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Was Arthur Andersen Different?: An Empirical Examination Of Major Accounting Firms' Audits Of Large Clients, Theodore Eisenberg, Jonathan R. Macey

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Enron and other corporate financial scandals focused attention on the accounting industry in general and on Arthur Andersen in particular. Part of the policy response to Enron, the criminal prosecution of Andersen, eliminated one of the few major audit firms capable of auditing many large, public corporations. This article explores whether Andersen’s performance, as measured by frequency of financial restatements, measurably differed from that of other large auditors. Financial restatements trigger significant negative market reactions and their frequency can be viewed as a measure of accounting performance. We analyze the financial restatement activity of approximately 1,000 large, public firms from …

The Effect Of Firm Characteristics On The Use Of Percentage Retail Leases, Gregory H. Chun, Mark Eppli, James D. Shilling

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

Choice of lease payments has been widely studied in the literature. There are three—not necessarily exclusive—explanations that have received attention. The first attributes the choice of fixed versus percentage lease payments to risk-sharing preferences. The second explanation views percentage-of-sales lease agreements as a way discriminating monopolists can appropriate economic rents. The third attributes percentage-of-sales lease agreements to a metering and bonding argument. This paper examines the proposition that the choice of percentage retail leases is driven in part by managements' desire to circumvent the cost of violating debt covenant restrictions. The evidence presented here supports the prediction that retail firms …

Capital Asset Accounting System, Al Major

MTAS Publications: Full Publications

This publication provides direction in accounting for and properly reporting assets in governmental funds.

Technical Bulletins: Work Order Systems Mean Better Financial Management, Al Major

MTAS Publications: Technical Bulletins

A complete work order system can enhance the financial manager’s control and accountability of any public works project.

Accounting For Intellectual Assets And Liabilities, Indra Abeysekera

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

This paper is an addition to the current debate on how to measure and recognise intellectual assets and liabilities. A conceptual approach has been proposed so that intellectual assets and liabilities can be recognised in the financial statements using market value as a reference point acknowledging that intellectual assets and liability items cannot be measured accurately to recognise them individually. It was constructed using the common ground between financial reporting and intellectual assets and liability management. It has used an intellectual assets definition, an intellectual assets indicator at an organizational level, the Australian conceptual framework in accounting and recently published …

Commentary: Reflections On The Critical Accounting Movement: The Reflections Of A Cultural Conservative, Mary A. Kaidonis

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The editors described this as provocative and I was eager to be informed and challenged. O'Regan's claim to be sympathetic to Critical Accounting and his promise to "articulate in sober terms" gave way to O'Regan's frustration, distain and ultimately to reveal his confusion. If previous authoritive writers have failed to inform or enlighten, what contribution could I make? Do I respond the emotive phrases used. Do I sensor me responses? Or should I be amused and have some fun too? I have decided to do all three by offering two commentaries; one which takes O'Regans's paper seriously and I also …

But What Will The Wto Disciplines Apply To - Distinguishing Among Market Access, National Treatment And Article Vi:4 Measures When Applying The Gats To Legal Services, Laurel S. Terry

Faculty Scholarly Works

One of the issues currently facing World Trade Organization (WTO) Member States is whether to extend to the legal profession and other service providers the WTO Disciplines for Domestic Regulation in the Accountancy Sector [Accountancy Disciplines]. The Accountancy Disciplines document applies to regulatory measures that would be considered domestic regulations under Article VI:4 of the GATS, rather than market access or national treatment measures under Articles XVI or XVII of the GATS. This paper argues that in order to meaningfully discuss whether to extend the Accountancy Disciplines to the legal profession, U.S. policy-makers and stakeholders need to understand the type …

The Case For Repealing The Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax, Terrence R. Chorvat, Michael S. Knoll

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Yawn: Heavy Rhetoric, Light Reform (And It Might Just Work), Lawrence A. Cunningham

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

A thorough examination of the much ballyhooed Sarbanes-Oxley Act reveals dominantly a federal codification of extant rules, regulations, practices, and norms. Despite advertising it as "the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of FDR," a soberly apolitical view sees the Act as more sweep than reform. Important are provisions calling for nine studies; redundant but much publicized were the certification requirements imposed during the summer of 2002; other moves are mere patchwork responses to precise transgressions present in the popularized scandals. The Act is far from trivial, however. A silver bullet relates to the structure and …

Business Law Reform In The United States: Thinking Too Small?, Douglas C. Michael

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Dean Johan Henning presents the South African experience with business entity reform as one part of a coordinated whole. It included, for example, government funding for business, tax reforms, accounting and securities changes. Henning says that these reforms, though multi-faceted, had a uniform purpose: to use small business as an engine to improve the economy and to move “historically and socially disadvantaged groups” into the mainstream of the economy and the society.

These are noble goals and far reaching efforts, and a lot to ask of business entity reform. But because the South African experience was nonetheless successful by all …

What Caused Enron? A Capsule Social And Economic History Of The 1990s, John C. Coffee Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

The sudden explosion of corporate accounting scandals and related financial irregularities that burst over the financial markets between late 2001 and the first half of 2002 e.g., Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Adelphia, and others-raises an obvious question: why now? What explains the sudden concentration of financial scandals at this moment in time? Much commentary has rounded up the usual suspects and blamed the scandals on a decline in business morality, “infectious greed,” and similar subjective trends that cannot be reliably measured.