Accounting Commons^™

Cpa Exam Evolution 2024: How Accounting Students Are Impacted In The University Curriculum And In The Industry, Caitlin Mcgrath

Honors Projects in Accounting

With the updated CPA exam coming out in 2024, accounting education and the profession need to make changes in a variety of areas to ensure their students are ready. This study considers how current accounting students can be prepared, how the new exam will impact undergraduate and graduate accounting curriculum models, and how the workplace has been adjusting to this change in the accounting industry. This research provides perspective and deeper insight into the effects of the CPA exam to come out in 2024. The goal of my research was to gain more knowledge about the new exam and to …

There's No Business Like Show Business: Analyzing The Factors Of Broadway Shows That Have The Most Influence Over The Theatre Industry's Recovery From The Covid-19 Shutdown, Megan Swenson

Honors Projects in Accounting

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the Broadway theatre industry, with all performing arts venues suspending performances for at least 18 months. The economic recession associated with the COVID-19 pandemic left actors, directors, and theater workers unemployed for months on end, causing undue economic harm to individual finances and the industry. Since the reopening of Broadway plays and musicals in the fall of 2021, very few shows have been able to reach pre-pandemic levels of income and attendance. This project aims to use a regression analysis of weekly gross income for Broadway shows to predict what factors will …

Scamazon?: Antitrust Concerns In An Incorporated E-Commerce Marketplace, Aidan Macsweeney

Honors Projects in Accounting

The purpose of this Honors Thesis is to develop an understanding of how Amazon Inc. operates and competes in its own e-commerce marketplace. The paper seeks to answer the research question: Is the relationship between Amazon seller type and list price consistent with regulator antitrust concerns? The goal is to analyze Amazon listings in 27 product categories and how their price/sales effects vary by seller type: Amazon, Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), and Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM). Special attention will be given to identifying price trends by category, the impact of the "Buy Box", and competing offers on the same listings. …

2017 Tax Cuts And Jobs Act And Its Effect On Vertical Equity For Homeowners, Melanie Auclair

Honors Projects in Accounting

Data from the Internal Revenue Service's Statistics of Income (SOI) was analyzed to compare the tax subsidy for homeowners from filing year 2018 (for calendar year 2017) and filing year 2019 (for calendar year 2018). Homeowner tax benefits were calculated with an extensive analysis to understand how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changes affected homeowner tax benefits on a vertical equity basis. Prior research has shown homeowner tax benefits are regressive in nature. The primary research question in this study is whether TCJA increased or decreased regressivity of homeowner tax benefits. The results of this study have shown that …

Changes To Corporate Codes Of Ethics: A Twelve-Year Analysis, Curtis Silverman

Honors Projects in Accounting

The Enron scandal caused companies and their Board of Directors to reconsider how they were utilizing their code of ethics, especially after the legislation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Enron's Board of Directors provided the CFO, Andy Fastow, with a waiver of the code of ethics to negotiate with himself, while also on behalf of Enron. The issue with this waiver was that, at the time, investors were left in the dark because they did not need to be notified about any changes or exceptions made to the code of ethics. After learning about why codes of ethics and …

The Impact Of Emerging Big Data And Analytical Approaches, Kennedy Akpeneye

Honors Projects in Accounting

Although accounting has gone through many significant changes over the years due to big data and data analytics, the profession remains at the core of business. Big data has not only impacted the accounting profession but has also completely transformed the business world. As accounting associates are continuously introduced to new technology software, their ability to analyze and interpret data is enhanced. The research in this paper seeks to understand how big data and analytics are currently impacting the work of beginning accounting associates. More specifically, this thesis analyzes certain trends in big data within the accounting industry. This involves …

Syllabus For Auditing Concepts & Applications, Charles Cullinan

Resources

This course presents the basic concepts and procedures involved in an audit of financial statements. Topical coverage includes audit planning, internal control evaluation, and substantive audit testing.

