The Economics And Politics Of Accounting

Accounting and the role of accountants has permeated the modern societies. For the most part we have accepted the impartiality and objectivity of accounting and not recognized how accounting systems are embedded in a country's economic and legal framework, much of which is in turn shaped by political processes. This web of interactions results in complex economic and political questions which require accounting researchers to focus on several related trends: information economics, regulatory economics, sociology, and political science. Although considerable progress has been made in the field of accounting, many fundamental questions are still subject to debate. In this book leading international scholars address a number of important questions: · What is the role of accounting in security valuation, decision making and contracting? · What can we learn from economics-based research in accounting? · What is the role of auditing and how can accounting standards be enforced? · What are the cost and benefits of accounting and disclosure regulation? · What is the role of accounting in society? · How does lobbying affect the political process of standard setting? · What are the consequences of the internationalization of standard setting? This seminal book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and graduate students of Accounting, Finance, Business Studies, Sociology, and Political Economy.

For the most part we have accepted the impartiality and objectivity of accounting and not recognized how accounting systems are embedded in a country's economic and legal framework. In this book, international scholars address a number of important questions about the role of accounting in society.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are internationally-recognized financial reporting guidelines regulated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to ensure that uniformity exists in the global financial system. In addition to regulating financial reporting, the adoption of IRFS has been shown to impact the flow of foreign capital and trade. Economics and Political Implications of International Financial Reporting Standards focuses on the consequences and determinants of the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS), which has remained a top issue in International Accounting. This timely publication brings to the forefront issues related to the political and economic influences and impacts of IFRS in addition to providing a platform for further research in this area. Policy makers, academics, researchers, graduate-level students, and professionals across the fields of management, economics, finance, international relations, and political science will find this publication pertinent to furthering their understanding of financial reporting at the global level.

This updated Ninth Edition of Accounting Theory: Conceptual Issues in a Political and Economic Environment continues to be one of the most relevant and comprehensive texts on accounting theory. Authors Harry I. Wolk, James L. Dodd, John J. Rozycki provide a critical overview of accounting as a whole as well as touch on the financial issues in economic and political contexts, providing readers with an understanding of how current United States accounting standards were derived and where we might be headed in the future. Readers will find learning tools such as questions, cases, problems and writing assignments to solidify their understanding of accounting theory and gain new insights into this evolving field.

Assembling compelling and unprecedented evidence, "Political Standards: Accounting for Legitimacy" documents how in subtle ways the rules of corporate accounting a critical institution in modern market capitalism have been captured to benefit industrial corporations, financial firms, and audit firms. In what is perhaps the only independent overview of the accounting industry, Karthik Ramanna begins with a history of corporate accounting and an accessible explanation of how it works today, including the essential roles it plays in defining the fundamental notion of profitability, facilitating asset allocation, and ensuring the accountability of corporations and their managers. From the evidence, Ramanna shows how accounting rule-makers selectively co-opt conceptual arguments from academia and elsewhere to advance the views of the special-interest groups. From this, Ramanna moves on to develop more broadly a new type of regulatory challenge that of producing public policy in a thin political market. His argument is that accounting rules cannot be determined without the substantial expertise and experience of groups that by definition also have strong commercial interests in the outcome." Political Standards" concludes with an exploration of possible solutions to the problem in accounting and that of thin political markets in general, charting avenues for scholarship and practice. Certain to be an eye-opening account of a massive industry central to the modern business world, "Political Standards "will be an essential resource in understanding how the rules of the game business are set, whom they inevitably favor, and how they can be changed for the better of society."

The recent financial crisis has sparked debates surrounding the nature and role of accounting in informing capital markets and regulatory bodies about the financial performance and position of a firm. These debates have drawn attention to the broader implications of accounting for the economy and society. Accounting and Business Economics brings together leading international scholars to examine the current state of accounting theory and its fundamental connection with the economics and finance of firms, viewing the business entity from not only accounting, but also national, economic, social, political, juridical, anthropological, and moral points of view.

'How and why do transnational regulatory bodies emerge? How do they acquire the authority and confidence to be actors in their own right? These questions preoccupy scholars in many disciplines and Sebastian Botzem's The Politics of Accounting Regulation makes an important contribution to the debates. Focusing on the case of the International Accounting Standards Board over a critical period of its development including the financial crisis Botzem addresses its evolution as an organization which produces accounting standards and whose efforts to be outside politics are inevitably and irredeemably political in nature. This book is essential reading for sociologists, political scientists, accountants and anyone else interested in the organization of global governance.' Michael Power, London School of Economics, UK The financial crisis underlines the relevance of accounting standards as much more than instrumental rules for corporate reporting. This important book outlines the accounting standards that embody societal and professional values and contribute to the distribution of financial benefits that put international harmonization of standards into the limelight. Sebastian Botzem reveals that international standards have emerged after decades of contest and political bargaining which resulted in closely aligned standards, voluntary consultation procedures and a network structure comprising actors mainly stemming from global auditing firms, regulators and international organizations.

Almost all economists, whether classical, neoclassical or Marxist, have failed in their analyses of capitalism to consider the underpinning systems of accounting. This book draws attention to this lacuna, focusing specifically on the concept of capital: a major concept that dominates all teaching and practice in both economics and management. It is argued that while for the practitioners of capitalism – in accounting and business – the capital in their accounts is a debt to be repaid (or a thing to be kept), for economists, it has been considered a means (or even a resource or an asset) intended to be worn out. This category error has led to economists failing to comprehend the true nature of capitalism. On this basis, this book proposes a new definition of capitalism that brings about considerable changes in the attitude to be had towards this economic system, in particular, the means to bring about its replacement. This book will be of significant interest to readers of political economy, history of economic thought, critical accounting and heterodox economics.