is therefore essential for the resurrection of accounting as a social scientific discipline that there is a return to foundational accounting research that will prepare (and enable) prospective practitioners and academics to question the status quo and push back on accounting practices that are threatening to extinguish the flame of accounting scholarship.
Thesis (Ph.D. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Die vorliegende kumulative Doktorarbeit umfasst drei Arbeiten aus dem Bereich der empirischen Rechnungslegungsforschung. Die erste Arbeit untersucht die Rolle persönlicher Eigenschaften von Rechnungslegungsstandardsetzern bei der Entwicklung der Internationalen Rechnungslegungsstandards IFRS. Sie dokumentiert, dass in den IFRS insgesamt ein Rückgang der Bedeutung von Prinzipien gegenüber Regeln sowie ein Anstieg der Bedeutung des beizulegenden Zeitwerts im Zeitablauf zu verzeichnen sind. Zwischen Änderungen von IFRS-Eigenschaften sowie beruflichen und kulturellen Eigenschaften von Mitgliedern des International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) wird ein Zusammenhang festgestellt. Die zweite Arbeit widmet sich Ursachen und Folgen fehlerhafter Finanzberichterstattung im Rahmen des deutschen Systems der Durchsetzung von Rechnungslegungsregeln. Sie findet systematische Unterschiede in der Unternehmensführung von Unternehmen, bei denen fehlerhafte Finanzberichte festgestellt werden, gegenüber einer Kontrollgruppe. Weitere Ergebnisse lassen die Vermutung zu, dass die Aufdeckung fehlerhafter Finanzberichte Verbesserungen in der unternehmensspezifischen Aufsicht über den Rechnungslegungsprozess auslösen könnte. Die dritte Arbeit nutzt umfangreiche Befragungsergebnisse deutscher Privatanleger zur Untersuchung der Ursachen ihres Unternehmensüberwachungsverhaltens. Demnach üben Anleger, die ein geringeres Vertrauen in andere Anspruchsgruppen eines Unternehmens haben, zugleich eine geringere Unternehmensüberwachung aus. Darüber hinaus dokumentiert die Arbeit, dass Vertrauen und Unternehmensüberwachung in einem Zusammenhang mit dem Ausmaß der Teilnahme am Aktienmarkt und dem Bildungshintergrund der Anleger stehen.
This cumulative doctoral thesis consists of three papers within the field of empirical financial accounting research. The first paper examines the role of personal characteristics of accounting standard setters in the development of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). It documents that the full set of IFRS exhibited a decrease in the importance of principles relative to rules and an increase in its fair value orientation over time. Changes in IFRS properties are found to be associated with the professional and cultural background of International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) members. The second paper investigates determinants and consequences of erroneous financial reporting under the German financial reporting enforcement regime. The corporate governance of firms detected with erroneous financial reporting is found to differ systematically from that of control firms. Further results suggest that error detection might trigger improvements in firm-level accounting oversight. The third paper uses large-scale survey evidence from German individual investors to explore the determinants of their monitoring behavior. Investors who are less trusting in their fellow stakeholders are found to engage in less monitoring. Furthermore, trust and monitoring are documented to be associated with the stock market exposure and the educational background of investors.

I examine whether financial statement preparers (managers and auditors) treat recognized versus disclosed fair value of option compensation differently. Recognition refers to items that appear on the face of financial statements and that are included in subtotal figures that appear in the summary accounts; disclosure refers to items that appear in words and amounts in only the financial statement footnotes. I find that fair value recognition of option compensation is likely to have a significant impact on net income. Firms in my sample granted options amounting to a median fair value of 7% of profits in 1996 and 11% of profits in 2004. I compare the terms of option grants and the properties of fair value estimation under a disclosure reporting regime to terms and properties under a recognition regime. Under a fair value recognition regime, I find firms reduce/eliminate option grants across all levels of employees, reduce the statutory length of options, and substitute restricted stock and bonuses for option compensation. The fair value reduction in option grants is on average 9% (0.4%) of absolute net income. In contrast, under a fair value disclosure regime, option compensation was not reduced. I also find that firms increase the bias in three inputs to fair value option estimation: volatility, dividend, and interest. This increase amounts to 4%, 2%, and 0.3% of fair value cost. Mandatory recognition firms also display increased dividend and interest input accuracy. Combined, these results suggest that financial statements reflect differences in behavior between recognition and disclosure reporting regimes, such that both real actions and fair value estimation are used to reduce recognized values.