The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act: The Fairest Of Them All?, Julia Sheehan

Honors Projects in Accounting

This study explores how the tax law changes made through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) had an impact on horizontal equity within the tax system. Through simulations of the “typical taxpayer,” or the median situated taxpayer and homeowner, homeownership tax benefits were computed using the TCJA law as well as the prior tax law. This was completed for both single and married filing joint taxpayers. The typical taxpayer’s benefits under each tax law were compared across various regions of the country to evaluate how horizontal equity had been changed. The simulations’ findings indicate that as a …

Impact Of The Tax Cut And Jobs Act Of 2017 On Six Key Industries, Ariana Bar

Research and Innovation Village

The research showcases the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 on six different industries: agriculture, construction, manufacturing, utilities, finance, and services. Data was obtained from Calcbench, and ratios of income tax to earnings before taxes, assets, and revenue were calculated along with percent changes from 2017 to 2018.It was hypothesized that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 would have a positive impact on these industries and lead to a reduction in taxes. The research demonstrated that change in the corporate tax rate, bonus depreciation, and the NOL carryforward are common aspects of the tax …

Managing The Going Concern Risk In An Uncertain Environment An Analysis Of Regulatory Guidance And Financial Relief For The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicholas C. Lynch, Michael F. Lynch, Charles Cullinan

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

manufacturing company Regal Beloit reports that it has drawn $255 million on its line of credit, even though it "has a strong balance sheet and does not currently intend to use the borrowed proceeds, but believes an abundance of caution regarding its cash position is prudent at this time." Management's Responsibility The responsibility to prepare financial statements on a going concern basis under U.S. GAAP and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) falls on management. Managers must look forward for a "reasonable period of time," defined as 12 months from the financial statement issue date or 12 months from the …

Institutional Ownership And Value Relevance Of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: Empirical Evidence From China, Ramiz Ur Rehman, Zahid Riaz, Charles Cullinan, Junrui Zhang, Fanghua Wang

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

We examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and firm value in China. Using a sample of listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2012, we find that market value of a firm is higher when a company makes a lower level of CSR disclosure. Other things being equal, this relationship becomes positive when the CSR disclosure is moderated with the institutional ownership. With regard to the CSR disclosure, we found consistent results with respect to the little evidence that the amount of CSR disclosure is significantly associated with market value among those companies who …

Differential Informativeness Of Accrual Measures To Analysts’ Forecast Accuracy, Kwadwo Asare, Lookman Buky Folami, Elena Precourt

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

This paper evaluates whether analysts incorporate formal measures of earnings quality into their earnings forecasts. It examines whether the accrual ratio and abnormal accruals, measured with the Modified Jones (1991) Model of discretionary accruals, differentially inform analysts’ earnings forecasts. It uses the accuracy of analysts’ forecast as a context in which to evaluate how well analysts incorporate effects of the information contained in accrual ratio and abnormal accruals. The results indicate that the accrual ratio is negatively related to the absolute value of analysts’ forecast errors while the Modified Jones (1991) Model of discretionary accruals have virtually no economic effect …

Modeling Market Reactions To Auditor Changes Using Variable Selection Algorithms: A Meta-Analysis, Richard Holowczak, David A. Louton, Hakan Saraoglu, Charles Cullinan

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

Market reactions to auditor change filings have been studied over a long period in the literature. We provide a review of the literature on market response to auditor changes and identify a superset of variables used in published research. Applying methods from machine learning to optimize variable selection, we build models that explain market reaction to auditor changes. We compare the performance of our models with the performance of the models that use subsets of variables examined in a select list of studies in the literature. Our meta-analysis results in an improvement in model fit compared to the analysis used …

How Does Variability In Cash Flows And Returns Influence How Top Executives Are Paid?, Kwadwo N. Asare

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

I invoke agency theory to evaluate how top executives’ compensation contracts are structured, conditional on risk in the firm’s operating environment, focusing on the total, fixed, and variable components. The results suggest that companies exert some effort to adhere to agency theoretic principles in designing top executive compensation contracts. However, imperfections in the pay setting process mean that there is ample room for powerful CEOs to seek rents. Furthermore, when risk in the operating environment is measured with volatility in returns, non-CEO top executives sometimes bear greater risk than CEOs, collecting a greater percentage of their compensation in variable pay …

Earnings Persistence And Levels Of The Accrual Ratio And Discretionary Accruals, Kwadwo Asare

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

This paper evaluates how persistent earnings and its accrual and cash flow components are conditional on the modified Jones Model discretionary accruals and the accrual ratio. Consistent with prior research cash flows are more persistent than both earnings and the accruals component of earnings. While the difference in persistence of the extreme deciles of Discretionary Accruals are not very large, those of the Accrual Ratio are much larger, suggesting that the Accrual Ratio can be a simple but effective gauge of earnings persistence and can complement Discretionary Accruals as a measure of the persistence dimension of earnings quality.

