利益の質に関する一考察 : アメリカ研究開発費会計とソフトウェア会計を通じて
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概要
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"Quality of earnings" is a concept attracting widespread attention today in the field of accounting and auditing. Actually, the term "quality of earnings" often appears in feature articles of magazines. Some studies have already pointed out a variety of existing definitions of "quality of earnings" among authors, while attempting, from various angles, to clarify ideas behind this concept. However, it seems difficult to find a logic that can explain all of those diverse ideas consistently, although it might be possible to organize them through several different approaches or standpoints. Here, one solution is to use a theory developed by Hicksian income that focuses on the difference between economic earnings and reported earnings, but it still requires multiple approaches to explain respective ideas. This report does not intend to directly define the concept "quality of earnings". Rather, the principal aim of this report is to clarify the history of development of the concept, or in other words, to explain the process of how the concept "quality of earnings" has become the center of attention in the accounting field. According to Brown (1984), the concept "quality of earnings" is not something novel; it has been previously referred to in existing materials concerning investment business, and Brown discusses it in connection with financial analysts' discussions about a multiplier to be employed for calculating stock returns or PER (price-earnings ratio). For this reason, I consider it essential to examine views or behaviors of financial analysts before discussing background on how this concept of "quality of earnings" has developed. That's why this report analyzes opinions of financial analysts concerning accounting standards setting, in order to attain the objective of this report. In my opinion, focusing on the aspect of accounting standards setting would help clarify the process of how the concept "quality of earnings" has gained a significant position in the accounting world, even though this concept was merely one of the tools used by financial analysts for evaluating companies. I have examined in detail public records of Financial Accounting Standards Boards (FASBs), since I believe this would allow for time-series analysis of financial analysts from early 1970s to the present. I also believe that a study of standards settings is effective for looking deeply into the relation between financial analysts and accounting standards. Specifically, this report discusses the accounting for research and development costs (Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.2) and the accounting for the costs of computer software (Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.86). Although the discussion only covers a specific timeframe and specific fields, I hope to reach a hypothesis as to the role and the development process of the concept "quality of earnings" by the end of this report.
- 2009-03-10