Financial Accounting Standards Research Initiative

We had a great Round Table with Paul Zarowin yesterday, where we talked about the large and ever-growing literature on earnings management.  While much has been done in this area, it was clear from yesterday’s discussion that there remain many fruitful areas for future research.  If you didn’t get the chance to join us, I [...] Read more > >

We had a great Round Table with Paul Zarowin yesterday, where we talked about the large and ever-growing literature on earnings management.  While much has been done in this area, it was clear from yesterday’s discussion that there remain many fruitful areas for future research.  If you didn’t get the chance to join us, I [...] Read more > >

On Tuesday, Dec 15th, 4 pm ET, we will be joined by Paul Zarowin. Paul Zarowin is a professor at New York University and an Editor at The Accounting Review. The topic of this session is earnings management, and Paul is going to provide us with a high level review of this literature and the [...] Read more > >

Yesterday (September 10, 2009), Rob Bloomfield posted regarding a legal perspective on FASB Accounting Standards Codification Topic 450 (FAS 5 – Accounting for Contingencies) and proposed changes in the disclosure rules for litigation-related contingencies.  This post relates to both the FAS 5 issue as well as an earlier discussion regarding conducting research with the FASB. While serving [...] Read more > >

As previously announced, we will be having our first Round Table Discussion hosted by a preparer this week when Bob Laux (Microsoft) joins us on Wednesday at 11 am ET.  Given Bob’s wide-ranging interests and expertise, Wednesday’s discussion promises to be engaging and informative! As if there weren’t already enough to discuss given Bob’s tentative agenda, [...] Read more > >

During today’s Research Office Hours, Christine Botosan, Susan McMahon, and Mary Stanford shared insights from their recent working paper “Representationally Faithful Disclosures, Organizational Design, and Managers’ Segment Reporting Decisions.”  In their paper, they investigate whether SFAS 131 had its intended effect — providing users with better information about segment disclosures by encouraging more disaggregated segment [...] Read more > >

Just a reminder that Wednesday, April 1, 11am ET,  Christine Botosan (Univ of Utah) will lead a discussion about her recent research on segment reporting, with Susan McMahon and Marry Harris Stanford—with particular emphasis on the role of managerial discretion and standards that require preparers to disclose information that is consistent with management’s own views.  [...] Read more > >

At today’s office hours, Bob Lipe presented this working paper with Lail and Yi.  The upshot of the paper is that we need to be very careful when we think about the standard-setting implications of the accrual anomaly.  It is tempting to say that accrual standards must be a problem because (as the Richardson, Sloan, [...] Read more > >