International Harmonization Of Accounting Standards And Earnings Quality

Since the reform and opening up,our country has carried out a series of reform for the purpose of strengthening international harmonization of accounting standards. The difference between Chinese accounting standards(CAS) and international accounting standards(IAS) has been gradually narrowed,and the quality of CAS has been gradually improved.The ultimate goal of international harmonization of accounting standards is to provide accounting information users with high-quality accounting information,so that accounting information users in different countries or regions can make timely and correct economic decisions.However,the use of high-quality accounting standards will not necessarily bring high-quality accounting information,because the quality of accounting information(earnings quality),in addition to the impact of accounting standards,is also subject to legal system, opportunities and incentives faced by company's management and other factors. Therefore,accounting information users,accounting standards setters,accounting information supervisors and accounting researchers are very concerned about whether international harmonization of CAS can improve the quality of accounting information(earnings quality).Using a sample of B-share companies from 1996 to 2007 and the models of accruals quality and cash flows forecasting,this dissertation examines the effect of international harmonization of CAS on earnings quality and tests whether international harmonization of CAS can improve earnings quality from the difference of eamings quality under CAS and IAS,and from the trend of earnings quality under CAS.The conclusions are as follows:1.From the difference of earnings quality under CAS and IAS,the difference of earnings quality of B-share companies under CAS and IAS is not significant,and the earnings quality under IAS is not significantly higher than that under CAS.2.From the trend of earnings quality under CAS,with the continuous development of international harmonization of accounting standards and continuous improvement of legal system,the earnings quality of B-share companies under CAS has a significant upward trend overall. Research contributions of this dissertation are mainly reflected in the following four areas:1.This dissertation examines and evaluates the effect of international harmonization of accounting standards on earnings quality from the perspective of all accounting information users.2.This dissertation controls the effect of audit opinion differences between domestic and foreign accounting firms on the difference of earnings quality under CAS and IAS.3.This dissertation uses accruals quality model and cash flows forecasting model to measure earnings quality respectively,as far as possible to reduce the effect of measure deviation of a single model on research results.4.In empirical analysis of using cash flows forecasting model,this dissertation uses bootstrap method to estimate earnings quality under CAS and IAS.