国际会计第七版课后答案(第五章) 作者：弗雷德里克

Chapter 5

Reporting and Disclosure

Discussion Questions

1. Accounting measurement is the process of assigning numerical symbols to events or objects.

Disclosure, on the other hand, is the communication of accounting measurements to intended users. Advances in financial disclosure are likely to outpace those related to accounting measurement for a number of reasons. First, many would argue that financial disclosure is a less controversial area than accounting measurement. Second, changes in disclosure requirements are more rapidly implemented than changes in accounting measurement rules. Finally, whereas a single set of accounting measurement rules may not serve users equally well under different social, economic and legal systems, a company can disclose without necessarily sacrificing its accounting measurement system.

2.Four reasons why multinational corporations are increasingly being held accountable to

constituencies other than traditional investor groups:

a.The development and growth of the influence of trade unions.

b.The growing recognition of the view that those who are significantly affected by

decisions made by institutions in general must be given the opportunity to influence those

decisions.

c.The rejection by many governments of classical economic premises such as the belief

that the regulated pursuit of private gain maximizes society’s welfare.

d.The increasing concern over the social and economic impact of multinational

corporations in host countries.

3.Arguments in favor of equal disclosure include:

a.The absence of equal disclosure would create an unfair playing field for U.S. companies.

Non-U.S. companies would have a competitive advantage in that they would not have to

disclose the same information and so would not incur the costs involved in generating

and publishing it.

b.Investors in non-U.S. companies have the same information needs as those who invest in

U.S. companies. A market concerned with investor protection would make sure that

investors have timely and material information on all listed companies, not just those

domiciled in the United States.

c.Unequal disclosure might impede cross-company comparisons involving U.S. and non-

U.S. companies.

Possible reasons against equal disclosure include:

a.The high cost of meeting equal disclosure requirements may deter foreign issuers from

listing in the United States.

b.The extra costs involved work against the benefits of listing to the foreign companies.

Evaluation of arguments:All of these arguments have merit. There is no unambiguously correct answer as to what disclosure requirements should be imposed on foreign issuers, and there has been a contentious debate on this subject in the U.S. in recent years. In practice, fairness arguments often carry great weight in public debate, even when objective economic analysis does not support them.

4.Managers in Continental Europe and in Japan have for many years strongly objected to disclosing

information about business segment financial results. These managers have argued that the information can be used by their competitors. In addition, Continental Europe and Japan have had traditions of low disclosure.

Requirements for disclosure about segment results have become more stringent in Japan, France, and Germany in response to strong investor and analyst demand for the information. More generally, the three countries are striving to improve the quality of their financial reporting standards in order to improve the reputation and credibility of their capital markets.

5.The simple answer is that mandatory disclosures are corporate disclosures made in response to

regulatory requirements (for example, rules issued by national regulators or stock exchanges), and that voluntary disclosures are purely discretionary in nature. The distinction between mandatory and voluntary disclosures can be ambiguous in some settings, however. For example, the requirement that U.S. companies must file Form 10-Ks with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is straightforward. However, measurement and disclosure approaches for some of the items in the Form 10-K are not. Similarly, there are widely divergent views concerning what types of press announcements are mandatory versus voluntary.

Two possible explanations for differences in managers’ vo luntary disclosure practices are: (1) Managers in highly competitive industries may be less forthcoming than managers in less competitive industries due to the expected cost of releasing information of potential use to their competitors. (2) Managers are expected to be more forthcoming when there is good news to disclose, than when there is bad news, particularly when the news can be expected to affect share prices.

Two explanations for differences in managers’ mandatory disclosure practices are: (1) C ross-jurisdictional differences in disclosure requirements. (2) Differences in the extent of compliance with disclosure rules due to cross-jurisdictional differences in enforcement.

6. Triple bottom line reporting refers to reporting on a company’s eco nomic, social, and

environmental performance. It is a form of social responsibility reporting designed to demonstrate good corporate citizenship. So-called “sustainability” reports are an increasingly popular means of triple bottom line reporting. There is substantial variation in social reporting today. More regulation would improve comparability, but it might also stifle reporting innovations. The usefulness of social reporting to outside parties, particularly investors, needs to be demonstrated before implementing more regulation for it.

6.Often we expect to observe less voluntary disclosure by companies in emerging market countries

than by those in developed countries: