1,720,962 research outputs found
Are credit rating agencies users of government accounting information? Evidence from the sovereign rating process
No full textThis article examines whether credit rating agencies (CRAs) qualify as users of sovereign government accounting information. The analysis of two rating methodologies and 18 interviews with rating analysts reveal that sovereign ratings are generated using data drawn primarily from government finance statistics, rather than government financial reports. The reason is that only the former produce information that, while far from comprehensive, is comparable across sovereigns; a quality that government financial reports presently lack. Accordingly, CRAs are not users of sovereign government accounting information
Accounting for the ‘causes’ of the revenues and expenditures of the State: the first budget law of the Kingdom of Italy
No full textThis article examines the accounting logic of the first State budget law of the Kingdom of Italy, approved in November 1861 shortly after the country’s unification. The analysis reveals that the legal provisions dedicated to accounting themes, while limited in number, contain elements of great significance. Namely, these provisions indicate that the budget was nominally based on a cash logic, yet contained early traces of an accrual logic. Particularly significant are the provisions that defined revenues and expenses as the causes of financial inflows and outflows, and those that distinguished these flows based on the degree of recurrence–permanent or transitory–of their underlying cause. Drawing on Pellegrino Capaldo’s theory on the appropriate accrual principle applicable to the State budget, the analysis suggests that the 1861 budget law of the Kingdom of Italy foresaw a possible route that accrual budgeting and accounting could take in central government–one that was not taken, but which may be interesting to reconsider
Measuring fiscal guidance transparency
Full text linkThe public disclosure of medium-term fiscal plans – “fiscal guidance” – represents an increasingly important, yet understudied element of fiscal transparency frameworks. This article introduces a dataset that contains a large set of forecasts on fiscal and economic items issued by all European Union governments over the period 2001-2018. These forecasts are used to build an index of fiscal guidance transparency and to explore its main characteristics and correlates. The analysis reveals that governments are more transparent in their guidance on fiscal flows and macroeconomic aggregates than on liabilities, assets, and exogenous assumptions. In addition, transparency declines in the forecast horizon and in the strength of the governing coalition. Collectively, the results suggest that fiscal guidance transparency may be a sensitive area of policymaking that deserves scholarly attention. Possible uses of the measure of fiscal guidance transparency in research are discussed
Properties of accrual accounts in public sector entities: evidence from the Italian National Health Service
No full textPurpose: This paper aims to contribute to the debate over the desirability of introducing an accrual-based accounting system in the public sector by examining whether accrual-based accounting information is superior to cash-based information in the context of public sector entities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies a quantitative research method to assess the degree of smoothness and relevance of the accrual components of income recorded by 302 entities of the Italian National Health Service (INHS) over the period 2014–2020. Findings: The analysis reveals that net income is smoother than cash flows as a summary measure of economic results and that accounting for accruals improves the predictability of future cash flows. However, the authors' novel disaggregation of accrual accounts reveals that those accounts that contribute the most to making income smoother than cash flows – noncurrent assets and liabilities – are also those that contribute the least to predicting future cash flows. Originality/value: The disaggregation of accrual accounts allows to identify the sources of the informational benefits of accrual accounting, and to document the existence of an informational “trade-off” between smoothness and relevance in the context of public sector entities
La reporting entity nell'armonizzazione contabile delle amministrazioni pubbliche italiane: criticità e proposte
No full textThe reform and harmonization of the accounting systems of Italian public administrations highlight the need to identify individual reporting entities – those entities that will be required by the legislative to publish financial statements compliant with the Italian Accounting Standards (ITAS), currently under development. The article provides a theoretical discussion of the public sector reporting entity – a fundamentally new concept to the Italian accounting doctrine. The study is also meant to provide a timely contribution to the debate on a key of the accrual accounting reform included in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). To this aim, the study follows an interdisciplinary-comparative approach. First, the article analyzes the definitions of reporting entity developed by the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board and some major national standard setters. At an international level, the reporting entity is understood as an entity that prepares General Purpose Financial Reports (GPFR) that are useful to users that are dependent on GPFR of the entity for accountability and decision-making purposes. Next, the article examines what relationship, if any, exists between the international accounting definition of reporting entity and the concept of ‘institutional unit’ – the basic economic unit that populates national accounts. The analysis shows only partial overlap between the two notions, that suggests caution in identifying public sector reporting entities on the basis of the list of institutional units included in the ‘General Government Sector’ of national accounts. Furtherly, the study brings into consideration the different notions of ‘autonomy’ from administrative law. In particular, the notion of financial autonomy proves to be a potentially useful concept to distinguish reporting entities among those entities falling within the boundary of the accrual accounting reform. As a result, the article identifies five basic elements to a definition of public sector reporting entity. The proposed definition is meant to be compliant with the international accounting notion of reporting entity as well as suitable to the institutional context of the Italian accounting reform. The proposal may assist policy-makers and the legislature in defining the characteristics of the public sector reporting entities under ITAS
Selective application of the accrual principle in the construction of government finance statistics: EU evidence
No full textThe authors studied the ‘translation’ of government accounting working balances into fiscal balances in the EU. Non-accrual-based working balances were found to represent the most frequent primary source of data that national statistical institutions use to calculate and report fiscal balances in Excessive Deficit Procedure notification tables. Compared to accrual-based working balances, non-accrual-based working balances impose significant adjustments on current revenues and expenses to obtain fiscal balances, yet they lead to limited adjustments to several long-term transactions. The authors argue that this result originates from the selective application of the accrual principle in the construction of Government Finance Statistics
Epistemic governance of evaluative practices by organizations: The case of sovereign credit ratings
No full textFinancial analysts often work for organizations, such as brokerage houses, banks, and credit rating agencies. We ask whether these organizations condition the work of analysts and, if so, how and why. Through a qualitative study of the sovereign government rating departments of four credit rating agencies, our paper sheds light on the bundle of social practices and material arrangements through which rating agencies shape the evaluation work of financial analysts. Our findings indicate that this bundle is designed to resolve the dilemma that characterizes rating agencies - namely, how to elevate the standing of ratings from subjective opinions to collective knowledge. We label these processes the “epistemic governance” of evaluation practices and comment on their implications for critical management and organization studies
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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