条件稳健性与会计制度演进

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论文中文摘要:会计稳健性(Accounting Conservati)对于财务会计理论和实务具有深远和重要的影响,是会计确认与计量的基本原则,被誉为“会计计量中最古老同时可能也是最深入人心的原则”(Sterling,1967),Basu ( 1997)认为它对于会计实务的影响至少有500年以上的历史。稳健性不仅是一项重要的财务报告质量属性,而且也是一项有效的公司治理机制(Ball et al,2000)。在财务会计理论中,会计稳健性被认为产生于会计估计制和不确定性,是对相关和可靠会计数据列报(列送)的约束(贝克奥伊,2004),要求当某些经济业务存在不同会计处理方法可供选择时,会计人员应在不影响合理选择的前提下,尽可能选用不虚增利润和夸大所有者权益的程序进行会计处理(Hendriksen,1998)。迄今为止,关于会计稳健性的定义并不统一1,也缺乏完善的研究系统。纵观国内外文献,从各方面对稳健性的界定可以做出以下归纳:会计稳健性的具体表现——当面临不确定性因素的情况下,在不影响会计处理方法选择合理性的基础上,在金额上,尽量多计可能发生的负债或费用,尽量少计或不计可能发生的资产或收入;在时间上,尽可能提前(及时)确认负债或费用,尽可能延迟确认资产或收入。会计稳健性2的实质是——对具有不确定性的损失和收益的非对称性确认标准(Asymmetric Recognition),即,对收益的确认标准严格高于损失的确认标准。在此,本文在Watts(2003a)的基础上,进一步对稳健性的相关定义与解释进行系统性阐述:截至当前在国内外文献中出现的关于稳健性的各种定义、分类以及影响其产生、持续存在与发生变化的解释,其中还包括对Watts稳健性经典四大解释——“契约(Contracting)、诉讼(Litigation)、税收(Taxation)和会计监管(Regulation)”的总结、统一与评价,并加入了对稳健性经济后果的阐述。然而,以上对四大因素的解释是否适用于中国?即,中国上市公司的稳健性的存在与否与变化是否也受到以上因素的影响?答案显然并不简单。我国学者对它们进行了具体研究后发现,我国特殊的股权结构、低下的公司治理水平以及政府对地方国有银行的干预与影响等原因导致股东/管理层契约还未能形成对稳健性的强大需求与影响;同时,债权人/管理层契约成为稳健性的重要内在驱动力,但其影响在存在政府干预时,往往也是有限的;司法体系不健全与刑侦、执法效率低下的现状导致诉讼风险无法对上市公司及其管理层形成有效约束力;税收因素——我国税务会计与财务会计的较大分离,同时,我国税收制度与相应的监管等还存在诸多问题与缺陷——它也往往只能表现出对企业会计政策选择一定程度的软约束,还不能导致稳健性及其变化。可见,这三大因素(契约、诉讼与税收)在我国上市公司稳健性上的作用权重与国外存在显著不同,而且它们还不足以各自成为导致上市公司会计稳健性存在与发生显著变化的主要原因,于是,就只剩下会计监管因素了,具体来说是指其中的会计准则指定与相应的监管。中国资本市场和上市公司建立的时间仅有短短18年,但在这段不长的时间内,中国会计制度进行了4次大规模的改革,对上市公司的会计政策产生了重大影响,直接影响到稳健性。进一步,由于我国上市公司发展初期难以产生对稳健性的内在需求,相反,政府为了规范资本市场和上市公司行为,完成与国际接轨的承诺却在一定程度上具有对稳健性的需求,而我国会计制度建设正是由政府所主导,因此,会计制度很可能成为形成与影响稳健性变化的有效途径。这是本文的基本出发点。20世纪90年代初以来,我国大体上经历了四次较大规模的会计制度改革。从内容上看,我国会计制度的演进始终与稳健性原则紧密相伴,并体现出对其需求逐渐增强的趋势。1992年颁布的《企业会计准则》首次将稳健性原则作为会计核算的一项基本原则,正式确立了稳健性原则在中国会计准则中的地位。1998年出台的《股份有限公司会计制度》进一步强调了稳健性原则的运用,如计提四项准备、将开办费的摊销由不少于5年摊销改为不超过5年摊销等; 2001年开始实施的《企业会计制度》则再次扩大了稳健性的应用范围,如要求计提八大减值准备、开办费一次性摊销以及将债务重组、非货币易等形成的收益直接计入所有者权益等等;2007年1月1日起执行的新会计准则进一步将计提资产减值损失范围扩展到涵盖了几乎所有的资产类型,并且规定一经计提就不能转回,即,对这些资产而言,在任何时点一般都不能确认资产重估增值利得。目前,国内外基于从一国会计制度变迁视角的稳健性研究仍较缺乏,中国会计制度的演进则恰好为我们提供了一个难得的研究机会与平台,于是本文就从我国会计制度演进的角度进一步努力完善对现有稳健性影响因素的研究与解释。出于实证研究的需要,本文在Watts(2003b)的基础上,首先,系统总结了至今为止国内外文献中提到的各类稳健性测度(模型),并进一步加入对其适用对象、适用条件、模型设定偏误及相关问题的阐述、讨论与评价。接着结合对中国证券市场与上市公司的特殊性的考虑,从营运周期效应(DKW理论模型)入手,引入目前在条件稳健性测度领域最新、最稳健的测度模型(BS、AS模型——基于非型、会计指标的条件稳健性测度模型),并采用它们对会计制度改革在我国的具体效果(对非金融类上市公司条件稳健性的实际作用效果)进行实证分析。这是AS模型在国内稳健性研究中的首次引入,不仅丰富了现有稳健性研究中的测度手段(模型),而且也为进一步发展它们提供了新的视角。最后,本文利用1999-2006年中国A股上市公司的数据,采用最新的条件稳健性测度模型(BS与AS模型)研究了我国会计制度演进对条件稳健性的影响。通过制度背景分析和实证检验,笔者发现:①1999-2006年期间上市公司会计盈余在整体上仍未具有条件稳健性;但是同时也发现②在积极贯彻国际通行的稳健会计政策的2001年《企业会计制度》的作用下,上市公司在稳健性方面有了显著的改善,但主要是源自对损失确认及时性的提高,即,③会计准则改革对我国上市公司条件稳健性的实际作用是非对称的——它在“对损失的及时确认上”具有显著的增进作用,同时,在“对收益确认的稳健或延迟上”作用并不显著,几乎为0,即,在《企业会计制度》作用下,在整体上,企业面对损失时开始趋于选择稳健的会计政策,而在面对收益时则仍选择非稳健的会计政策。以上结论表明,我国的会计制度改革虽然已经取得的一些显著的成绩,但是仍然存在许多不足,例如:相应对收益确认准则安排的实施效果还并不明显,由于会计制度改革本身也只是稳健性提高的必要条件,其真实的实施效果,还有赖与之相配套的行之有效的法律、监管与执行机制。例如:仍需加大对操纵盈余的上市公司及其管理层的查处力度,强化外部审计师的法律责任,进一步完善上市公司会计信息披露制度与相应的监管体系等。只有加强和完善了它们,才能使会计准则的改进真正起到提高上市公司会计信息质量的作用
Abstract(英文摘要): Accounting conservati, which has been affecting the accounting practice for more than 500 years(Basu 1997) and regarded as“the most ancient and the most influential accounting principle(Sterling 1967)”plays a fundamental role in the accounting recognition and measurement. It is not only an important quality of financial reports, but also an effective corporate management mechani(Ball et al 2000). According to the financial accounting theories, conservati that originates from the accounting estimation and the uncertainty of economic transactions provides restrictions to the financial reporting that demands the accountants choose