Dissertation

碩士
國立臺灣大學
會計學研究所
104
In order to set out in a single IFRS a framework for measuring fair value, International Accounting Standards Board(IASB) issued IFRS13 Fair Value Measurement in May 2011, which is applied for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2013, and earlier application is permitted. IFRS13 redefines fair value, and makes overall standards of fair value measurement and regarding disclosures. This thesis including five chapters makes a further discussion on the standards and examples in IFRS13, and aims at helping regarding professionals to realize IFRS13, also reducing the difficulties in application. Chapter 2 includes comparison between new and old definitions of fair value as well as valuation methods of unquoted equity instruments. Chapter 3&4 are the main portion of this thesis. Chapter 3 is the framework of IFRS 13 brought up by author, which departs into two sections–fair value measurement of financial assets and nonfinancial assets; Chapter 4 deeply explores the standards of special issues of fair value measurement in IFRS13, including regarding disclosures. The result of this thesis explains that each part of issues in IFRS13 seem scattered in the whole standard because it lacks of overall framework. Besides, the extents and explanations of those examples in IFRS13 are simple and without detailed illustrations. Author sincerely hope IFRS13 will be more completely modified in the future.

碩士
淡江大學
會計學系碩士在職專班
98
In recent years, fair value accounting has gradually become the mainstream. Accounting Research and Development Foundation in Taiwan releases fair value based accounting standards successively. In order to understand the implementation effect of fair value evaluation of financial instrument without quoted market price in active market, non-financial assets (such as fixed assets and intangible assets) and employee stock option, the research is to discuss the current status, difficulty and incremental cost of fair value measurement accounting and further viewpoints. This study provides detail practical fair value information for the companies and the authorities and would be helpful for the full adoption of IFRS. This study gets the summarized conclusion by issuing not only 1,217 copies of questionnaires to the accounting manager and related personnel of domestic listed companies but also 920 copies of questionnaires to the practicing Certified Public Accountants and related staffs of CPA firms. Finally, 155 copies and 114 copies of questionnaires were received from the companies and CPA firms, respectively. The corresponding receiving rates are 13% and 12%. The analysis result are as follows: 1. The fair value measurement (1)Valuation of unlisting “Equity” financial instrument Most respondents reply in this item give more reliance on fair value valuation from “adjusting net assets value of investee company''s most recent financial statements” and “valuation report of specialist”. But the companies prefer the former and the CPA firms prefer the latter instead. (2) Valuation of unlisting “Debt” financial instrument In practice, under the companies use the recent transaction price from quoted platform and adjust of the conditions of issuance and the CPA firms would rely more on specialist’s valuation report. (3) Valuation of Derivative instruments Both the companies and the CPA firms confirm the transaction price provided by counterparty. Because the implied profit of the counterparty and the further reasonable analysis request, the transaction price might need to be verified by specialist and adjusted quoted market price of similar financial instruments. (4) Valuation of non-financial assets (such as fixed assets and intangible assets) The companies and the CPA firms rely on the valuation result from “the specialists’ report” and “quoted prices for similar assets in secondary markets adjusted the usage of the asset” in sequence. (5) Valuation of employee stock option Exclude of the disclaimer of opinion, most respondents trust the stock option value results from “the reports of professional organizations” or “Black-Scholes model”. 2. The difficulty of fair value measurement (1) Valuation of financial instrument in inactive markets (as Derivatives and Unlisting Debt/Equity instrument) The major three difficult points of the impair valuation of the financial instruments in an inactive market are as follows: (a) There is no recent quoted market price or the volatility of the market price due to the economic influence. (b) The actual influence of limitation on financial instrument. (c) There is no quoted price of essentially the same financial instruments. (2) Valuation of non-financial assets (such as fixed assets and intangible assets) The primary difficulty on measuring the fair value of non-financial assets are: (a) The lack of publicly traded market for comparison. (b) There is no transaction price of similar assets. (3) Valuation of employee stock option The main difficulty of measuring stock option is that the parameters of valuation model are not easy to obtain. Furthermore, the complex of the valuation methods and lack of knowledge of the accountants are also the difficulties. (4) The additional coordination costs In order to obtain objective fair value of financial instruments, the companies may need to increase the training costs for accountants, accounting operation cost, CPA auditing cost and expert valuation charges. 3. The opinion for fair value measurement. (1) The strengths and weaknesses of fair value measurement Strengths of fair value measurement: (a) Increasing of the transparency of the financial reports although it also has volatility addition. (b) The instant information for management decision. Weaknesses of fair value measurement: (a) Addition cost to offset the benefit. (b) Too much subjective judgment and too little reliability of financial information. (2) Level of acceptance of ROC SFAS No. 34 Second Amendments on October 17, 2008 The divergent attitudes between the companies and the CPA firms so there is no obvious opinion of this amendments. (3) The relative opinion between preparers and users of financial reports Overall, the users of financial reports are more supportive of fair value measurement than the preparers of financial reports. (4) Assorted procedures In order to more successfully into the financial statements measured at fair value, the authorities should provide verified valuation technical and more practical guidance to enterprise and CPA firms to strengthen education training and reduce trial and error cost and time. Especially when the market price biased by the economic environment, the authorities should provide more timely and appropriate fair value measurement criterion to assist enterprises to make accurate impairment judgments.

