Trust And Financial Statement Comparability

Trust,as an informal system,is one of the important social capitals,and it can act as a "lubricant" to the social system.Current research shows that informal institutions have important effects on both the macro and micro levels.The comparability of accounting information is an important standard for measuring the quality of accounting information.Both the Financial Accounting Standards Board(FASB)and the International Accounting Standards Board(IASC)have made clear requirements for the comparability of accounting information.China’s new accounting standards implemented in 2007 also clearly required that the accounting information provided by enterprises should be comparable.At present,many scholars have conducted a lot of research on the impact of trust on the micro-level of the company.However,will trust affect the comparability of accounting information,which is one of the important characteristics of the company’s accounting information quality? Few scholars have discussed and answered.Since the influence of regional social trust level on the comparability of company accounting information is not clear,this article uses the 2008-2018 Chinese A-share listed companies as a sample and uses empirical research methods to study the influence of the regional trust environment on the comparability of company accounting information.The study found that the level of social trust in a region can significantly improve the comparability of accounting information of companies in the region.In addition,many existing documents have pointed out that there is a connection between informal institutions and formal institutions.In further analysis,this article confirms the substituting effect of the informal and formal institution on the quality of corporate accounting information from the macro,meso,and micro levels.