the very accounting methods that are appropriate but most unlikely to lead to overestimate of profits and net assets(Hendriksen 1998).However, the present research framework of conservati has far from been complete. After reviewing all the present literatures, we are able to make a summation for it: on the aspect of special phenomena resulted from conservati:①about the magnitude of account recorded, it demands the methods that least likely to overestimate net income or net assets when facing uncertainty;②at the aspect of timeliness, it demands a more timely recognition of losses than gains—the essence of conditional conservati: the asymmetric recognition of losses vs gains. Here in this paper, based on the Watts(2003a), I he further systematically summarized all the present concepts and explanations of conservati including the concepts of all kinds, the different categorizations and all the present explanations for the existence and the change of conservati in accounting plus a summation and integration of them(all that of contracting, litigation, taxation and regulation as one generalized contracting explanation) and a new part: its economic outcomes.Are these four explanations suited for China? Or in another word, is the conservati in Chinese listed firms also affected by them? Obviously, we could find no simple answer. According to the findings from several studies on the Chinese market, given the effects from special shares structures, poor corporate management, strong influence of government on the local banks, poor regulation and ineffective legal system etc, those of“shareholders vs management”and“bondholders vs management”contracting are not significantly leading to or causing the change of conservati and nor are those of litigation and taxation. So, in one word, those 3 explanations(contracting, litigation and taxation) he significantly different weight on earnings conservati in China from that in developed countries, they he not by far been the main causes for the existence and the change of conservati in China. Thus, only the explanation of accounting regulation has remained unchallenged. Given the fact that the Chinese accounting standards he experienced 4 major reforms of large magnitude since the setup of Chinese listed firms and Chinese equity market(within only 18 years), it is natural they might he impacted conservati. And further considering that the Chinese listed firms are unlikely to generate demands for conservati endogenously, but for the government, it has substantial demand due to its promise as a WTO member and its fighting to regularize the equity market and the behiors of listed firms, the reforms of Chinese accounting standards led by the government are probably the main reason for the existence and change of conservati in Chinese listed firms—the fundamental idea of this paper.Ever since 1990s, the Chinese accounting standards he experienced 4 major reforms, with each one of them closely attached to the increasing weight on the principle of conservati. In 1992,“The Corporate Accounting Standards”first and officially included the principle of conservati and regarded it as fundamental. In 1998,“The Accounting Standards for the Limited Corporations”further emphasized the application of the principle of conservati demonstrated by the more strengthened articles on write-offs and opening costs etc.