M.Comm. (International Accounting)
The study investigates the potential effect of applying a fair value model after the grant date to employee share options. The research assesses the appropriateness of the requirements of IFRS2 Share-Based Payment transactions with a specific focus on equity-settled Employee Share Options. The researcher has calculated the percentage movements or changes of fair value between each financial year including the overall percentage change. The study was mainly triggered by the IFRS2 Share-Based Payment rules and various arguments from different authors challenging the appropriateness of IFRS2 Share-Based Payment on employee share options (ESOs) transactions in capturing the full economic value transferred to the option holder at exercise date when applying a grant date accounting model. The study provides insights into whether a grant date accounting model is appropriate in measuring ESOs and capturing the full economic value transferred to the option holder. The application of a static fair value model in measuring the value of ESOs has the potential for both positive and negative effects on the compensation cost recognised in the financial statements over the vesting period. After analysing the descriptive financial data on fair value per option over the six year period included in the sample selection, a conclusion was reached that, IASB should consider to true-up or make a restatement of the opening balance of the fair value reserves account in order to minimise the potential permanent error in equity accounts and to minimise the potential effect of understating or overstating the compensation cost. The IASB should further consider the proper classification of equity instruments issued to employee ESOs which comply with other financial instrument accounting standards such as the IAS32 – Financial Instruments: Presentation, and IFRS9 Financial Instruments. This will ensure that transactions viewed as economic equivalents of each other are treated in the same way from an accounting perspective, and the correct measurement basis of ESOs may be achieved.

