Explore the vast range of titles available.

Purpose – This paper aims to examine whether the level of harmonization of accounting measurement practices in three South Asian countries – Bangladesh, India and Pakistan – has improved since 1998 as a result of the changes, in recent years, globally in accounting measurement practices due to the substantial efforts of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). South Asian countries have taken a number of steps and made changes in accounting regulations to support the IASB’s harmonization programme. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 370 non-financial companies for the financial years 1997-1998 and 2007-2008 were used, and consistent with Ali et al. (2006), Van der Tas’s (1988) I index and Archer et al.’s (1995) modified C index were used to measure the extent of harmonization. Findings – It was found that the level of measurement harmonization has significantly improved over the years in selected South Asian countries. Originality/value – The results suggest that the harmonization of accounting will most likely ensure a greater level of transparency and uniformity in corporate reporting practices (measurement) in South Asian countries and throughout the world as promoted by the IASB.

I study whether managers use real activities manipulation and accrual-based earnings management as substitutes in managing earnings. I find that managers trade off the two earnings management methods based on their relative costs and that managers adjust the level of accrual-based earnings management according to the level of real activities manipulation realized. Using an empirical model that incorporates the costs associated with the two earnings management methods and captures managers' sequential decisions, I document large-sample evidence consistent with managers using real activities manipulation and accrual-based earnings management as substitutes.

We examine whether application of International Accounting Standards (IAS) is associated with higher accounting quality. The application of IAS reflects 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 matched sample firms applying non-U.S. 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 postadoption differences. Firms applying IAS generally evidence an improvement in accounting quality between the pre- and postadoption periods. Although we cannot be sure 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 effects of both.

This paper provides a new approach to test for accrual-based earnings management. Our approach exploits the inherent property of accrual accounting that any accrual-based earnings management in one period must reverse in another period. If the researcher has priors concerning the timing of the reversal, incorporating these priors can significantly improve the power and specification of tests for earnings management. Our results indicate that tests incorporating reversals increase test power by around 40% and provide a robust solution for mitigating model misspecification arising from correlated omitted variables.

This study examines whether straight-line depreciation, relative to accelerated depreciation, causes non-executive managers to make non-value-maximizing capital investment decisions. To do this, I conduct experiments in which managers must decide whether to continue using an existing asset or invest in a replacement asset. By design, replacing the existing asset yields higher cash flows and managers are aware of this fact. However, if the asset is replaced, then the greater remaining book value under straight-line depreciation relative to accelerated depreciation causes earnings to be lower. Lower earnings and psychological forces may push managers of firms that use straight-line depreciation away from making the economically efficient capital investment decision. The results suggest that managers of firms that use straight-line depreciation are less likely to invest in a replacement asset than are managers of firms that use accelerated depreciation. Further, the results suggest that managers perceive that an asset depreciated using straight-line depreciation has provided less retrospective utility than an asset depreciated using accelerated depreciation. In turn, I find that depreciation method-induced differences in managers' retrospective utility perceptions influence their prospective utility perceptions, which, in turn, influence managers' asset replacement decisions. By theoretically and empirically linking firms' depreciation method choice to managers' capital investment decisions, I provide evidence that a seemingly innocuous choice made for external financial reporting purposes can cause managers to make non-value-maximizing capital investment decisions.

This study examines European stock market reactions to 16 events associated with the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Europe. European IFRS adoption represented a major milestone toward financial reporting convergence yet spurred controversy reaching the highest levels of government. We find an incrementally positive reaction for firms with lower quality pre-adoption information, which is more pronounced for banks, and with higher pre-adoption information asymmetry, consistent with investors expecting net information quality benefits from IFRS adoption. We find an incrementally negative reaction for firms domiciled in code law countries, consistent with investors' concerns over enforcement of IFRS in those countries. Finally, we find a positive reaction to IFRS adoption events for firms with high-quality pre-adoption information, consistent with investors expecting net convergence benefits from IFRS adoption.

Our paper examines whether audit quality is higher for industry audit specialists at the national and cityoffice levels using the framework developed in Ferguson et al. [2003] and Francis et al. [2005]. We find that auditors who are both national and city-specific industry specialists have clients with the lowest abnormal accruals, suggesting that joint national and city-specific industry specialists have the highest audit quality. In addition, we find some evidence that abnormal accruals of firms audited by city-industry specialists alone (without also being national specific industry specialists) are lower than those audited by nonindustry specialists. Using alternative measures of audit quality, we find that when the auditor is both a national and a city-specific industry specialist, its clients are less likely to meet or beat analysts' earnings forecasts by one penny per share and more likely to be issued a going-concern audit opinion. Together these results provide consistent evidence that audit quality is higher when the auditor is both a national and city-specific industry specialist, suggesting that auditors' national positive network synergies and the individual auditors' deep industry knowledge at the office level are jointly important factors in delivering higher audit quality.

Evaluation of the eco-efficiency of financial institutions and their underlying green accounting practices is imperative as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles become ingrained in financial regulation and investment strategy. Nevertheless, the current ESG assessments frequently suffer from a lack of a dual focus on governance quality and performance, which raises concerns about misaligned reporting and Greenwashing. This investigation suggests a two-stage methodological framework for evaluating the eco-efficiency of European financial institutions that is driven by ESG and evaluating the impact of internal green accounting practices on sustainability performance. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is implemented in the initial phase to calculate eco-efficiency scores that are determined by financial outputs and environmental inputs (GHG emissions, energy consumption, assets). The second stage employs the CRITIC-TOPSIS method to rank 365 institutions according to seven governance-related green accounting criteria. These criteria are derived from the Refinitiv ESG Screener CO₂ dataset. The performance frontiers are identified by DEA, while the contribution of internal sustainability mechanisms is assessed by CRITIC-TOPSIS. According to the DEA results, only 38% of institutions are entirely efficient, with a substantial degree of variation across the sample. The results of the CRITIC-TOPSIS analysis indicate that the most reliable predictors of green accounting quality are governance indicators, including the presence of an ESG committee and board supervision of climate risks. According to a moderate positive correlation between DEA scores and TOPSIS rankings, eco-efficiency and green accounting maturity are related, but they are not entirely aligned. The results underscore the importance of integrating institutional governance evaluations with operational performance metrics to accurately evaluate sustainability. Theoretical and methodological contributions to the disciplines of environmental accounting and sustainable finance are made by this integrated framework, which provides regulators, rating agencies, and institutional decision-makers with valuable insights.

Investors, regulators, academics, and researchers all emphasize the importance of financial statement comparability. However, an empirical construct of comparability is typically not specified. In addition, little evidence exists on the benefits of comparability to users. This study attempts to fill these gaps by developing a measure of financial statement comparability. Empirically, this measure is positively related to analyst following and forecast accuracy, and negatively related to analysts' dispersion in earnings forecasts. These results suggest that financial statement comparability lowers the cost of acquiring information, and increases the overall quantity and quality of information available to analysts about the firm.