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role of professional judgment in the application of United States accounting standards: An experimental study of the effect of professional judgment on financial reporting decisions of accountants

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Date Issued:
2000
Summary:
This study examines two questions: (1) whether the level professional judgment required in the application of accounting standards affects the comparability of financial reporting; (2) whether financial statement preparers exploit the professional judgment in accounting standards in order to engage in earnings management. The study is motivated by former FASB Chair Dennis Beresford's call for simple accounting standards which rely heavily on the exercise of professional judgment and by SEC Chair Arthur Levitt's concerns that managers exploit the flexibility in accounting standards to engage in earnings management. Agency theory is used to develop two hypotheses which predict the conditions under which financial statement preparers exploit the professional judgment allowed in the application of accounting standards in order to manage earnings. Normative arguments are used to develop a third hypothesis about the relationship between the level of professional judgment required to apply accounting standards and the comparability of financial reporting. The study uses an experiment methodology to examine the financial reporting decisions of 111 financial statement preparers in corporations located throughout the United States. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups (a control group, a profit-sharing plan group, an information asymmetry group, and a moral hazard group). The study's results support the hypothesis that there is less comparability in financial reporting when accounting standards rely heavily on the exercise of professional judgment than when standards place fewer demands on professional judgment. The findings also provide some support for the idea that moral hazard conditions interact with the level of professional judgment required in the application of accounting standards to affect the reporting decisions of financial statement preparers. However, the male financial statement preparers in this study reacted differently than their female counterparts when faced with moral hazard conditions.
Title: The role of professional judgment in the application of United States accounting standards: An experimental study of the effect of professional judgment on financial reporting decisions of accountants.
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Name(s): Rentfro, Randall Wesley
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Hooks, Karen L., Thesis Advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Issued: 2000
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 128 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This study examines two questions: (1) whether the level professional judgment required in the application of accounting standards affects the comparability of financial reporting; (2) whether financial statement preparers exploit the professional judgment in accounting standards in order to engage in earnings management. The study is motivated by former FASB Chair Dennis Beresford's call for simple accounting standards which rely heavily on the exercise of professional judgment and by SEC Chair Arthur Levitt's concerns that managers exploit the flexibility in accounting standards to engage in earnings management. Agency theory is used to develop two hypotheses which predict the conditions under which financial statement preparers exploit the professional judgment allowed in the application of accounting standards in order to manage earnings. Normative arguments are used to develop a third hypothesis about the relationship between the level of professional judgment required to apply accounting standards and the comparability of financial reporting. The study uses an experiment methodology to examine the financial reporting decisions of 111 financial statement preparers in corporations located throughout the United States. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups (a control group, a profit-sharing plan group, an information asymmetry group, and a moral hazard group). The study's results support the hypothesis that there is less comparability in financial reporting when accounting standards rely heavily on the exercise of professional judgment than when standards place fewer demands on professional judgment. The findings also provide some support for the idea that moral hazard conditions interact with the level of professional judgment required in the application of accounting standards to affect the reporting decisions of financial statement preparers. However, the male financial statement preparers in this study reacted differently than their female counterparts when faced with moral hazard conditions.
Identifier: 9780599921542 (isbn), 12653 (digitool), FADT12653 (IID), fau:9535 (fedora)
Note(s): College of Business
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2000.
Subject(s): Accounting--Standards--United States
Accounting--Decision making
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12653
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.