Empirical Studies in Financial Accounting

Abstract In the democratic society, governments are elected by vote of citizens and power ultimately rests in the hands of the citizenry. In such society, government accountability is based on the belief that the citizenry" has right to know "and government must declare facts openly and communicate it by appropriate means. After the past two decades of 20th century governmental accounting and financial reporting play a major role in fulfilling government's duty to be publicly accountable in a democratic society. This paper examine the role of expected accountability - based accounting and financial reporting as a tool to assist in fulfilling government's duty to be publicly accountable and enable members of parliament to assess that accountability .We send 180 questionnaires to members of parliament as well as comptroller general senior auditors as accountee and 180 to chief executives as well as chief financial officers of ministries as accounters. The  findings  of  this  study  show  that   all  accountors  and  accountees believe  expected  accountability  -based  accounting  and  financial  reporting play  the significant role in fulfilling government to be publicly  accountable and   assist   parliament   and   comptroller   general   to   assess   government accountability.

Abstract This research undertakes the relationship between earnings quality and stock return of the listed companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange. The aim of this research is to assess whether the investors, analysts, and etc. have comprehend the quality of the accountancy information (earnings quality) and utilize it in their decision making process? In order to find the answer to this question we need to take in to account the market reaction. We can assess and evaluate the market reaction with the use of the accumulated data published and in the following two ways: 1-     Volume of transactions 2-     Share price and subsequently the stock return Therefore in this research stock return is an independent variable. Within the earnings quality assessment criteria, two criteria, the ratio between cash flows resulted from operational activities with operational earning and accruals , are selected and their influence on stock return of listed  companies in the Tehran  Stock Exchange are  examined. This research considers four hypotheses. In these hypotheses earnings quality, accruals, discretionary and nondiscretionary accruals are considered as independent variables and stock return as dependent variable. The examination of the research hypotheses, with the help of regression analysis during the period of 1379-1383 (Iranian calendar year), shows that there is little influence between earnings quality and stock returns.

Abstract The present study identifies the effective accounting and economic variables on P/E ratio in Tehran stock Exchange (TSE) during the 12- year period from 1992 up to 2003. The investigation and identification of accounting information in determining P/E ratio and proper function of the capital market promote the accounting status in the professional society. The research is seeking to find out if the economic and corporate variables (accounting variables) can affect the P/E ratio in TSE. This question is formed into two major hypotheses including: 1)     Changes in economic variables affect the corporate PIE ratio, and 2)      Accounting variables affect the corporate P/E ratio. Ex-post multiple factor analysis was applied to test the hypotheses. Furthermore, linear regression, and GEE and TSCSREG statistical instruments were also applied as well as panel Data    Analysis. The research findings indicates P/E ratio is much more affected by accounting variables than economic ones, while there is a strong correlation between  the economic  variables and corporate PIE ratio in  TSE.

Abstract Accounting information in order to be effective in decision making, should be relevance and reliable. On the other hand, the usefulness of the financial statements information depend on explanatory and  predictive power of companies value and the latter is directly affected by current and future returns .Therefore , this study aims at investigating predicting stock returns using financial  ratios. The four ratios driven of research literature include earning to price,  book to price, sales to price and dividend to price   ratios. The statistical population taking part in this study includes the Accepted companies in Tehran securities exchange and a sample of 72 companies in different industries during 1378-1383. The results show that in relating to variables investigated, there is the greatest explanatory power between book to price ratio and stock returns and Earning to price ratio has not meaningful relation with the future stock returns. Keywords: Stock return, earning to price ratio, book to price ratio, sales to price ratio, dividend to price ratio.