碩士
輔仁大學
會計學系碩士班
95
This study uses the Taiwan electronic listed companies as the samples to investigate the value relevance of alternative reporting regimes for fair value information of financial instruments. I will provide the evidence on how investor valuation of derivative instruments differs depending upon whether the fair value of these instruments is recognized or disclosure, using the samples that only disclosure before SFAS No.34, which are recognized after SFAS No.34. Further, I also compare the unrealized valuation of the financial instruments under the Income Statement, compared with which under Statement of Shareholders’ Equity, the unrealized valuation items have higher value relevance. The main findings are as follows: First, under the samples that only disclosure before SFAS No.34, which are recognized after SFAS No.34, this study can’t find which valuation coefficients have more value relevance.Second, the derivative instruments recognized after SFAS No.34, which recognized before SFAS No.34, have higher value relevance. Third, the unrealized valuation items in Income Statement have higher value relevance than items in Statement of Shareholders’ Equity. Expand to explain the unrealized valuation items, this study find the valuation coefficients of financial instruments and impaired longterm asset have higher value relevance.

碩士
國立臺北大學
會計學系
97
Up to now, global finance and economy have still been attacked by financial storm caused by United States subprime mortgage crisis. Fair vale accounting is criticized as the main reason that worsened financial crisis and caused global financial chaos, it even appeared a trend that fair vale accounting is required to be modified or even be suspended. Facing present special economic atmosphere, accounting principle setters in the world compromised. FASB and IASB modified report content on present fair value accounting. The Financial Accounting Standards Board of our country also followed this trend, which prompted the study to discuss the change of financial instruments fair value information report mode and the impact on enterprise value relevance. The study referred to the research of Ahmed et al. (2006), and established multiple regression model. Listed banks from 2004 to 2007 and the banks owned by financial holding companies were used as objects to examine the explanatory capacity of financial instruments (including financial derivatives) fair vale expression mode on sampling bank equity market value before and after the implementation of our country’s SFAS No. 34 . According to the results of the study, it was not suggested that SFAS No. 34 forced financial instruments fair value to be recognized, which has more value relevance than disclosed before the implementation of the statement. But no matter before or after SFAS No. 34, the fair value information of derivative financial instruments and parts of non-derivative financial instruments of banking still has significant explanation for equity market value, which shows that for investors, financial instruments fair value has value relevance, so fair value approach is a quite appropriate accounting treatment for financial instruments.

Fair value accounting of biological assets in the public sector was introduced with the adoption of the public sector specific accounting standard, Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP) 101. The public sector currently uses different bases of accounting: public entities and municipalities must use accrual accounting and apply the principles of GRAP, while government departments report on the modified cash basis. Furthermore, public entities do not consistently apply the requirements of GRAP 101. This lack of a uniform basis of accounting has a negative effect on the comparability of financial information. This study identified the challenges facing the public sector in the application of GRAP 101, specifically regarding the fair value accounting of biological assets. The successful implementation of GRAP 101 by a public entity, AsgiSA-EC, was used as a case study to clarify the fair value accounting challenges in the reporting of biological assets in the sector.
Business Management
M. Accounting Science

