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Managerial discretion in accounting for defined benefit obligations : an empirical analysis of German IFRS statements

  • This paper aims to make a first contribution to the determination of that proportion of the defined benefit obligation (DBO) to be disclosed in the notes which can be attributed to managerial discretion in IFRS statements by capital market oriented German companies in the period of 2000-2008. For this, actuarial assumptions – discount interest rates, the compensation growth rate and projected future pension increases – are replaced by their respective industry medians. In a second step we then assess whether the thus determined discretion component raises the value relevance of the reported DBO. As a result, we can state that managerial discretion does at least not downgrade the value relevance of the DBO. In our view, this can be explained by the fact that the management possesses private information, which may become decision useful information when communicated to the capital market. For the standard setter these results imply that the regulations do not need a further standardization with regard to the actuarial assumptions.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Author:Marcus Salewski, Henning ZülchORCiD
Chairs and Professorships:Chair of Accounting and Auditing
Parent Title (German):HHL-Arbeitspapier
Series (Serial Number):HHL-Arbeitspapier / HHL Working paper (104)
Place of publication:Leipzig
Publisher:HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management
Year of Completion:2010
Page Number:35
Tag:Accounting; Defined benefit obligation; Earnings management; Earnings quality; Germany; IAS 19; IFRS; Managerial discretion; Manipulation of earnings; Pension accounting; Value relevance
Licence (German):License LogoUrheberrechtlich geschützt