Special Issue - International Accounting Policy Forum 2009
In collaboration with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Accounting and Business Research (ABR) is pleased to present the fourth issue of the International Accounting Policy Forum (IAPF). The issue contains the papers presented at the Institute’s 2008 Information for Better Markets Conference, which was intended to stimulate debate and new thinking on the subject of accounting for pensions. The major papers written by leading international academics reflect the themes they were invited to develop in their presentations at the Forum, all providing different styles of thought-provoking evidence and comment. The responses from practitioners provide a taste of the lively debate provoked in a mixed audience of leading practitioners and policy makers sitting alongside academics from a spectrum of international institutions. An academic commentary on practitioners’ perspectives concludes the sequence. It is the hope of the editor and the Institute that publication of the papers will encourage a continuing and widening debate which will facilitate better communication among the research community, the accounting profession, company managers, regulators and all other parties interested in the debate over how to develop accounting for pensions.
It is a further pleasure to ABR that we are publishing here the annual P.D. Leake lecture papers from 2007 and 2008. Both address challenging issues in a manner that provides a significant contribution to developing research agendas. The first models professional bodies in an ethical context and offers a renewed notion of membership if professional bodies are to function as effective ‘moral communities’. The second provides an economic analysis of standard-setting which draws on the economics of standards to inform current debates on international accounting standards and concludes that the most compelling net benefits of harmonisation arise for small economies moving from idiosyncratic to international standards.
The major papers from the conference, together with the two P.D. Leake presentations, have been reviewed by academic reviewers and I am particularly grateful to the reviewers and the authors for the care they have taken with this process.
IAPF is explicitly charged with bridging the gap between academia and the profession. The contents of this issue provide many opportunities for engaging research and practice.
Pauline Weetman
Table of contents 2009
- Accounting and the ethics challenge: re-membering the professional body - Christopher J. Cowton
- Accounting standards and the economics of standards - Geoff Meeks and G.M. Peter Swann
- International trends in pension provision - Nicholas Barr
- The logic of pension accounting - Christopher J. Napier
- Have changes in pension accounting changed pension provision? A review of the evidence - Paraskevi Vicky Kiosse and Ken Peasnell
- Pension accounting and research: a review - Martin Glaum
- Issues for preparers when there are changes in accounting standards - Wayne Landsman
Table of contents 2008
- Has the importance of intangibles really grown? And if so, why? - Sudipta Basu, Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, and Gregory Waymire, Goizueta Business School, Emory University
- Accounting for intangibles - a critical review of policy recommendations - Douglas J. Skinner, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago
- What financial and non-financial information on intangibles is value-relevant? A review of the evidence - Anne Wyatt, School of Accounting, University of Technology, Sydney
- Does measuring intangibles for management purposes improve performance? A review of the evidence - Christopher D. Ittner, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Intangibles and research - an overview with a specific focus on the UK - Andrew W. Stark, Manchester Business School
Table of contents 2007
- Standard-setting measurement issues and the relevance of research - Professor Mary E. Barth, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and International Accounting Standards Board
- Is fair value accounting information relevant and reliable? Evidence from capital market research - Wayne R. Landsman, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina
- Financial reporting quality: is fair value a plus or a minus? - Stephen H. Penman, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.
- The SEC rules historical cost accounting: 1934 to the 1970s - Stephen A. Zeff, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Accounting, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
- How does changing measurement change management behaviour? A review of the evidence - Anne Beatty, Deloitte and Touche Chair in Accounting, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University
Table of contents 2006
- Disclosure and the cost of capital: what do we know? - Christine A. Botosan
- Motives for disclosure and non-disclosure: a framework and review of the evidence - Russell Lundholm, Matt Van Winkle
- What has the invisible hand achieved? - Ross L. Watts
- Does sustainability reporting improve corporate behaviour?: Wrong question? Right time? - Rob Gray
- How can business reporting be improved? A research perspective - Martin Walker
Sample article
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International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS): pros and cons for investors - Ray Ball
