Accounting and the role of accountants has permeated the modern societies. For the most part we have accepted the impartiality and objectivity of accounting and not recognized how accounting systems are embedded in a country's economic and legal framework, much of which is in turn shaped by political processes. This web of interactions results in complex economic and political questions which require accounting researchers to focus on several related trends: information economics, regulatory economics, sociology, and political science. Although considerable progress has been made in the field of accounting, many fundamental questions are still subject to debate. In this book leading international scholars address a number of important questions: · What is the role of accounting in security valuation, decision making and contracting? · What can we learn from economics-based research in accounting? · What is the role of auditing and how can accounting standards be enforced? · What are the cost and benefits of accounting and disclosure regulation? · What is the role of accounting in society? · How does lobbying affect the political process of standard setting? · What are the consequences of the internationalization of standard setting? This seminal book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and graduate students of Accounting, Finance, Business Studies, Sociology, and Political Economy.

For the most part we have accepted the impartiality and objectivity of accounting and not recognized how accounting systems are embedded in a country's economic and legal framework. In this book, international scholars address a number of important questions about the role of accounting in society.

Presents complex materials in a clear and understandable manner. Incorporating the latest accounting standards and presenting the most up-to-date accounting theory from the top academic journals in accounting and finance throughout the world.

Assembling compelling and unprecedented evidence, "Political Standards: Accounting for Legitimacy" documents how in subtle ways the rules of corporate accounting a critical institution in modern market capitalism have been captured to benefit industrial corporations, financial firms, and audit firms. In what is perhaps the only independent overview of the accounting industry, Karthik Ramanna begins with a history of corporate accounting and an accessible explanation of how it works today, including the essential roles it plays in defining the fundamental notion of profitability, facilitating asset allocation, and ensuring the accountability of corporations and their managers. From the evidence, Ramanna shows how accounting rule-makers selectively co-opt conceptual arguments from academia and elsewhere to advance the views of the special-interest groups. From this, Ramanna moves on to develop more broadly a new type of regulatory challenge that of producing public policy in a thin political market. His argument is that accounting rules cannot be determined without the substantial expertise and experience of groups that by definition also have strong commercial interests in the outcome." Political Standards" concludes with an exploration of possible solutions to the problem in accounting and that of thin political markets in general, charting avenues for scholarship and practice. Certain to be an eye-opening account of a massive industry central to the modern business world, "Political Standards "will be an essential resource in understanding how the rules of the game business are set, whom they inevitably favor, and how they can be changed for the better of society."

The Great Financial Crisis that began in 2007-2008 reminds us with devastating force that financial instability and crises are endemic to capitalist economies. This Handbook describes the theoretical, institutional, and historical factors that can help us understand the forces that create financial crises.

Building on theories of finance and distribution, and the political economy of finance, this book explains the influence of financial cooperatives on wealth and income distribution, and institutional factors that determine the development of financial cooperatives. The book discusses the dynamics of income and wealth distribution with and without financial cooperatives, and defines the economic objective for financial cooperatives. Through explaining the influence of political institutions and regulations on the development of financial cooperatives, this book examines why financial cooperatives grew in some emerging economies and not in other similar ones. The book is of interest to scholars interested in financial economics, political economy of finance, alternative banking and development finance, and banking regulation. The book also gives valuable output to central bankers and financial and monetary policy makers in underdeveloped economies. In addition, it will be of particular interest to practitioners in international development institutions, especially those engaged in development finance and rural finance.

Since 2008, the financial sector has been the subject of extensive criticism. Much of this criticism has focused on the morality of the actors involved in the crisis and its extended aftermath. This book analyses the key moral and political philosophical issues of the crisis and relates them to the political economy of finance. It also examines to what extent the financial sector can or should be reformed. This book is unified by the view that the financial sector had been a self-serving and self-regulating elite consumed by greed, speculation and even lawlessness, with little sense of responsibility to the wider society or common good. In light of critical analysis by authors from a variety of backgrounds and persuasions, suggestions for reform and improvement are proposed, in some cases radical reform. By placing the world of finance under a microscope, this book analyses the assumptions that have led from hubris to disgrace as it provides suggestions for an improved society. Rooted in philosophical reflection, this book invites a critical reassessment of finance and its societal role in the 21st century. This book will be of interest to academics, politicians, central bankers and financial regulators who wish to improve the morality of finance.