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on Accounting and Auditing |
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Issue of 2021‒03‒01
nine papers chosen by |
| By: | Barbara Bratta (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy); Livio Romano (Confindustria); Paolo Acciari (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy); Francesca Mazzolari (Confindustria) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role played by hyper-depreciation of tangible assets, a fiscal incentive introduced for the first time by the Italian Government in 2017, in sustaining private investments in advanced digital technologies, and, indirectly, in affecting firms� labor demand. By making use of a unique firm-level dataset that links administrative records on tax returns and job flows with information from company balance-sheets, the paper addresses the following questions: what was the take-up of the fiscal incentive in its first year of implementation? What are the characteristics of recipient firms? What is the impact of subsidized investments on firms� hirings and separations? Overall, the results of the analysis suggest that hyper-depreciation has been so far an effective means to support the digital technology trasformation of the Italian production system and that such transformation has had a positive net effect |
| Keywords: | digitalization, innovation policy, labor demand, skills |
| JEL: | J24 O25 O33 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahg:wpaper:wp2020-6&r=all |
| By: | Vera Santomartino (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy); Barbara Bratta (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy); Paolo Acciari (Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes the global allocation of activities of Italian multinational enterprises as emerging from the first collection of Country-by-Country Reports (CbCR), the new reporting tool to be filed by multinational enterprises under Action 13 of the G20/OECD BEPS Project. By making use of a new dataset based on microdata collected by CbCR filings, this paper addresses the following questions: where are the activities of Italian MNEs distributed internationally? Does the geographical allocation differ for profits, tangible assets, revenues or employees? How does the allocation differ by sectors? How is the global allocation of Italian MNEs different from that of foreign MNEs? Overall the analysis suggests that the global reach of Italian MNEs is relatively smaller compared to foreign MNEs and that domestic activities still represent a significant share of their global activities. Foreign activities are mostly concentrated in high income countries. Middle income countries present a relatively higher importance in terms of tangible assets and employees than they do in terms of revenues and profits, while the opposite holds for Investment hubs, accounting for a higher share of profits and revenues than they do in terms of tangible assets and employees. |
| Keywords: | multinational firms, country-by-country reporting, corporate taxation, BEPS, offshoring, global value chain |
| JEL: | F23 H25 H26 M16 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ahg:wpaper:wp2020-9&r=all |
| By: | Martinez, Charles; Bilderback, David; Eckelkamp, Elizabeth; Pepper, Hal; Cross, Tim |
| Abstract: | In any business, recordkeeping is an important practice for financial success. In agriculture, recordkeeping can help producers understand the production/input efficiency, breakeven values, cost structure and profitability drivers for their business. A major benefit can also be financial health analyses. University of Tennessee Extension has developed the Dairy Gauge Benchmarking program to help dairy producers better understand what their financial statements and key ratios suggest about the financial health of their business. Within the program, there are three areas that were developed specifically for gauging a dairy business’s financial health. The three areas are 1) balance sheet and profitability dairy benchmarks, 2) dairy feed benchmarks, and 3) dairy non-feed income and expense benchmarks. This publication is focused on the dairy balance sheet and profitability benchmarks. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Farm Management, Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2021–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:utaeer:309397&r=all |
| By: | McGrath, Luke; Hynes , Stephen |
| Abstract: | Natural capital accounting allows for the integration of our natural assets within economic and political decision making, can improve natural resource governance and permits the development of environmentally adjusted macroeconomic indicators to serve as complements to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN SEEA) is the accepted international standard for natural capital accounting, providing a framework for organizing and presenting statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy. This paper details different approaches to natural capital accounting, all related to the SEEA framework, currently being undertaken across Ireland. We discuss the relationship between natural capital accounts and sustainable development measurement and provide recommendations for future work in these areas. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy, Financial Economics |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:semrui:309501&r=all |
| By: | Edoardo Beretta (USI - Università della Svizzera italiana = University of Italian Switzerland); Alvaro Cencini (USI - Università della Svizzera italiana = University of Italian Switzerland) |
