Financial Accounting Theory

An Accounting Quality Approach

Emmeli Runesson, Niuosha Samani, Jan Marton

• Publisher: Studentlitteratur
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9789144196831
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book provides the reader with a broad overview of research and the conceptual reasoning behind financial reporting. We adopt the perspective that financial accounting theory can be summarized as the quest for answers to two fundamental questions: What characterizes high-quality accounting? and What are the determinants and consequences of high-quality accounting? The book contains a discussion of how the above questions relate to: •current accounting standards (such as IFRS and its Conceptual Framework), •theories in economics, finance and other disciplines, •evidence from empirical accounting research, and•the role that accounting plays in bridging the information gap between firms and financial statement users in capital markets.We cover a range of topics associated with accounting quality definitions, determinants and consequences. These include earnings and disclosure quality, accounting standards, the institutional environment, corporate governance, and managerial incentives. The usefulness of accounting, both for valuation and stewardship purposes, is discussed.The book is designed for graduate students in accounting and finance. It is an excellent introduction to accounting research for Master and PhD students when they write their thesis or dissertation. It is also useful for researchers who want an overview of current research and for practitioners wanting insight into the current state of knowledge about financial reporting.

Table of contents

• Letter to the reader
• Accounting fundamentals, accounting theory and the information environment
• Introduction
• Theoretical underpinnings
• A capital market perspective and the roles of accounting
• Accounting quality and regulation
• Regulation of accounting
• Conceptual frameworks of accounting
• Accounting quality in capital markets research
• Disclosures and disclosure quality
• Earnings quality
• Accounting quality, managerial incentives and corporate governance
• The incentive problem and the stewardship role of accounting
• Managerial incentives, monitoring mechanisms and the institutional environment
• Accounting quality and financial statement items
• Structure of accounting issues
• Assets
• Liabilities and equity
• Profit and loss
• Group accounting
• Presentation format and disclosure
• Concluding remarks
• Bibliography
• Index