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Towards an understanding of the role of standard setters in standard setting

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  • Allen, Abigail
  • Ramanna, Karthik

Abstract

We investigate the effect of standard setters in standard setting. We examine how certain professional and political characteristics of FASB members and SEC commissioners predict the accounting “reliability” and “relevance” of proposed standards. Notably, we find FASB members with backgrounds in financial services are more likely to propose standards that decrease “reliability” and increase “relevance,” partly due to their tendency to propose fair-value methods. We find opposite results for FASB members affiliated with the Democratic Party, although only when excluding financial-services background as an independent variable. Jackknife procedures show that results are robust to omitting any individual standard setter.

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  • Allen, Abigail & Ramanna, Karthik, 2013. "Towards an understanding of the role of standard setters in standard setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 66-90.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:55:y:2013:i:1:p:66-90
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2012.05.003
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    3. Jody Grewal & Clarissa Hauptmann & George Serafeim, 2021. "Material Sustainability Information and Stock Price Informativeness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 513-544, July.
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    6. Morley Julia, 2022. "The Pluralistic Foundations of Conceptual Veiling," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 191-210, May.
    7. Murphy, Tim & O’Connell, Vincent, 2017. "Challenging the dominance of formalism in accounting education: An analysis of the potential of stewardship in light of the evolution of legal education," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-29.
    8. Bhimani, Alnoor & Bond, David & Sivabalan, Prabhu, 2019. "Does greater user representation lead to more user focused standards? An empirical investigation of IASB’s approach to standard setting," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91196, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Christian Blecher, 2019. "The influence of uncertainty on the standard-setting decision between fair value and historical cost accounting under asymmetric information," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 47-72, July.
    10. Morley, Julia, 2022. "The pluralistic foundations of conceptual veiling," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114359, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Jivas Chakravarthy, 2019. "Ideological diversity in standard setting," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 113-155, March.
    12. Brandon Gipper & Brett J Lombardi & Douglas J Skinner, 2013. "The politics of accounting standard-setting: A review of empirical research," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(3), pages 523-551, December.
    13. Jonas Heese, 2022. "Does Industry Employment of Active Regulators Weaken Oversight?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(12), pages 9198-9218, December.
    14. Bertomeu, Jeremy & Magee, Robert P., 2015. "Mandatory disclosure and asymmetry in financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 284-299.
    15. Hrisanta Cristina Ungureanu & Georgiana Burlacu & Monika Brigitte Sürgün & Nicoleta Ileana Traistaru & Aurelian Vranceanu, 2019. "Using Financial Accounting Information for Evaluation and Control," Academic Journal of Economic Studies, Faculty of Finance, Banking and Accountancy Bucharest,"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, vol. 5(2), pages 120-124, June.
    16. Glover Jonathan, 2014. "Have Academic Accountants and Financial Accounting Standard Setters Traded Places?," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 17-26, February.
    17. Erb, Carsten & Pelger, Christoph, 2015. "“Twisting words”? A study of the construction and reconstruction of reliability in financial reporting standard-setting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 13-40.
    18. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Rajat Deb, 2019. "Accounting Theory Coherence Revisited," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 44(1), pages 36-57, February.
    20. Volkova, O., 2018. "Fair Value in Finance: Fifty Shades of Fairness," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 85-109.
    21. Yong, Kevin Ow & Lim, Chu Yeong & Tan, Pearl, 2016. "Theory and practice of the proposed conceptual framework: Evidence from the field," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 62-74.
    22. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2017. "Contracting on GAAP Changes: Large Sample Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1021-1050, December.
    23. Franzen, Laurel & Meckfessel, Michele & Moehrle, Stephen R. & Reynolds-Moehrle, Jennifer A., 2015. "Developments in accounting regulation: A synthesis and annotated bibliography of evidence and commentary in the 2013 academic literature," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 138-159.
    24. Jiang, John (Xuefeng) & Wang, Isabel Yanyan & Wangerin, Daniel D., 2018. "How does the FASB make decisions? A descriptive study of agenda-setting and the role of individual board members," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 30-46.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Accounting; FASB; Politics; Relevance; Reliability; Standard setting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

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