Income Conservatism in the U.S. Technology Sector

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uday Chandra

SYNOPSIS I investigate the extent and nature of income conservatism in the financial statement numbers of firms in the U.S. technology sector. Technology firms are predicted to have greater income conservatism than other U.S. firms because they are subject to both higher shareholder litigation risk and conservative accounting standards such as SFAS 2. In the absence of a generally accepted measure of conservatism, I examine several proxies, including loss incidence and accounting rates of return, operating cash flow and nonoperating accrual levels, and regression coefficients from the earnings-return model in Basu (1997). Relative to other companies, technology firms' earnings are characterized by higher (and intertemporally increasing) levels of both conditional and unconditional conservatism. These differences are both statistically and economically significant. Further analysis suggests that technology firms' higher conservatism results primarily from lower operating cash flows due to R&D expensing and more income-decreasing accounting accruals linked to litigation risk. The results of this study are potentially useful to financial analysts, researchers, regulators, managers, and other users of financial statements. Data Availability: Data are available from public sources.

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-59
Author(s):  
Jimmy F. Downes ◽  
Tony Kang ◽  
Sohyung Kim ◽  
Cheol Lee

SYNOPSIS We investigate the effect of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption in the European Union on the association between accounting estimates and future cash flows, a key concept of accounting quality within the International Accounting Standard Board conceptual framework. We find that the predictive value of accounting estimates improves after IFRS adoption. This improvement is largely driven by specific types of accounting estimates, such as accounts receivable, depreciation, and amortization expense. We also find that the improvement is concentrated in countries with larger differences between pre-IFRS domestic GAAP and IFRS. Our findings suggest that IFRS allow managers to exercise their judgment to provide information about future cash flows through the more subjective/judgmental portion of accounting accruals. JEL Classifications: M16; M49; O52. Data Availability: The data used in this study are from public sources identified in the study.


2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Capozzoli ◽  
Stephanie Farewell

ABSTRACT: On January 20, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released Rule 33-9002 for the phase-in of interactive data (SEC 2009a). An important component of this rule is the phase-in of detailed tagging of financial statement note disclosures. Tagging is the process of associating a taxonomy element with a financial statement concept for a particular context. While some of the filers have participated in the SEC Voluntary Filing Project and prepared instance documents tagged at the line item level most have not prepared detail-tagged notes to accompany the financial statements (SEC 2005; Choi et al. 2008). This case discusses the structure of disclosures, as they exist in the 2009 U.S. GAAP Taxonomy, followed by a discussion of dimensional extensions and concludes with an example of block and detailed disclosure tagging using Rivet Software’s Dragon Tag (Rivet 2009). The example uses the capitalized costs disclosure for Anadarko Petroleum, a publicly traded company. Following the example, the case requires students to block and detail tag the capitalized costs disclosure for Dig Deep, a hypothetical oil and gas company. By completing the case, students develop an understanding of the current U.S. GAAP taxonomy, skills relating to mapping and tagging processes, and make use of a commonly used XBRL taxonomy and instance document creation program.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-68
Author(s):  
MUHAMMAD REZA FAHLEVI ◽  
AAN MARLINAH

Financial distress is a complicated phase and multidimensional problem facing by the company. Since it leads the company on the possibility of bankruptcy, this situation needs immediately to be recovered. This study aims to determine the factors that influence the company's financial distress. There are ten variables in this study which are classified into four categories: liquidity, capital structure, profitability and cash flows. This study used financial statement data of manufacturing company which is listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange during the threeyear study period from 2011 to 2013. There are some criteria in choosing the representative sample so that the sum of the companies are 90 companies or equal to 270 financial statements data. The empirical findings show that there are only three variables that influence the company’s financial distress. The significant variables are current ratio (liquidity), return on assets (profitability) and cash flow ratio (cash flow).


Author(s):  
Mark E. Haskins

This case pertains to the foundational underpinnings of the accounting process and the statement of cash flows. In Part I, students are presented with 23 business events that they must evaluate for recording in the financial records. Part II requires students to prepare a 2012 statement of cash flows using the information presented in the company's 2011 and 2012 year-end balance sheets along with its 2012 income statement. In Part III, students must rely on a 2011 balance sheet and a 2011 statement of cash flows to work backward to derive the 2010 year-end balance sheet. There are two versions of this case: Option 1 and Option 2. The Option 2 case is a bit more challenging than the Option 1 case. Instructors should use Option 2 if they feel students are well grounded in their understanding of financial statement relationships and the customary financial reporting of a typical set of business events. Both cases reinforce students' learning related to the accounting process and the connectivity between the financial statements. Please note that only one version of the case should be used due to the existence of some overlap between the two.


Author(s):  
Matthew Beck ◽  
Matthew Glendening ◽  
Chris E. Hogan

We examine the consequences of firms' disaggregation choices for auditor effort and audited financial statements. We document a significant positive association between disaggregation and audit fees, our proxy for auditor effort. Using separate measures of disaggregation of smaller line items versus larger, obviously material, line items, we provide evidence that one of the avenues through which disaggregation may increase auditor effort is through changes in auditors' assessments of materiality for smaller line items, especially when financial statement scrutiny is high. We also find disaggregation (and the audit fees associated with disaggregation) constrain the ability of managers to manipulate earnings in the audited financial statements compared to the unaudited financial statements, suggesting the fee response to disaggregation is due to auditor effort. Lastly, we provide evidence that our results are not fully explained by client litigation risk or other client attributes driving disaggregation choices.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. C26-C40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus M. Doxey ◽  
Stephen H. Fuller ◽  
Marshall A. Geiger ◽  
Willie E. Gist ◽  
Karl E. Hackenbrack ◽  
...  

