IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ijbmjn/v11y2016i5p22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

External VS. Internal Audit in the Accounting of Complex Contractual Instruments: A Survey on EU Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Massimiliano Celli

Abstract

This article aims at ascertain if external and independent audit can improve the reliability of IAS/IFRS financial statements with regard to the accounting of complex contractual instruments such as swing contracts for the sale and purchase of energy commodities. To this end, first of all the standard contents of the contracts at stake will be identified, based on those usually recurring in corporate practice. Then, it will be ascertained whether such contracts subtend an industrial usage only, so that the pertinent arrangement has to be accounted as a standard purchase/sale transaction, or whether the counterparts are pursuing financial intendments, since in such assumption the swing contract must be accounted as a financial instrument in accordance with IFRS 9/IAS 39. Conclusively, the modalities will be analysed which are used by a number of European companies whose typical activity is the purchase/sale of energy commodities, to account such kind of contracts. The survey aims at verify if the accounting modalities chosen by companies whose financial statements are subject to an external and independent audit (voluntarily or mandatorily pursuant to the applicable laws) are more compliant with the principle of faithful representation than those which are not subject to an external and independent audit.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimiliano Celli, 2016. "External VS. Internal Audit in the Accounting of Complex Contractual Instruments: A Survey on EU Firms," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(5), pages 1-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ijbmjn:v:11:y:2016:i:5:p:22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/download/56814/31630
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/view/56814
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Webb, David C, 1991. "Long-term Financial Contracts Can Mitigate the Adverse Selection Problem in Project Financing," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 32(2), pages 305-320, May.
    2. Chi-Keung Woo, Ira Horowitz, Brian Horii, Ren Orans, and Jay Zarnikau, 2012. "Blowing in the Wind: Vanishing Payoffs of a Tolling Agreement for Natural-gas-fired Generation of Electricity in Texas," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    3. Woo, Chi-Keung & Olson, Arne & Orans, Ren, 2004. "Benchmarking the Price Reasonableness of an Electricity Tolling Agreement," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 65-75, June.
    4. Stéphane SAUSSIER, 1999. "Transaction Cost Economics and Contract Duration : An Empirical Analysis of EDF Coal Contracts," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 1999011, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    5. Rayman, R.A., 2007. "Fair value accounting and the present value fallacy: The need for an alternative conceptual framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 211-225.
    6. Polo, Michele & Scarpa, Carlo, 2013. "Liberalizing the gas industry: Take-or-pay contracts, retail competition and wholesale trade," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 64-82.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cao, K.H. & Qi, H.S. & Tsai, C.H. & Woo, C.K. & Zarnikau, J., 2021. "Energy trading efficiency in the US Midcontinent electricity markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    2. Woo, C.K. & Milstein, I. & Tishler, A. & Zarnikau, J., 2019. "A wholesale electricity market design sans missing money and price manipulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    3. Dong-Hyun Kim & Eul-Bum Lee & In-Hyeo Jung & Douglas Alleman, 2019. "The Efficacy of the Tolling Model’s Ability to Improve Project Profitability on International Steel Plants," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Moore, J. & Woo, C.K. & Horii, B. & Price, S. & Olson, A., 2010. "Estimating the option value of a non-firm electricity tariff," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1609-1614.
    5. Werner, Arndt, 2008. "Do Credit Constraints Matter more for College Dropout Entrepreneurs?," MPRA Paper 11867, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kim, Sang-Joon & Bae, John & Oh, Hannah, 2019. "Financing strategically: The moderation effect of marketing activities on the bifurcated relationship between debt level and firm valuation of small and medium enterprises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 663-681.
    7. Argilés bosch, Josep M.a & Aliberch, Anna Sabata & Blandón, Josep García, 2012. "A Comparative Study of Difficulties in Accounting Preparation and Judgement in Agriculture Using Fair Value and Historical Cost for Biological Assets Valuation," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 109-142.
    8. Miriello, Caterina & Polo, Michele, 2015. "The development of gas hubs in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 177-190.
    9. Woo, C.K. & Olson, A. & Horowitz, I., 2006. "Market efficiency, cross hedging and price forecasts: California's natural-gas markets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 1290-1304.
    10. Ahlin, Christian & Waters, Brian, 2016. "Dynamic microlending under adverse selection: Can it rival group lending?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 237-257.
    11. Parker, Simon C, 2002. "Do Banks Ration Credit to New Enterprises? And Should Governments Intervene? President's Lecture Delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Economic Society 4-5 September 2001," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(2), pages 162-195, May.
    12. Levin, Todd & Botterud, Audun, 2015. "Electricity market design for generator revenue sufficiency with increased variable generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 392-406.
    13. Deng, S.J. & Oren, S.S., 2006. "Electricity derivatives and risk management," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 940-953.
    14. Helm, Roland & Kloyer, Martin, 2004. "Controlling contractual exchange risks in R&D interfirm cooperation: an empirical study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1103-1122, October.
    15. Chien-An Wang & Chin-Oh Chang, 2008. "Is It a Heavy Log that Broke the Camel’s Back? Evidence of the Credit Channel in Taiwan’s Construction Industry," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 11(1), pages 38-64.
    16. Malgorzata Wegrzynska & Alina Nowotarska, 2021. "Measuring and Valuation of Biological Assets: A Research Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 331-345.
    17. Ricardo Gonçalves & Flávio Menezes, 2022. "Market‐wide impact of renewables on electricity prices in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(320), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Josep Ma. Argiles (UB) & Josep Garcia Bladon (IQS) & Teresa Monllau (UPF), 2009. "Fair value versus historic cost Valuation for Biological assets: Implications for the quality of financial information," Working Papers in Economics 215, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    19. Woo, C.K. & Sreedharan, P. & Hargreaves, J. & Kahrl, F. & Wang, J. & Horowitz, I., 2014. "A review of electricity product differentiation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 262-272.
    20. Woo, C.K. & Chen, Y. & Olson, A. & Moore, J. & Schlag, N. & Ong, A. & Ho, T., 2017. "Electricity price behavior and carbon trading: New evidence from California," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 531-543.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ijbmjn:v:11:y:2016:i:5:p:22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.