The ever-increasing use of Fair Value Accounting (FVA) is preferable in promoting such benefits as relevant financial information and improving transparency of financial reporting compared to traditional accounting methods (McDonough et al. 2020). At the same time, the passage of FVA introduces substantial difficulties from the audit perspective in obtaining and confirming fair value inputs (Bradley & Sun 2021; Griffith 2020). Given the rising use of complex estimates of FVA, the problem of management bias can lead to demands for high-quality audit services. Consequently, more audit effort and time are required from auditors to provide assurance in financial reporting which eventually leads to higher audit fees (Sangchan et al. 2020). This study’s primary motivation is driven by the limited and inconclusive research on the monitoring costs resulting from Fair Value Disclosure (FVD) (Miah 2019). Therefore, it aims to examine the relationship between FVD and audit fees paid by Jordanian firms from 2005 through to 2018. It explores the relationship between the presence of FVD and audit fees and looks closely at the relationship between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees. Due to the uniqueness of this study’s institutional environment characteristics, the impact of a number of ownership structure factors (including family, government and financial institutional ownership) on the association between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees is examined. The moderating role of the major two auditor industry expertise attributes: market share (MS) and portfolio share (PS) on the link between the proportion fair-valued assets and audit fees is also investigated. This study, moreover, considers further factors of the auditees’ industry type, such as whether the entity is in the financial or non-financial sector. An analysis is also conducted to produce new empirical evidence on the effect of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on the association between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit pricing. This study is based on the publicly available secondary data from a sample of annual reports published by Jordanian firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). This analysis employs an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to test the developed hypotheses. A number of additional analyses and sensitivity tests are also conducted to ensure that the main regression results are robust to different measurements and estimators. The regression analysis finds that a greater level of FVD (and proportion of fair-valued assets) is the major driver of higher audit fees. The results are more pronounced for firms with larger ratios of the subjective FVDs (Level 3 assets). Further, a significant and positive difference in the association between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees is evident for finance industry vs. non-finance industry. Specifically, the moderating impact of industry type is significantly positive (negative) in relation to Level 2 (Level 1) assets but not significant for Level 3 assets. A significantly negative (positive) impact of the pre-crisis (post-crisis) period on the association between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees is confirmed. The regression findings, moreover, confirm a negative impact of the moderating pre-crisis over fair value inputs, whereas a positive impact of post-crisis is documented only for Level 1 assets. These findings are in line with the agency and stakeholder theories as the conjunction between the different types of users and the likelihood of material misstatements, and managers’ fraud following the application of FVA have led to abuse of power. Shareholders have potentially been misled simply to serve managements personal interests. The current study’s results are consistent with agency and stakeholder theories, and indicate that family ownership leads to a weaker relationship between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees. Conversely, the analysis confirms the opposite for both governmental and financial institutional ownership factors. This is also consistent with signalling theory. The regression, moreover, confirms that the nature of the impact of moderating family ownership on the association between Level 1 assets and audit fees is significantly negative (not for Level 2 and Level 3 assets). The analysis confirms that state ownership in the case of the subjective fair values (Level 3 assets) leads to expensive audit fees being charged. The regression, moreover, confirms that the association between the highly uncertain fair values (Level 3 assets) and audit fees is strengthened when financial institution ownership exists. In line with the signalling theory, the analysis suggests that the association between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees is strengthened when the client hires industry specialist auditors identified by MS. Conversely, industry specialists identified by the PS approach are not significantly moderating the relationship between the proportion of fair-valued assets and audit fees. With respect to fair value hierarchy level inputs, Level 1 was the only level found to be moderated by both scenarios with positive (negative) sign under the product differentiation scenario (shared efficiency scenario). The results furthermore support the agency and stakeholder theories. This study pioneers the topic by examining post-FVA transformation consequences in a developing country, Jordan (Abdullatif 2016). It is the first attempt of its kind to examine the integration of the agency, signalling and stakeholder theories with fair value proxies to establish and evaluate the nature of the relationship between FVD and audit fees (Samaha & Khlif 2016). Results of this study provide policymakers and standard setters with updated empirical evidence originating from a non-Western setting about the post-implementation costs of IFRS/FVA. The findings also benefit regulatory authorities on monitoring and governing the audit profession, which could lead to considering the challenges of auditing the less verifiable fair values. This research assists Jordan’s government in providing more specific guidelines and recommendations that simplify and guarantee best practices of FVA. This contribution makes the findings of the study more relevant to wider settings. Arguably, the findings from Jordan as a study site can reasonably be generalised to other countries in the ME, especially to those that have not yet applied or recently have applied fair value model.

