Research On The Impact Of XBRL On The Quality Of Accounting Information

Since Hoffman, a CPA in U.S., introduced XML into financial reporting to form XBRL standards in 1998. XBRL has developed for more than 10 years and made great achievements both on theory research and on practical applications. In the future, XBRL standards will be the main disclosure form of accounting information quality. Thus, the research of XBRL on the quality of accounting information is especially important.This paper focuses on the two questions as follows. Firstly, we study normatively the effect on XBRL through comparability, timeliness, reliability of information. Secondly, we study positively the effect on improving the quality of financial information after XBRL standards carried out in our country.Based on theory research and empirical study, we get the following conclusions. (1)To some extent, XBRL can improve the information quality, such as comparability, timeliness, reliability. However, based on XBRL standards used in China at present, the situation has a bit difference. Firstly, because taxonomies are set differently between Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the comparability among all listed companies cannot be carried out. Secondly, once the public companies complete the disclosure of financial reports in PDF format, they submit the financial reporting in XBRL format-based on the exchanges' requirements. Thus, at present, XBRL cannot improve the information timeliness of listed companies in our country. Thirdly, XBRL is extensible, the company may not tag some unfavorable information to investors. Thus, in order to improve the data quality, the auditors must do some assurance to XBRL instance documents. (2) Early 2009, Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Market forced public companies to submit financial reporting based on XBRL. Through empirical study, although there is no reaction in Shenzhen Stock market, the disclosure of XBRL financial reporting in Shanghai Stock market has significantly positive correlation with CAR, which means the effect of XBRL has been showed in financial reporting, and the information transparency and relevance to investors has been improved. By controlling different windows of event study, it gets the same result.