"Profitability" Analysis, Ekta Chugh

Honors Projects in Accounting

The United States has a very unique healthcare system. The different layers of variance from care coordination, case management to utilization in all parts of healthcare makes the system really complex. With the continuous evolution in the healthcare system including changes in healthcare laws and payment methods, the profitability and financial sustainability of hospitals have become aspects of utmost importance not only to the hospitals but also to the people in general. My senior thesis focuses on the determination of the financial sustainability of hospitals. To understand that, I conducted a comparative analysis of profitability among different departments in a …

How Informative Are Fraud And Non-Fraud Firms' Earnings?, Kwadwo Nyarko Asare

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

This study evaluates how informative the earnings of fraud firms are compared to peer non-fraud firms by assessing informativeness in the context of persistence, analysts’ forecast errors, and stock returns. There are differences in how informative the earnings of fraud firms are to analysts’ forecasts and returns in the pre-fraud period, but not in the fraud period. In the post- fraud period, there is no difference in how informative fraud firms’ earnings are to analysts’ earnings forecasts. Furthermore, fraud firm’s earnings are not differentially associated with excess returns post-fraud. When earnings are decomposed into accruals and cash flows, fraud firms’ …

Five Types Of Interest Expense, Three Sets Of New Rules, Larry Witner, Tim Krumwiede

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

Individual taxpayers are subject to different rules for deducting different types of interest expense. The five primary types of interest for individual taxpayers are student loan interest, qualified residence indebtedness interest, investment interest, business interest, and personal interest. The law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act temporarily introduced new rules for years after 2017 for qualified residence indebtedness interest, investment interest, and business interest. For 2018 through 2025, the acquisition indebtedness limit on the qualified residence indebtedness deduction has been lowered to $750,000 for loans incurred after Dec. 15, 2017, and the separate deduction for home-equity indebtedness has …

Portfolio Liquidity And Share Turnover Of Closed-End Mutual Funds, Charles P. Cullinan, Xiaochuan Zheng, Elena Precourt

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

We examine the relationship between the liquidity of the portfolios of closed-end mutual funds and the share turnover of closed-end funds' shares. We find that the portfolio liquidity/share turnover relationship is contingent upon the nature of the funds' shareholders. For funds with mainly smaller shareholders, there is a negative relationship between portfolio liquidity and share turnover, suggesting that smaller investors are more likely to hold shares of these funds to avoid the transaction costs associated with trading. However, as more institutional investors hold fund shares, portfolio liquidity is positively associated with share turnover.

Hospital Cost Accounting: Saving Lives And Saving On Costs, Amanda Whitehouse

Honors Projects in Accounting

Within an industry constantly pursuing accuracy, a cost accounting system that addresses the ongoing concerns of saving money and increasing efficiency is a must. Now more than ever, hospitals require reliable information to combat the conflicting relationship between an increase in spending on new instruments and specialized staff, but a decrease in funding. This project explores potential avenues to find a successful cost accounting method using past research, analysis of hospitals’ current environments, and expert opinions from hospital and healthcare personnel. Each hospital is different based on their environment, surrounding population, type of services provided, and personal demands. This study …

Corporate Governance A Comparative Analysis In India And The Us, Pallak Bhandari

Honors Projects in Accounting

My senior capstone project focuses on the importance of transparency and monitoring within corporate governance, especially in India and the US. To understand corporate governance, I studied the different theories and models of corporate governance as well as sustainability reporting. This research discusses the legal and regulatory environment within India and the US, and through a comprehensive study of the regulatory bodies within the two countries, I determined the best practices of corporate governance. I conducted a comparative analysis across India and the US with focus on 13 elements: insider trading, disclosure and certification of financial statements, remuneration disclosure, code …

Financial Literacy: Impact On Student Success, Alexandra Cummingham

Honors Projects in Accounting

Financial literacy has proven to be an essential skill for young adults to help in achieving success and reaching one’s potential. Many studies find that those with a stronger background in financial literacy are more likely to demonstrate positive behaviors, both financially and in other areas. This study will attempt to draw a link between Bryant University students’ background in financial literacy and benefits within the college classroom. Specifically, my study will look at whether having a stronger background in financial literacy leads to increased confidence in the classroom, decreased accounting anxiety, and superior academic performance. The study uses primary …