Doutoramento em Gestão
This dissertation aims to investigate the association between financial reporting (and related accounting choices and disclosure policies) with periods of economic and financial crises. In order to do that, a paper methodology was used. This approach allows focusing on a particular topic under that broad theme at each time, while allowing structuring the research and its dissemination to particular targets. On the first paper entitled “Financial Reporting and the Dynamics of Crises: a Literature Review”, we review extant literature on the role played by financial reporting (and broadly the accounting system) on periods of economic and financial crises. Previous literature, both theoretical and empirical, shows that financial reporting should have low importance in causing an economic crisis. Opportunities for future research are presented. To further understand this subject in higher detail, we then proceed on a paper that aims to answer the question: “Does Earnings Quality Mitigate Negative Shocks to Stock Markets?” Accounting quality proxied by earnings quality should mitigate uncertainty about firms’ value and prevent some of the dynamics associated with the negative shocks to the market. Results show that firms with lower accounting quality exhibit stock prices decreases larger than those of firms with better accounting quality during those events. This association is both statistically and economically significant. When the analysis is extended to market booms, results are not symmetric, suggesting earnings quality do not proxy for market betas. Lastly, in an article titled “The Impact of Measurement Criteria on Investors’ Judgement and Decisions”, we aim to extend our research of the impact of different measurement criteria on investors’ decisions and judgements, especially concerning historical cost vs fair value reporting. Results obtained in an experiment show that there are statistically significant effects on relevance judgements of the different criteria. Additional effects are detected for different levels of fair value judgement, (mark-to-market vs mark-to-model). Regarding investors’ earnings prediction we found a volatility effect as we move from historical cost to fair value measurement.
Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a associação entre o relato financeiro (escolha de politicas contabilísticas e divulgação da informação financeira selecionadas) e a evolução dos períodos de crise económica e financeira. Na realização da dissertação optou-se por uma metodologia de artigos científicos individualizados. Esta metodologia permite focalizar num aspeto específico do tema geral em estudo, permitindo assim estruturar e divulgar as análises efetuadas para cada tópico, tendo em mente targets distintos. No primeiro artigo, intitulado “Financial Reporting and the Dynamics of Crises: a Literature Review”, é feita uma revisão da literatura relativa ao envolvimento da contabilidade em períodos de crise económica e financeira. A investigação existente, quer teórica quer empírica, não permite concluir que o reporte financeiro e o sistema contabilístico desempenham um papel primordial no despoletar das crises. Pistas para investigação futura são apresentadas. Em seguida, procuramos detalhar mais o tópico em estudo, tentando apresentar resposta à questão: “Does Earnings Quality Mitigate Negative Shocks to Stock Markets?”. A qualidade da informação financeira, aproximada pelo conceito de earnings quality, deverá mitigar a incerteza relativa ao valor da empresa e, consequentemente, aliviar os efeitos de choques negativos ao mercado de capitais. Os resultados obtidos permitem encontrar prova de que as empresas que divulgam informação contabilística de menor qualidade experienciam maiores quedas nos seus preços do que aquelas cuja III informação contabilística tem maior qualidade. Os resultados obtidos são robustos e significativos, quer estatisticamente, quer economicamente. Quando os mercados de capitais apresentam resultados anormalmente bons, o inverso não se verifica, pelo que podemos concluir que a qualidade da informação financeira não representa um fator de risco sistemático de mercado. Finalmente, no último artigo intitulado “The Impact of Measurement Criteria on Investors’ Judgement and Decisions”, pretendemos aprofundar a investigação relativa às consequências da escolha de um dado critério de mensuração, (em especial o contraste entre custo histórico e justo valor), nas decisões e julgamentos dos investidores. Os resultados, obtidos através de uma metodologia de experiência, permitem identificar um efeito estatisticamente significativo ao nível do julgamento relativo à relevância dos diferentes critérios de mensuração, em especial para os diferentes níveis de determinação do justo valor. Relativamente às decisões dos investidores na estimativa de uma previsão dos resultados a partir das demonstrações financeiras obtidas com mensuração ao custo histórico vs. justo valor verifica-se um efeito de volatilidade acrescida deste ultimo critério face ao primeiro.
N/A