“The Corporate Accounting Standards 2001”again put increased weight on the principle of conservati through the articles that allowed 8 kinds of write-offs and about the recording of income from the non-monetary transactions etc. In 2007, the latest“1+38 Corporate Accounting Standards”further allowed write-offs on almost all kinds of assets but no reversal.So far, the study of the effects resulted from the reforms of accounting standards on the conservati has been quite rare. So the reforms of accounting standards in China provide us with a good opportunity and platform to enrich the literatures about the explanations for the exitence and the change of conservati esp.in emerging markets.As demanded by the empirical analyses, in this paper, I he further enriched the the contents of Watts(2003b) by not only introducing new measure (model) types(the accounting based BS/AS models, by far, the latest and the most robust ever existed in the field of conservati measurement), but also including the discussions on all the models’(including the 3 types emotioned in Watts(2003b)) specifications, plus on their other specific characteristics etc. Then considering the specific characteristics of Chinese equity market and listed firms, from the perspective of DKW(1998) model(Operation Cycle Effects Model), I he finally decided to introduce the non-priced and accounting based BS/AS models into this study of the effects of accounting standards reforms on the conditional conservati in China, which indeed provide us with a brand new perspective of measuring conditional conservati.At last, based on the observations from Chinese listed firms (year1999-year2006, A share market, excluding the ones from the finance industry), with the application of BS/AS models, I he found out:①No trace of conditional conservati in Chinese listed firm in 1999-2006, but simultaneously,②as the effects of the application of“The Corporate Accounting Standards 2001”, the firms he made significant progress in the sense of earnings conservati, mainly at the aspect of more timely losses recognition.③the effects from the reforms of accounting standards are asymmetric—it has significantly improved the timeliness of losses recognition, meanwhile its effects on the deferral of gains recognition are not significant, nearly 0.That is to say, with the application of reformed accounting standards 2001, the Chinese listed firms, on the erage, started to tend to choose more conservative accounting methods when facing losses, but still chose non-conservative methods when facing gains. All the results above showed that although the reforms of Chinese accounting standards has put more and more weight on the principle of conservati, the actual effects are not satiactory, esp. on the deferral effects of gains recognition. Since the reforms of accounting standards itself is no more than a necessary condition for the improvement of earnings conservati, its final effects also rely on the quality of the legal and the regulation systems related, such as it also demands to further strengthen the legal liabilities of the external auditors, improve the regulation system for the disclosure mechani of accounting information and the disclosure mechani itself , introduce more effective regulation system and more severe punishment for the firms and their management manipulating earnings. Without these, the effects on the earnings conservati resulted from the reforms of accounting standards can not be maximized—the quality of accounting numbers can not be significantly improved.
论文关键词: 稳健性;条件/无条件稳健性;会计准则改革;稳健性测度(模型);DKW模型;BS模型;AS模型;
Key words(英文摘要): Accounting Conservati;Conditonal/Unconditional Conservati;the Reform of Accounting Standards;Conservati Measures(Models);DKW Model;BS Model;AS Model;