| Abstract: | On the basis of the identity between each country's global imports (commercial and financial) and exports (commercial and financial), which is one of the fundamental economic principles of the balance of payments, the paper highlights why and how the leading account of transactions from/to the rest of the world needs to be reformed. As a strategic goal, the balance of payments should finally move beyond its current purely statistical and simple-entry bookkeeping approach in order to improve its macroeconomic relevance. This would also imply a new way of carrying out cross-border payments, which could in turn pave the way for a new system of international payments. The development of an economic account of the nation as a whole and the introduction of a consistent way of recording transactions following a truly double-entry bookkeeping would also erase statistical discrepancies ex ante and reflect the necessary equality (identity) of credits and debits both for all transactions taken together and for each of them separately. The balance of payments is already a powerful economic tool, but only through a money-consistent reform would it display its full potential. |
| Keywords: | balance of payments,double-entry bookkeeping,nation's economic account,reserve assets |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03121404&r=all |
| By: | Martinez, Charles; Bilderback, David; Eckelkamp, Elizabeth; Pepper, Hal; Cross, Tim |
| Abstract: | In any business, recordkeeping is an important practice for financial success. In agriculture, recordkeeping can help producers understand the production/input efficiency, breakeven values, cost structure and profitability drivers for their business. A major benefit can also be financial health analyses. University of Tennessee Extension has developed the Dairy Gauge benchmarking program to help dairy producers better understand what their financial statements and key ratios suggest about the financial health of their business. Within the program, there are three areas that were developed specifically for gauging a dairy business’ financial health. The three areas are 1) balance sheet and profitability dairy benchmarks, 2) dairy feed benchmarks, and 3) dairy non-feed income and expense benchmarks. This publication is focused on dairy feed benchmarks. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Farm Management, Productivity Analysis |
| Date: | 2021–02–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:utaeer:309396&r=all |
| By: | Knut Are Aastveit; Ragnar Enger Juelsrud; Ella Getz Wold |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of mortgage regulation on credit volumes, household balance sheets and the reaction to adverse economic shocks. Using a comprehensive dataset of all housing transactions in Norway matched with buyers' balance sheet information from official tax records, we identify causal effects of mortgage loan-to-value (LTV) limits. Our results show that LTV-requirements have substantial effects on credit volumes, especially on the extensive margin. As a result, such requirements contribute to dampening aggregate credit growth. We find that affected households lower their debt uptake and face lower interest expenses, thereby reducing their vulnerability to adverse shocks. However, affected households also deplete liquid assets when purchasing a home, in order to meet the new requirement. This negative effect on liquid savings persists in the years following the house purchase, suggesting that the impact on financial vulnerability at the household level is in fact ambiguous. We illustrate this further by documenting that households affected by the regulation are more likely to sell their home when becoming unemployed compared to non-affected households. |
| Keywords: | household leverage, financial regulation, macroprudential policy, mortgage markets |
| JEL: | E21 E58 G21 G28 G51 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bno:worpap:2020_06&r=all |
| By: | Jivas Chakravarthy (University of Texas, Arlington); Timothy W. Shields (Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University) |
| Abstract: | At present, accounting conservatism is generally viewed from a measurement or reporting perspective. In contrast, we consider whether it relates to a moral rule of conduct. Conservatism has been described as deriving from a preference for reporting errors to be in the direction of understatement rather than overstatement. We experimentally pair Reporters who provide information with Users who rely on the information. We posit that under misaligned incentives that motivate aggressive reporting, Users view an aggressive report as reflecting Reporters’ exploitative intent and expect that a social norm prohibiting aggressive reporting applies. We predict that Users use noisy reporting errors to gauge Reporters’ norm compliance. Consistent with this we find that, ceteris paribus, Users prefer not to be paired with Reporters who produce overstatement errors that are likely to reflect aggressive reporting. This preference, revealed through Users’ incentivized actions, is both inconsistent with neoclassical economic models and cannot be explained by loss aversion. Alternatively, when Reporters’ motives are aligned with Users’, we find no such preference. While our evidence is indirect, it opens the possibility that conservatism emerged from a norm that enhances trust and cooperation among economic agents. We believe this insight can open new possibilities for conservatism research. |
| Keywords: | accounting conservatism; experimental economics; intentions; moral hazard |
| JEL: | B52 D81 D82 M41 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:20-41&r=all |
| By: | Prem, M; Colonnelli, E; Lagaras, S; Ponticelli, J; Tsoutsoura, M |
| Abstract: | We study how the disclosure of corrupt practices affects firms and their employees. We construct novel firm-level measures of involvement in corrupt practices using randomized audits and public procurement suspensions in Brazil. On average, exposed firms grow larger after the audits. However, this result masks large heterogeneity depending on the degree of firm involvement in the corruption scheme. Using contract-, loan-, and worker- level data, we show that highly corrupt firms suffer after anti-corruption initiatives, while other exposed firms grow by changing their investment strategy when shifting away from doing business with the government. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Firms, Anti-corruption programs, Brazil |
| JEL: | D72 D73 G38 H57 H83 K00 L22 O10 O43 |
| Date: | 2021–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:018673&r=all |