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on Accounting and Auditing |
| By: | Barth, Mary E. (Stanford U); Landsman, Wayne (U of North Carolina); Lang, Mark |
| Abstract: | We examine whether application of International Accounting Standards is associated with higher accounting quality. The application of IAS reflects the combined effects of features of the financial reporting system, including standards, their interpretation, enforcement, and litigation. We find that firms applying IAS from 21 countries generally evidence less earnings management, more timely loss recognition, and more value relevance of accounting amounts than do a matched sample of firms applying non-US domestic standards. Differences in accounting quality between the two groups of firms in the period before the IAS firms adopt IAS do not account for the post-adoption differences. We also find that firms applying IAS generally evidence an improvement in accounting quality between the pre- and post-adoption periods. Although we cannot be sure that our findings are attributable to the change in the financial reporting system rather than to changes in firms’ incentives and the economic environment, we include research design features to mitigate the effects of both. |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:1976&r=acc |
| By: | Ojo, Marianne |
| Abstract: | The past few years have seen a growing trend towards the focus on audit liability. In the UK, the Company Law Reform Bill which became the Companies Act 2006, has removed the previously existing limits on auditor liability and compelled an agreement between the company and the auditor. As well as the UK, audit liability caps also currently exist in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Slovenia. This paper addresses the four options presented by the European Commission in the reform of the audit liability regime in Europe. It also responds to the proposals put forward by Doralt and others in their response to the European Commission’s four options. The paper commences with a background to how increased audit concentration has contributed to increased audit liability measures. It then discusses the significance of the Companies Act 2006, following the leading case of Caparo Industries plc v Dickman and Others. The four options presented by the European Commission for reforming auditors’ liability regime are then introduced. In arriving at a preferred choice, the need for a consideration of harmonisation and facilitating greater cooperation between national financial regulators, were contributory factors. |
| Keywords: | audit;liability;financial;regulation |
| JEL: | K2 M42 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10068&r=acc |
| By: | Rosanne Altshuler; Robert D. Dietz |
| Abstract: | We examine the measurement of tax expenditures, as well as review issues concerning the classification of tax expenditures generally. We use calculations from NBER's TAXSIM to illustrate some of the problems with the current methodology for estimating tax expenditures. Unlike most previous work on the topic, we focus on how features of the current tax system including the alternative minimum tax and sunset rules complicate and compromise the value of information provided by the tax expenditure budget. |
| JEL: | H20 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14263&r=acc |