1,720,977 research outputs found
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
Profili ragionieristici della contabilità nazionale
No full textIl presente lavoro esamina la contabilità nazionale in una prospettiva ragionieristica, indagando la logica, il metodo e il sistema dei conti nazionali in vigore nell’Unione Europea: il Sistema europeo dei conti - SEC 2010. Lo studio è motivato dall’evidente processo di ‘contaminazione’ macroeconomica dei sistemi contabili pubblici, a seguito del quale alcuni saldi di contabilità nazionale hanno assunto, in Italia, rilievo costituzionale – su tutti, il ‘saldo del conto economico consolidato delle amministrazioni pubbliche’. Allo scopo di consentire agli studiosi di ragioneria pubblica di contribuire con pienezza di strumenti ai processi evolutivi della contabilità delle amministrazioni pubbliche, il lavoro decostruisce questi saldi alla luce dei loro elementi costituenti, svelando così la dimensione ragionieristica della contabilità nazionale. In particolare, l’analisi rivela che la contabilità nazionale adotta il metodo partiduplistico in forma propria, rilevando sia l’aspetto economico sia l’aspetto finanziario dei fatti di gestione. L’analisi rivela, inoltre, che il principio di competenza economica adottato nella contabilità nazionale è basato su una logica di anticipazione dei ricavi, il che comporta una valutazione degli elementi del patrimonio generalmente basata sul prezzo di mercato e sul costo netto di sostituzione. Infine, l’analisi riconosce nel patrimonio netto e nelle sue variazioni l’oggetto principale delle rilevazioni, e illustra le diverse configurazioni di reddito rinvenibili nella contabilità nazionale a seconda di quali flussi sono ritenuti di competenza di un determinato esercizio. Con particolare riferimento alle amministrazioni pubbliche, l’analisi dimostra che il principio di competenza economica non è generalmente applicato alla rilevazione delle operazioni economiche tipiche delle amministrazioni pubbliche, la quale segue una logica essenzialmente finanziaria. Pertanto, l’adozione della contabilità economico-patrimoniale nelle amministrazioni pubbliche non può essere motivata dalla volontà di facilitare l’inserimento dei bilanci delle amministrazioni stesse nei conti nazionali, se non per quanto riguarda la rilevazione e la valutazione degli elementi che compongono il patrimonio pubblico.This work examines national accounts from an accounting perspective, inquiring into the logic, the method and the objective of the system of national accounts currently adopted in the European Union: the European System of Accounts – ESA 2010. The study is motivated by the evident process of macroeconomic ‘contamination’ of public sector accounting systems, following which some accounting balances typical of national accounts have gained constitutional relevance in Italy – above all, the ‘net lending/net borrowing of the general government sector’. In order to allow public sector accounting researchers to fully contribute to the evolution of governmental accounting systems, this study deconstructs these balances into their constituent elements, thus unveiling the accounting dimension of national accounts. Specifically, the analysis reveals that national accounting adopts double-entry bookkeeping in proper form, as it records both the economic and the financial aspect of transactions. Also, the analysis reveals that the accrual principle adopted in the national accounts is based upon the anticipation of revenues, which implies a valuation of balance sheet elements at either market prices or net replacement values. Finally, the analysis shows that the objective of national accounts is to evaluate net wealth and its variations, and it elucidates the various configurations of income that emerge in the national accounts, depending on which flows are judged to accrue to a period. Focussing on public administrations, the analysis shows that the accrual principle is not generally applied to the recording of the typical government operations, which follows a financial logic. Therefore, adopting accrual accounting in public administrations cannot be motivated with the willingness to ease the compilation of national accounts, save for what concerns the recording and the valuation of the elements of government wealth
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
Properties of accrual accounts in public sector entities: evidence from the Italian National Health Service
Full text linkPurpose
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
Selective application of the accrual principle in the construction of government finance statistics: EU evidence
No full textIMPACT
This article will help preparers and users of public sector accounting information understand why
there is a need to ‘translate’ accounting information into fiscal information, and how this
translation takes place through several ‘adjustments’. Readers will learn that, in the EU, it is
uncommon for fiscal information to be grounded on accrual-based accounting data—particularly
in the central government where cash data remain the preferred input. Readers will also learn
that, while cash accounting bases generate a somewhat greater need for adjustments before fiscal
information is produced, no accounting basis fully embraces the selective interpretation of the
accrual principle that underlies the construction of fiscal aggregates. The information produced by
fiscal and accounting information systems is unlikely to overlap fully, even if the public sector
were to adopt an accrual basis of accounting.
ABSTRACT
The 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, nonaccrual-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
A disclosure theory approach to government transparency: implications for accountability in times of a pandemic
No full textThis chapter argues that disclosure theory can add novel and important insights to research on public sector transparency, accountability, and accounting standard-setting. Through a brief summary of the main tenets of the theory, it will be recalled that whenever information systems are too costly or unable to provide precise signals to governments, a lack of transparency is likely to ensue that is attributable to limits to public officials’ knowledge rather than to a desire to escape their duty to be accountable. It will be proposed that in these circumstances, public officials should discharge their accountability duty by being transparent about the motives that prevent full disclosure. These arguments are presented by analyzing the quality of data released by governments on COVID-19 mortality rates during the first wave of the pandemic, and their possible application to accounting and accountability topics is discussed
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
When do Governments ‘Go Dark'? Evidence on Governments’ Disclosure Choices in Periods of Uncertainty
Full text linkWe examine the effect of uncertainty shocks on the level of fiscal guidance – the guidance issued by governments on the expected evolution of the fiscal and economic outlook. Because uncertainty makes governments’ expectations less precise but potentially more valuable to users, we hypothesize that a disclosure dilemma leads governments to balance a higher demand for guidance with a higher probability of issuing inaccurate forecasts. Using natural disasters to randomize uncertainty shocks in our sample, we find that on average, governments issue less guidance in periods of uncertainty. The effect is driven by a reduction in the number of forecasts on the future evolution of balance sheet items, but only when governments have low refinancing needs and face a relatively quiet bond market. Instead, governments that maintain a stable level of guidance in periods of uncertainty appear to cater to coercive isomorphic pressures stemming from creditors. We further document that the relative ‘transparency’ of governments in periods of uncertainty is negatively related to indicators of fiscal reporting quality. Collectively, the evidence indicates that in the public sector, uncertainty leads to a trade-off between disclosure quantity and quality
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