Homework Problem Pi-9

455 Words2 Pages
Jessica Wilson Homework Problem PI-9 Provide two or three sentence response that argues for or against (indicate which) each of these statements. 1. Accounting is an exact science. a. United States and other developed economies use two key functions for the financial statements. They provide a way for company management to transfer information about business activities to people outside the company, which helps solve important problems known as information asymmetry. Also, Financial statement information is often included in contracts between the company and other parties (such as lenders or managers) because doing so improves contract efficiency. 2. Managers choose accounting procedures that produce the most accurate picture of the company’s operating performance and financial condition. a. This is true because managers will sign an executive compensation contract which will contain an annual bonus and a longer term pay components that will tie to their financial statement results. Using accounting data in this manner increases the efficiency of executive compensation contracts. 3. U.S. accounting standards are influenced more by politics than by science or economics. a. In the United States and most other industrialized countries, the accounting rules that businesses use for external financial reporting purposes differ from those required for income taxation purposes. As a consequence, corporate financial reporting choices in the United States are seldom influenced by the U.S Internal Revenue Code. 4. If the FASB and SEC were not around to require and enforce minimum levels of financial disclosure, most companies would provide little (if any) information to outsiders. b. This is true because if the financial reporting environment were unregulated, disclosure would occur voluntarily as long as the incremental
Open Document