SUMMARY On May 11, 2016 the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued a request for comment on Proposed Auditing Standard—The Auditor's Report on an Audit of Financial Statements when the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion and Related Amendments to PCAOB Standards, a reproposal of its August 2013 proposed auditor reporting standard. The reproposal retains the pass/fail model of the existing auditor's report while seeking to enhance the form and content of the report. The reproposal solicited public comment on the following significant changes to the existing auditor's report: (1) add a description of “critical audit matters” that provides audit-specific information about especially challenging, subjective, or complex aspects of the audit as they relate to the relevant financial statement accounts and disclosures, (2) add a statement about auditor independence and the phrase “whether due to error or fraud” when describing the auditor's responsibilities to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatements, (3) add a statement related to auditor tenure, and (4) standardize the form of the auditor's report, requiring the opinion be the first section of the auditor's report and requiring section titles to guide the reader. The comment period ended on August 15, 2016. This commentary summarizes the participating committee members' views on the alternatives presented in the request for comment. Data Availability: The concept release, proposed and reproposed rules, and supplemental information are available at: http://pcaobus.org/Rules/Rulemaking/Pages/Docket034.aspx


2011 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 1289-1319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Murray Grein ◽  
Stefanie L. Tate

ABSTRACT We take advantage of the unique reporting requirements of nonprofit public housing authorities (PHAs) to study the effect of audits on financial information both generally and when there are management incentives to misreport financial data. There is little prior research on the effect of audit adjustments in nonprofit settings and conflicting research on how auditors react to management's incentives to misreport. We identify potential financial statement areas at risk of manipulation based on incentives specific to public housing authorities. Using pre- and post-audit financial data for almost 3,600 PHAs across seven years, we find that auditors make economically and statistically significant adjustments to PHA financial statements. In addition, we find evidence that audits appear to reduce potential management bias, particularly to reduce risks of overstatement. Overall, audits appear to matter in this nonprofit, low-litigation risk setting where there is a large concentration of non-Big 4 auditors.


2012 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 577-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip P. M. Joos ◽  
Edith Leung

ABSTRACT This paper examines the stock market reaction to 15 events relating to IFRS adoption in the United States. The goal is to assess whether investors perceive the switch to IFRS as beneficial or costly. Our findings suggest that investors' reaction to IFRS adoption is more positive in cases where IFRS is expected to lead to convergence benefits. Our results also indicate a less positive market reaction for firms with higher litigation risk, which is consistent with investors' concerns about greater discretion and less implementation guidance under IFRS for these firms. Overall, the findings are relevant to the current debate on IFRS adoption in the U.S. and highlight the importance of convergence to investors. Data Availability:  All data are publicly available from the sources indicated in the paper (see Appendices A and B).


2012 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Chircop ◽  
Paraskevi Vicky Kiosse ◽  
Ken Peasnell

SYNOPSIS: In this paper, we discuss the accounting for repurchase transactions, drawing on how repurchase agreements are characterized under U.S. bankruptcy law, and in light of the recent developments in the U.S. repo market. We conclude that the current accounting rules, which require the recording of most such transactions as collateralized loans, can give rise to opaqueness in a firm's financial statements because they incorrectly characterize the economic substance of repurchase agreements. Accounting for repurchase transactions as sales and the concurrent recognition of a forward, as “Repo 105” transactions were accounted for by Lehman Brothers, has furthermore overlooked merits. In particular, such a method provides a more comprehensive and transparent picture of the economic substance of such transactions. JEL Classifications: M41; G21; G38. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources identified in the paper.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. C1-C14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph F Brazel ◽  
Paul Caster ◽  
Shawn Davis ◽  
Steven M Glover ◽  
Diane J Janvrin ◽  
...  

SUMMARY Recently, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB or Board) issued a concept release to solicit public comment on the potential direction of a proposed standard-setting project on the content and form of reports on audited financial statements. The objective of the concept release was to discuss several alternatives for changing the auditor's reporting model that could increase its transparency and relevance to financial statement users, while not compromising audit quality. To that end, the alternatives included (1) a supplement to the auditor's report, in which the auditor would be required to provide additional information about the audit and the company's financial statements (an “Auditor's Discussion and Analysis”), (2) required and expanded use of emphasis paragraphs in the auditor's report, (3) auditor reporting on information outside the financial statements, and (4) clarification of certain language in the auditor's report. The PCAOB provided for a 102-day exposure period (from June 21 to September 30, 2011) for interested parties to examine and provide comments on the conceptual approaches to rulemaking that might complement the application of Section 105(c)(6). The Auditing Standards Committee of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association provided the comments in the letter below to the PCAOB on the PCAOB Release No. 2011-003, Concept Release on Possible Revisions to PCAOB Standards Related to Reports on Audited Financial Statements. Data Availability: Information about and access to the release is available at: http://pcaobus.org/Rules/Rulemaking/Docket034/Concept_Release.pdf


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document