Why is Financial Reporting so Inefficient?

1990 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils H. Hakansson

Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not know. Lao Tse In earlier papers (Hakansson, 1977, 1981), the equilibrium properties of two financial disclosure scenarios, “laissez-faire” and “timely public disclosure” were compared. The analysis showed that, measured in welfare space, the incentives of only two groups, less well-to-do subscribing investors and nonsubscribing investors (who tend to be “small” in terms of their resources) prefer the second scenario even though it results in greater aggregate output across states. The incentives of management, information searchers, and more well-to-do investors favor a “wide window” between significant events affecting the firm and their public disclosure, at least in the short run. The “cost” of this scenario is that it draws a sizable group of talented people from the productive sector into “scooping” information before its eventual disclosure. It is noteworthy that a regulatory solution is likely to further reduce, not improve, the productive efficiency of the economy. This paper examines the financial disclosure question further and argues that its resolution is directly linked to the principal-agent “contract” between the shareholders and management. These contracts do exhibit some peculiar properties, especially in the area of management compensation and with respect to MBOs, in which management apparently manages to be both the buyer and the “agent” for the seller.

Author(s):  
Priyastiwi Priyastiwi

The purpose of this article is to provide the basic model of Hofstede and Grays’ cultural values that relates the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and Gray‘s accounting value. This article reviews some studies that prove the model and develop the research in the future. There are some evidences that link the Hofstede’s cultural values studies with the auditor’s judgment and decisions by developing a framework that categorizes the auditor’s judgments and decisions are most likely influenced by cross-cultural differences. The categories include risk assessment, risk decisions and ethical judgments. Understanding the impact of cultural factors on the practice of accounting and financial disclosure is important to achieve the harmonization of international accounting. Deep understanding about how the local values may affect the accounting practices and their impacts on the financial disclosure are important to ensure the international comparability of financial reporting. Gray’s framework (1988) expects how the culture may affect accounting practices at the national level. One area of the future studies will examine the impact of cultural dimensions to the values of accounting, auditing and decision making. Key word : Motivation, leadership style, job satisfaction, performance


Author(s):  
Norhanishah Mohamad Yunus ◽  
Noraida Abdul Wahob

A plethora of studies have revealed the importance of new knowledge transfer from foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in encouraging higher labour productivity and sustainable competitive advantages. However, less attention is given to low labour productivity issue despite the presence of FDI, especially in the developing country context. Most of the studies only heavily emphasised on 'technology' effects rather than 'knowledge' effects on the host country as a result of the presence of foreign technology. As Malaysia is one of the major FDI recipients in Southeast Asia, the specific spillover effects of each FDI investor country in Malaysia, need to be studied. With an abundance of MNCs, international technology transfer is considered as an imported mode for technology acquisition in a developing country like Malaysia. However, the benefits of FDI spillovers on labour productivity function in Malaysia remain ambiguous, even when classified according to specific investor countries. Globalisation and liberalisation have seen trade and investment activities booming, thus increasing multilateral relations between Malaysia and other countries regardless of their level of development. Thus, this study may help the Malaysian government to justify the cost that should be invested to attract more FDI inflows towards the manufacturing industries in the short run. Keywords: spillover effects, Foreign Direct Investment, labour productivity, technology spillovers, knowledge spillovers


1986 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J. Murphy

A chronology of significant events in the development of corporate financial reporting standards and practices is presented. The introductory comments to the various sections direct attention to some of the main patterns and trends in that development and provide the framework in which the listing of events is to be interpreted. The particularly significant domestic sources of influence are the legislative and professional activities in Ontario and, in more recent times, the activities of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. External influences have been—not unexpectedly—the traditions of English Company law and the close professional, institutional and economic relationships with the United States. Some internationally significant developments unique to Canada are indicated.


2010 ◽  
Vol 56 (No. 5) ◽  
pp. 201-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Beranová ◽  
D. Martinovičová

The costs functions are mentioned mostly in the relation to the Break-even Analysis where they are presented in the linear form. But there exist several different types and forms of cost functions. Fist of all, it is necessary to distinguish between the short-run and long-run cost function that are both very important tools of the managerial decision making even if each one is used on a different level of management. Also several methods of estimation of the cost function's parameters are elaborated in the literature. But all these methods are based on the past data taken from the financial accounting while the financial accounting is not able to separate the fixed and variable costs and it is also strongly adjusted to taxation in the many companies. As a tool of the managerial decision making support, the cost functions should provide a vision to the future where many factors of risk and uncertainty influence economic results. Consequently, these random factors should be considered in the construction of cost functions, especially in the long-run. In order to quantify the influences of these risks and uncertainties, the authors submit the application of the Bayesian Theorem.


1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus Deaton

Much of the profession accepts that the CPI likely overstates the rate of increase of the cost-of-living. It is less clear that there are sound and feasible steps that the BLS can adopt to improve matters in the short run. There are unresolved conceptual and identification problems in the measurement of quality. Superlative price indexes are not feasible, and feasible approximations are not superlative, and may not even be better. The need for a single index that aggregates over heterogeneous consumers with different incomes, tastes, and needs casts serious doubt on the cost-of-living approach.


Auditor ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 38-42
Author(s):  
N. Mislavskaya

The article examines the issues of the dependence of the composition of the accounting (financial) reporting forms, prepared based on the results of the accounting process, on the theoretical views prevailing in scientific circles and in society as a whole. The author analyzes the main provisions of Western liberalism, conservatism, Western European social democracy and draws corresponding parallels, reveals the relationship with those elements that make up financial statements. According to the results of the study, the author claims that the domestic professional community is on the verge of another wave of reforming accounting knowledge and accounting practice.


2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 1615-1631
Author(s):  
Zhi-Yuan Feng ◽  
Ying-Chieh Wang ◽  
Hua-Wei Huang

This article answers the question of whether the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) reduces the cost of equity capital, with a focus on the tourism industry. We employ a set of global tourism companies and find that mandatory IFRS adoption has a significantly negative relation with the cost of equity capital. However, we find that this relation is varied with different business cultures and geographic areas. Moreover, from interactive analyses of country institutions for the relation between mandatory IFRS adoption and tourism firm’s cost of equity, we show that adopting IFRS complements the deficiencies of various country institutions, such as investor protection, the strength of legal enforcement, and corporate governance.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document