Optimal impairment rules

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goex, Robert F.; Wagenhofer, Alfred
• 署名单位: University of Graz; University of Fribourg
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING & ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0165-4101
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2009.04.004
• 发表日期: 2009
• 关键词: ACCOUNTING CONSERVATISM; Timeliness

摘要

We study the optimal accounting policy of a financially constrained firm that pledges assets to raise debt capital for financing a risky project. The accounting system provides information about the Value of the collateral, Absent accounting regulation, the optimal accounting system is conditionally conservative: it recognizes an impairment loss if the asset value is below a certain threshold, but never reports unrealized gains. We describe the optimal impairment rule and the optimal precision of the accounting information, and we provide comparative static results that lead to testable predictions on the determinants of impairment rules. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.