회계제도 개혁과 보수주의간의 관계 = The Relation Between Accounting System Reforms and Conservatism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines the effects of a series of accounting system reforms introduced in 2004 and 2005 on conservatism in Korea. Influenced by the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the United States in 2002, Korean government implemented the similar accounting system reforms, including CEO/CFO certification requirement on financial reports, external auditor's review of internal control system, and security-related class-action lawsuit. These reforms are aimed at enhancing transparency of accounting information and restoring investors' confidence in the integrity of firms' financial reporting.
The increase in regulatory scrutiny initiated by these reforms brings in higher economic costs for firms that generate aggressive financial reporting. As a result, firms are expected to be more conservative or prudent in preparing financial statements. It is thus hypothesized that financial reporting is more conservative for the post-reform period than for the pre-reform period.
We adopt accounting-based and market-based timely loss recognition and accumulated nonoperating accruals as proxies for conservatism. Conservatism measured by timely loss recognition means that earnings reflect bad news more quickly than good news. Under accounting-based model as in Ball and Shivakumar (2005), negative operating cash flows are used as a proxy for economic losses to measure timely loss recognition. On the other hand, negative stock returns are proxied for economic losses under market-based model used in Basu (1997). Nonoperating accruals proxy for conservatism because for steady-state firms accumulated earnings before depreciation and amortization are expected to converge to cash flows in the long run so that negative nonoperating accruals over a long period are likely to indicate conservatism (Givoly and Hayn 2000).
The sample consists of 4,524 non-banking firm-years listed on the Korean Stock Exchange over the period of 2001-2008. Empirical results support our expectation. Specifically, accounting-based and market-based loss recognitions are timelier for the post-reform period than for the pre-reform period. Nonoperating accruals are significantly less for the post-reform period than for the pre-reform period. The result indicates that the series of accounting system reforms have a positive consequence by leading firms to report more conservative earnings for the post-reform period than for the pre-reform period.
The result in this study provides evidence that the accounting system reforms introduced in 2004 and 2005 have affected management's financial reporting behavior to make it more conservative. And it suggests that implementation of the accounting system reforms seems successful in mitigating aggressive financial reporting and protecting investors by improving timely loss recognition of corporate disclosures as intended. This study contributes to the literature that evaluates the effectiveness of accounting policy in Korea by documenting the relation between accounting system reforms and conservatism.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본 연구에서는 2004년과 2005년을 전후하여 이루어진 회계제도 개혁이 기업의 보수성과 어떤 관련성이 있는지를 검증하였다. 2002년 미국에서 제정된 사베인-옥슬리법의 영향으로 우리나라에서도 증권거래법을 개정하여 2004년부터 사업보고서 등에 대한 CEO/CFO 인증을 의무화하였고, 2004년 4월 1일 이후 개시하는 사업연도부터 감사인에게 내부회계관리제도 검토의견을 감사보고서에 포함시키도록 하였으며, 2004년에는 증권관련 집단소송법이 제정되어 우리나라에서도 2005년부터 순차적으로 증권관련 집단소송법이 시행되기에 이르렀다.
2001년부터 2008년까지 금융업에 속하지 않는 12월 결산법인 4,524 기업-년을 대상으로 실증분석한 결과에 따르면, 회계제도 개혁이 집중적으로 실시된 2004년과 2005년을 전후하여 보수주의가 더욱 강화된 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로 회계제도 개혁 이전에 비하여 이후에 (1) 손실인식의 적시성에서 회계기반 보수주의와 시장기반 보수주의가 증가하였고, (2) 비영업발생액이 감소하였다.
본 연구는 사베인-옥슬리법의 시행 이후 우리나라에서 2004년과 2005년을 전후로 집중적으로 실시된 회계제도 개혁이 보수주의라는 관점에서 어떤 관련성을 갖는지를 실증적으로 검증함으로써 이들 회계제도 개혁의 효과성을 분석하는 문헌에 공헌하였고, 보수주의를 나타내는 다양한 측정치를 사용함으로써 단일측정치가 갖는 측정오차 문제를 완화시켰다.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 서론
• Ⅱ. 선행연구 검토 및 연구가설
• Ⅲ. 연구방법
• Ⅳ. 표본선정 및 실증분석결과
• Ⅴ. 결론 및 한계점

참고문헌 (Reference)

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