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters of Commerce in Accounting 2016.
This paper explores the logics of resistance to fair value accounting, which entails the motivations to resist, as well as the mechanisms of resistance. It applies an interpretive approach to investigate this, using data collected from interviews with a sample of South African accounting professionals. The study demonstrates that while fair value accounting is being applied in the financial statements of organisations from a legalistic perspective, the application is superficial and ceremonious due to an established culture of compliance, and the need for funding, which engenders a ‘tick the box’ approach. The superficiality of application is complimented with a range of motivations to resist IFRS 13, which stem from practical concerns as well as theoretical, to create for a resistant attitude to fair value accounting. This resistance has been evidenced in this study, to manifest in various mechanisms that can be employed to avoid fair value accounting. These mechanisms are indicative of decoupling since they involve gaps being created between the purpose of financial statements, and the financial statements prepared, without blatant disregard of fair value accounting principles. These findings have been used to formulate recommendations which may be useful for preparers of financial statements, auditors and standard setters alike. While the aim of the study is not to identify deficiencies of fair value accounting principles, the consequence of exploring logics of resistance to fair value accounting is that it highlights areas that require further assessment in order to achieve the objectives of standards.
MT2017

The pressing global demand to transform to a low-carbon business community, which is required by the urgency of mitigating climate change, significantly alters the operating procedures for carbon emitters and carbon revenue generators alike. Although agricultural activities are not considered as heavy carbon emission source, the increased public focus on climate change has catapulted the exploitation of sustainable agricultural land management mitigating strategies as intervention by the sector. Additionally, the focus on market-based mechanism to address climate change, which has led to the evolution of cap-and-trade schemes, makes the agricultural sector become a source of low-cost carbon offsets. However, the fact that cap-and-trade schemes in the agricultural sector are voluntary has resulted into not only very diverse farming practices but also diverse accounting practices. The consequences of the diversity practices are that, the impacts on financial performance and position are not comparable. Therefore, the overall objective of this study was to investigate the recognition, measurement and disclosure for cap-and-trade schemes in the agricultural sectors This study was conducted through literature reviews and empirical test. A qualitative research approach utilising constructivist methodology was employed. Primary data was collected in Kenya by administering three sets of semi-structured questionnaires to drafters of financial statements, loan officers and financial consultants. Secondary data involved content analysis of financial statements and reports of listed entities across the globe. It was established that proper accounting for cap-and-trade schemes adaptation activities is critical to the success of an entity’s environmental portfolio. Additionally, a model for valuing an organisation's carbon capture potential as suggested by this study enables entities to better report the impact of the adaptation activities on the financial performance and financial position. The outcome of this study enables entities to integrate the carbon capture potential on an entity sustainability reporting framework.
Colleges of Economic and Management Sciences
D. Phil. (Accounting Science)

Actualmente não existe anuência internacional relativamente à forma como as propriedades de investimento deverão ser contabilizadas após o seu reconhecimento inicial no balanço. Esta dissertação tem como objecto de estudo o justo valor atribuído às propriedades de investimento e, como objectivo averiguar se a valorização atribuída pelo mercado às propriedades de investimento varia consoante o modelo utilizado para a mensuração das mesmas: modelo do justo valor ou do custo. A amostra utilizada é constituída por empresas pertencentes ao sector do real estate, cotadas em doze bolsas Europeias, cujas demonstrações financeiras são preparadas de acordo com o normativo internacional IFRS a partir do ano de 2005. Os resultados empíricos alcançados neste estudo comprovam que existe uma distinção, por parte dos investidores, entre as propriedades de investimento reconhecidas ao justo valor e as reconhecidas ao custo.
Nowadays there is no international consensus about how investment property should be accounted after initial recognition in the balance sheet. This dissertation has for study object, the fair value to the investment properties, and so, the aim of this work is to study if the market percepts in the same way the investment property measured at cost from the investment property measures according fair value model. The sample is composed by European listed real estate companies subject to the mandatory adoptions of IFRS since 2005, and belonging of twelve European stock markets. The empirical results show that investors distinguish recognized fair value of investment property from recognized cost of investment property.