THE RATE OF RETURN FROM INTERIM FINANCIAL REPORTS AND THE ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING

Estimation theory in accounting explains how accountants allocate noncash expenditures to estimate such concepts as the firm\u27s long run rate of return. If the accountant\u27s goal in estimation is some high degree of precision, the usefulness of financial reports can be evaluated in light of that goal. In this study, the property of unbiasedness is identified with respect to the purposes of interim financial reports. Furthermore, the magnitude of the bias in estimates from financial reports is measured. Copyright © 1983, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserve

Accounting & NPM in UK Local Government - contributions towards accountability

Despite its size and economic importance, accounting in UK local government is still relatively under-researched. Two important developments which have emerged in recent years across the whole public sector are governance and New Public Management. It is timely to study the contribution which local government accounting makes in this changing context. Governance has proved a particularly contentious concept to define. This study has attempted to understand governance from the participants’ perspective and consequently a grounded theory methodology has been used. The empirical research comprised four UK local authority case studies over a twelve month period. The grounded theory developed makes two important contributions to our knowledge of accounting and NPM in relation to governance and accountability in local government. These are the relative importance of accountability rather than governance per se to participants, and the more significant contribution to accountability made by budgeting practices rather than NPM practices such as performance indicators, contracting out of services and Best Value studies. The reasons for these findings are explored and theorised in the paper, using Bourdieu's concept of habitus

Non-audit Services and Auditor Independence: New Zealand Evidence

This paper examines evidence in New Zealand about whether auditors providing more non-audit services are less independent. Three sets of tests are used to address the issue. The first examines whether there is a relation between non-audit fees and audit fees, the second examines whether there is a relation between non-audit fees and audit report qualification or modification, and the third examines whether there is a relation between non-audit fees and stability of audit tenure. The results suggest a potential for the impairment of auditor independence in appearance when auditors provide non-audit services but no evidence of any impact on independence of mind. Copyright 2006 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.