This review lays out a research perspective on earnings quality. We provide an overview of alternative definitions and measures of earnings quality and a discussion of research design choices encountered in earnings quality research. Throughout, we focus on a capital markets setting, as opposed, for example, to a contracting or stewardship setting. Our reason for this choice stems from the view that the capital market uses of accounting information are fundamental, in the sense of providing a basis for other uses, such as stewardship. Because resource allocations are ex ante decisions while contracting/stewardship assessments are ex post evaluations of outcomes, evidence on whether, how and to what degree earnings quality influences capital market resource allocation decisions is fundamental to understanding why and how accounting matters to investors and others, including those charged with stewardship responsibilities. Demonstrating a link between earnings quality and, for example, the costs of equity and debt capital implies a basic economic role in capital allocation decisions for accounting information; this role has only recently been documented in the accounting literature. We focus on how the precision of financial information in capturing one or more underlying valuation-relevant constructs affects the assessment and use of that information by capital market participants. We emphasize that the choice of constructs to be measured is typically contextual. Our main focus is on the precision of earnings, which we view as a summary indicator of the overall quality of financial reporting. Our intent in discussing research that evaluates the capital market effects of earnings quality is both to stimulate further research in this area and to encourage research on related topics, including, for example, the role of earnings quality in contracting and stewardship.

Using Barnard and Simon's contract model of organizations, this text integrates financial, managerial, tax, auditing, not-for-profit and governmental aspects of accounting into a single framework within the economic theory of the firm.

Written by a team of scholars, predominantly from the Centre for Financial Studies in Frankfurt, this volume provides a descriptive survey of the present state of the German financial system and a new analytical framework to explain its workings.

Philip Brown is one of the most admired and respected accounting academics alive today. He was a pioneer in capital markets research in accounting, and his 1968 article, co-authored with Ray Ball, "An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Income Numbers," arguably had a greater impact on the course of accounting research, directly and indirectly, than any other article during the second half of the twentieth century. Since that time, his innovative research has focused on issues that bridge accounting and finance, including the relationships between net profit reports and the stock market, the long-run performance of acquiring firms, statutory sanctions and voluntary corporate disclosure, and the politics and future of national accounting standards to name a few. This volume brings together the greatest hits of Brown’s career, including several articles that were published in out-of-the-way places, for easier use by students and researchers in the field. With a foreword written by Stephen A. Zeff, and an introduction that discusses the evolution of Brown’s research interests and explains the context for each of the essays included in the volume, this book offers the reader a unique look inside this remarkable 50-year career.

The recent relaunch of the European Commission’s Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) project promises a sorely needed leap forward in the harmonization of the rules by which companies calculate their taxable profits. In particular, the initiative hopes to remedy the severe barrier to cross-border business caused by the ‘the accounting Tower of Babel’ by which companies’ tax bases are determined under national law. This thorough analysis and commentary covers the influence of accounting rules on tax, considering both generally accepted standards – international accounting standards (IAS) and international financial reporting standards (IFRS) – and EU Directive 2013/34. Three introductory chapters usher in detailed comparative overviews of the effect of these rules on taxation in nine EU Member States as well as in two other major EU trading partners, the United States and Brazil. Fully explaining the remarkable recent improvement in the comparability of accounts that represent favourable preconditions for creating a single market for financial services within the EU, this book covers every relevant detail, including the following and much more: – criterion of evaluation of alternative fixed assets based on revaluated amounts; – criterion based on fair value; – provisions applicable to income statements, notes, reports, and financial statements; – rules applicable to the publication of documents; – transparency in payments to governments; – dispositions on exemptions; – hierarchy of general provisions and principles; – balance sheet and profit and loss account; – simplifications for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); – system of creditors’ protection; and – protection of investors’ interests. This book is a peerless explication of the taxation choices granted to Member States under IAS/IFRS and EU Directive 2013/34 and how they will be affected by ongoing Commission initiatives. Because relevant, timely, reliable, and comparable information assumes a leading role in protecting the interests of investors, creditors, and other stakeholders, as well as in ensuring that all operators act on a level playing field under equal conditions, the analysis presented here is of immeasurable value to lawyers, business persons, and officials concerned with taxation, not only in Europe but anywhere within the reach of international trade.