Public Accounting Vs. Private Accounting: Student Intentions, Robert Lazzaro

Honors Projects in Accounting

Most accounting students are faced with a big decision as they near the end of their undergraduate career. Will they work toward the Certified Public Accountant license and enter public accounting or will they will choose private accounting? Both fields have their pros and cons which makes this a difficult decision. This research indicated that students more focused on extrinsic rewards, such as compensation, are more likely to choose public accounting, while students more focused on lifestyle factors, such as work-life balance, are more likely to choose private. These findings were derived from surveys distributed to accounting students at Bryant …

Are Csr Activities Associated With Shareholder Voting In Director Elections And Say-On-Pay Votes?, Charles Cullinan, Lois S. Mahoney, Pamela B. Roush

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

When making investment decisions, many investors now regularly consider a company’s CSR activities along with traditional financial performance measures (Elliott et al., 2014). Our study considers whether shareholders may also consider CSR activities when voting in director elections and say-on-pay votes. We find that CSR performance is associated with shareholder support in both director elections and say-on-pay votes. In particular, we find higher support for both director elections and executive compensation when there are more CSR strengths. Additionally, we find that the social strength aspect of CSR is the most important component in the relationships between CSR and director elections …

The Perceptions Of Accounting: What Do You Think?, Brianna Darin

Honors Projects in Accounting

Accounting is often considered “the language of business,” but is sometimes perceived to be a difficult topic. This study seeks to get a deeper understanding as to why business students and other students perceive accounting to be such an intimidating subject. The ultimate research question addressed is: What are the perceptions of accounting among accounting students, non-accounting business students, and non-business students? A review of the relevant background literature led to two hypotheses that assist in answering the research question. Following the literature review and hypotheses development, a two-part process took place: (1) we conducted focus groups and (2) we …

An Investigation Of Accounting Education To Help Students Improve Important Job Skills, Alec Schuberth

Honors Projects in Accounting

Upon graduation, many college students embark on their professional careers in accounting. These graduates have completed their degree and moved to their new, exciting, and challenging jobs; but have these corporations recently expressed satisfaction with the performance of these young employees? Some studies suggest that many executives do not think that their new employees have developed the skills needed to be successful in today’s competitive business landscape. This project extends the literature by examining professional development in college graduates and applying it within the context of accounting education in college and universities nationwide. Overall, this project aims to investigate why …

Do Some Stakeholders In Publicly Traded Firms Benefit At The Expense Of Others As A Result Of Corporate Inversions?, Ryan Hitchcock

Honors Projects in Accounting

This report examines corporate inversions to determine whether this practice benefits the majority of stakeholders or merely a select few. A sample of firms previously incorporated in the United States that have since undergone inversions is examined to answer this question. Annual stock price returns, stock price volatility, and earnings per share changes from the sample of inversion firms are the main sources of data examined. These results are compared to the S&P 500 and peer firms to determine whether the changes can be attributed to the inversions, or are merely a result of general economic conditions. Supporting topics addressed …

An Historical Analysis Of The Role Of Accounting For The Japanese Internment Camps During World War Ii, Midori Knowles

Honors Projects in Accounting

On December 7th, 1941, the United States was the victim of a tragic attack on a naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This resulted in the United States’ entry into World War II, including the declaration of war against the country of Japan. On February 19th, 1942, just two months after the attacks, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which permitted the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to relocate over 110,000 Japanese- American citizens. The forced relocation sent these Japanese-Americans to ten relocation centers spread throughout the west and mid-west of the country. The government declared that this relocation …

Accounting For Ethics: Emphasis On Ethics Education In Us Collegiate Business Curricula, Sarah Stokowski

Honors Projects in Accounting

The accounting field holds a background in ethical understanding to be of great importance. The purpose of this project was to investigate the extent to which ethics education is emphasized and implemented within the business, and specifically accounting, curricula of US collegiate level institutions. Course curricula from a sample of 445 AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accredited business programs in the US were examined for their emphasis on ethics education. This emphasis was quantified through a novel measurement, the Ethics Education Index, which is an originally constructed weighted measure of the number of stand-alone courses dealing with …

Analyst Ratings For Firms Filing And Reorganizing Under Chapter 11, Elena Precourt, Henry Oppenheimer

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine analyst followings of firms starting from one year prior to their filing for Chapter 11 and as the firms progress through bankruptcy proceedings with a focus on firms receiving “Hold” or better recommendations. The authors attempt to answer questions such as what the common characteristics of the firms receiving stronger than expected recommendations one year prior to filing for bankruptcy reorganization or while in bankruptcy are, and how the market reacts to the issuance of stronger ratings for those firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors design various regressions and apply them to a …