The Role of Corporate Governance in Accounting Discretion Under IFRS: Goodwill Impairment in Australia

Date
2016
Authors
Kabir, M
Rahman, A
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract

A major concern with the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is the accounting discretion allowed under the IFRS, and its potential opportunistic use by managers. We examine the role of corporate governance in the accounting discretion inherent in goodwill impairment decisions under the IFRS. More specifically, we investigate whether, in Australia, stronger governance strengthens associations between economic factors and goodwill impairment loss but weakens associations between contracting incentives and goodwill impairment loss. Using data from 2007 to 2012, we find evidence consistent with the notion that stronger governance enhances the associations between economic factors and goodwill impairment loss. However, we find that strong governance cannot completely eliminate the opportunistic use of discretion in an impairment decision, especially when pre-impairment income is negative, and when the impairment occurs in the first year of a CEO's tenure. Our results are robust with regard to alternative measures of the dependent variable, firm performance variables, and the governance variable, even after controlling for potential self-selection biases.

Description
Keywords
Goodwill impairment; IFRS; Corporate governance; Accounting discretion; Australia
Source
Journal of Contemporary Accounting & Economics, 12(3), 290-308.
Rights statement
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in (see Citation). Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. The definitive version was published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version).