Counting the Environment: The Environmental Implications of International Accounting Standards

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Thistlethwaite

Although rarely studied, international accounting standards shape what information regarding a firm's environmental performance is communicated to international financial markets. This article builds on scholarship describing the influence of international accounting standards on private financial markets to show that nominally technical choices regarding how to recognize and measure firms' environmental impacts hold the potential to reduce these impacts. Obscure accounting debates within the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) mask important political choices about what a firm must disclose to investors about its environmental liabilities and risks. IASB decisions about how these appear on corporate balance sheets change the link between a firm's environmental performance and its economic value and, thereby, contribute to steering private financial markets toward rewarding sustainable behavior within the global economy. This analysis demonstrates the authority of the IASB as an overlooked source of global environmental governance.

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-295
Author(s):  
Florica-Nicoleta Batrinu ◽  
Philémon Rakoto

Under certain conditions, Canadian and international accounting standards allow firms to present R&D costs in their balance sheets (capitalization). This article analyzes the determinants of new capitalizations of R&D costs by focusing on positive accounting theory and the influence of the CEO. Based on a sample of 440 observations of Canadian firms between the years 2000 and 2003, the results show that the size, debt load, presence of a CEO who holds an important but not majority block of shares, and CEO’s years of seniority all influence the decision to present new capitalizations of R&D costs. The presence on the board of an important stockholder other than the CEO attenuates the influence of the CEO.


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devrimi Kaya ◽  
Robert J. Kirsch ◽  
Klaus Henselmann

This paper analyzes the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as intermediaries in encouraging the European Union (EU) to adopt International Accounting Standards (IAS). Our analysis begins with the 1973 founding of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), and ends with 2002 when the binding EU regulation was approved. We document the many pathways of interaction between European supranational, governmental bodies and the IASC/IASB, as well as important regional NGOs, such as the Union Européenne des Experts Comptables, Économiques et Financiers (UEC), the Groupe d'Etudes des Experts Comptables de la Communauté Économique Européenne (Groupe d'Etudes), and their successor, the Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens (FEE). This study investigates, through personal interviews of key individuals involved in making the history of the organizations studied, and an extensive set of primary sources, how NGOs filled key roles in the process of harmonization of international accounting standards.


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Kirsch

ABSTRACT Utilizing archival materials as well as personal interviews and correspondence with personnel of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Committee/Board (IASC/B), including former Board chairmen and staff members, this paper examines the development of the working relationships between the FASB and the IASC/B from their earliest interactions in 1973 through the transformation of the IASC into the IASB and the Convergence Program rooted in the 2002 Norwalk Agreement up to 2008.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (65) ◽  
pp. 124-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odilanei Morais dos Santos ◽  
Ariovaldo dos Santos

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar os fatores determinantes à submissão de cartas comentários, como estratégia de lobbying no contexto da regulação contábil, à audiência pública do Discussion Paper Extractive Activities do International Accounting Standards Board IASB).Os resultados mostram o tamanho como fator determinante, em todas as modelagens utilizadas, indicando que grandes empresas petrolíferas possuem maior probabilidade para realizar lobbying. Essa propensão é verificada para posicionamentos essencialmente desfavoráveis às propostas apresentadas pelo IASB, o que implica em considerar que a revisão/substituição do International Financial Reporting Standard -IFRS6 será um processo complexo e sujeito a pressões por parte das empresas petrolíferas para manter o status quo.


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