NATIONAL ACCOUNTING CULTURE AND THE RECOGNITION OF PROVISIONS: AN APPLICATION OF THE PRUDENCE PRINCIPLE

Prudence in accounting is a corner-stone concept which has shaped accounting theory, as well as ordinary financial reporting. Thus, on the quantitative side of the study, we developed a proxy for accounting conservatism, namely the degree of uncertainty associated with the settling of a company's obligations. To this purpose, we hand-collected accounting data for 388 business groups from 17 European countries. For these companies we computed the provisions-to-liabilities ratio (PLR) and performed several group tests, according to the following original classification of national accounting cultures. The results indicate that companies incorporated in countries that are classified as ‘conservative' do assign a significantly higher degree of uncertainty to their total amount of liabilities.mixed research methods, accounting conservatism, European companies, national accounting culture, international harmonization

Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: The case of France, Germany and the UK

This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IFRS, guarantees harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRS is related to the size of the reporting firm, which has been shown to be a major determinant of voluntary environmental information, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRS increase with firm size, just like voluntary environmental disclosures. This suggests that application of IFRS is affected by the reporting practices that prevailed prior to IFRS adoption. Results also indicate that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e. France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than do firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e. Germany). This suggests that national regulations strongly impact IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRS are not applied consistently across firms or across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements.environmental disclosure; environmental accounting regulations; International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS); France; Germany; UK.

NATIONAL ACCOUNTING CULTURE AND THE RECOGNITION OF PROVISIONS: AN APPLICATION OF THE PRUDENCE PRINCIPLE

International audiencePrudence in accounting is a corner-stone concept which has shaped accounting theory, as well as ordinary financial reporting. Thus, on the quantitative side of the study, we developed a proxy for accounting conservatism, namely the degree of uncertainty associated with the settling of a company's obligations. To this purpose, we hand-collected accounting data for 388 business groups from 17 European countries. For these companies we computed the provisions-to-liabilities ratio (PLR) and performed several group tests, according to the following original classification of national accounting cultures. The results indicate that companies incorporated in countries that are classified as ‘conservative' do assign a significantly higher degree of uncertainty to their total amount of liabilities

Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: The case of France, Germany and the UK

This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IFRS, guarantees harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRS is related to the size of the reporting firm, which has been shown to be a major determinant of voluntary environmental information, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRS increase with firm size, just like voluntary environmental disclosures. This suggests that application of IFRS is affected by the reporting practices that prevailed prior to IFRS adoption. Results also indicate that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e. France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than do firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e. Germany). This suggests that national regulations strongly impact IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRS are not applied consistently across firms or across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements

Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: The case of France, Germany and the UK

This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IFRS, guarantees harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRS is related to the size of the reporting firm, which has been shown to be a major determinant of voluntary environmental information, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRS increase with firm size, just like voluntary environmental disclosures. This suggests that application of IFRS is affected by the reporting practices that prevailed prior to IFRS adoption. Results also indicate that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e. France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than do firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e. Germany). This suggests that national regulations strongly impact IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRS are not applied consistently across firms or across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements.environmental disclosure; environmental accounting;environmental regulation; IAS/IFRS

Theoretical considerations about implementation of IAS 41 in Romania

Although agriculture is an important part of the world economy, accounting in agriculture still has many shortcomings. The adoption of IAS 41 „Agricuture” has tried to improve this situation and increase the comparability of financial statements of entities in the agricultural sector. Although controversial, IAS 41 is the first step of a consistent transition to fair value assessment in the agricultural sector. The objective of our work is the analysis of IAS 41 and current accounting agricultural situation in Romania. Accounting regulations in Romania are in accordance with European directives and, in many respects, converged with IFRS referential. Provisions of IAS 41, however, are not reflected directly in Romanian regulations. With the increase of forest land transactions and foreign investments in animal farms, it is expected that recognition and measurement of biological assets under IAS 41 to become a necessity

Theoretical considerations about implementation of IAS 41 in Romania

Although agriculture is an important part of the world economy, accounting in agriculture still has many shortcomings. The adoption of IAS 41 „Agricuture” has tried to improve this situation and increase the comparability of financial statements of entities in the agricultural sector. Although controversial, IAS 41 is the first step of a consistent transition to fair value assessment in the agricultural sector. The objective of our work is the analysis of IAS 41 and current accounting agricultural situation in Romania. Accounting regulations in Romania are in accordance with European directives and, in many respects, converged with IFRS referential. Provisions of IAS 41, however, are not reflected directly in Romanian regulations. With the increase of forest land transactions and foreign investments in animal farms, it is expected that recognition and measurement of biological assets under IAS 41 to become a necessity.agricultural accounting; biological assets; fair value; IAS 41; Romania.

Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: The case of France, Germany and the UK

This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IFRS, guarantees harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRS is related to the size of the reporting firm, which has been shown to be a major determinant of voluntary environmental information, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRS increase with firm size, just like voluntary environmental disclosures. This suggests that application of IFRS is affected by the reporting practices that prevailed prior to IFRS adoption. Results also indicate that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e. France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than do firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e. Germany). This suggests that national regulations strongly impact IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRS are not applied consistently across firms or across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements

A Proposal of an international environmental reporting grid: What interest for policymakers, regulatory bodies, companies and researchers ? Reply to Discussion of “Mandatory Environmental Disclosures by Companies Complying with IAS/IFRS: The Case of France, Germany and the UK”

International audienceThis article offers the authors' insights concerning the issues raised by Professor Trevor Wilkins in commentaries on the article “Mandatory environmental disclosures by companies complying with IAS/IFRS: the case of France, Germany, and the UK” (Barbu et al., 2014). As suggested by Professor Wilkins, we demonstrate the utility of the international environmental reporting grid proposed in Barbu et al. (2014, Table 3): (1) for IASB policymakers and other regulatory bodies, (2) for companies to improve their environmental reporting, (3) for further research, and (4) for understanding the economic and financial consequences of IAS/IFRS-compliant environmental information