The Effect of Uncertainty About Future Accounting Standards on Financial Reporting Quality

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Van Landuyt, Ben W.; White, Brian J.
• 署名单位: University of Arizona; Cornell University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.01469
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: accounting standards; financial reporting quality; accounting estimates; uncertainty; Experimental economics

摘要

Financial statement preparers frequently trade off the benefit of reporting biased estimates with potential penalties for misreporting. In making this trade-off, preparers often face uncertainty about potential changes to accounting standards (standard-setting uncertainty) that could affect the future benefits of biased reporting. Our experiment documents two novel behavioral effects of standard-setting uncertainty on preparers' estimates. First, standardsetting uncertainty causes preparers to make less biased estimates, even though reduced bias conflicts with their financial incentives in our setting. Second, standard-setting uncertainty increases preparers' sensitivity to measurement imprecision, which is important for highquality financial reporting. Although standard-setting uncertainty is often criticized, our theory and results suggest that increased financial reporting quality can be an unanticipated benefit of the uncertainty that naturally arises from a measured and deliberative standard-setting process.