IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/coacre/v21y2004i2p399-429.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recognition and Disclosure Reliability: Evidence from SFAS No. 106

Author

Listed:
  • PAQUITA Y. DAVIS†FRIDAY
  • CHAO†SHIN LIU
  • H. FRED MITTELSTAEDT

Abstract

This paper examines a fundamental question of interest to researchers and regulators: Does the market treat disclosed financial statement information as if it is less reliable than information recognized in the body of the financial statements? Specifically, we compare the perceived reliability of liabilities for retiree benefits other than pensions (PRBs) disclosed prior to adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 106 (SFAS No. 106) with the perceived reliability of PRB liabilities subsequently recognized under SFAS No. 106. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the market treating disclosed PRB liabilities as less reliable than recognized PRB liabilities and pension liabilities. However, once PRB liabilities are recognized, they do not appear to be any less reliable than pension liabilities. These findings are inconsistent with the Choi, Collins, and Johnson 1997 conclusion that PRB liabilities are inherently less reliable than pension liabilities. The paper also investigates factors that may have contributed to the lower perceived disclosure reliability. Our results suggest that the market perceived PRB liability disclosures to be less reliable when firms provided range disclosures, had higher probabilities of reducing plan benefits, or had lower ratios of retiree to total PRB obligations. These findings suggest that reliability may have been enhanced if more supporting details had been provided in Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 74 disclosures.

Suggested Citation

  • Paquita Y. Davis†Friday & Chao†Shin Liu & H. Fred Mittelstaedt, 2004. "Recognition and Disclosure Reliability: Evidence from SFAS No. 106," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 399-429, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:21:y:2004:i:2:p:399-429
    DOI: 10.1506/T0VC-Q15Y-W5QV-4UKQ
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1506/T0VC-Q15Y-W5QV-4UKQ
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1506/T0VC-Q15Y-W5QV-4UKQ?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaoyan Cheng & David Smith, 2013. "Disclosure versus recognition: the case of expensing stock options," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 591-621, May.
    2. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2012-010 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Masaki KUSANO & Yoshihiro SAKUMA, 2019. "Recognition versus Disclosure and Audit Fees and Costs:Evidence from Pension Accounting in Japan," Discussion papers e-19-007, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.
    4. Kusano, Masaki, 2020. "Does recognition versus disclosure affect risk relevance? Evidence from finance leases in Japan," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    5. Robert Bloomfield & Mark W. Nelson & Eugene Soltes, 2016. "Gathering Data for Archival, Field, Survey, and Experimental Accounting Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 341-395, May.
    6. Hsieh, Su-Jane & Liu, Shuming, 2021. "The cost-of-equity implications of off-balance sheet pension liabilities," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    7. Flagmeier, Vanessa, 2017. "The information content of tax loss carryforwards: IAS 12 vs. valuation allowance," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 216, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    8. Kusano, Masaki, 2023. "Does recognition versus disclosure of pension liabilities affect credit ratings? Evidence from Japan," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    9. Abraham N. Fried, 2013. "An Event Study Analysis of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 158," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 2(2), pages 1-45, May.
    10. Elkins, Hamilton & Entwistle, Gary, 2018. "A commentary on accounting standards and the disclosure problem: Exploring a way forward," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 79-89.
    11. Kusano, Masaki & Sakuma, Yoshihiro, 2019. "Effects of recognition versus disclosure of finance leases on audit fees and costs: Evidence from Japan," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 53-68.
    12. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    13. Yiwei Dou & M. H. Franco Wong & Baohua Xin, 2019. "The Effect of Financial Reporting Quality on Corporate Investment Efficiency: Evidence from the Adoption of SFAS No. 123R," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2249-2266, May.
    14. Maik Lachmann & Arnt Wöhrmann & Andreas Wömpener, 2011. "Acquisition and integration of fair value information on liabilities into investors' judgments," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(4), pages 385-410, November.
    15. Alexander, Raquel & Ettredge, Mike & Stone, Mary & Sun, Lili, 2011. "Are mandatory disclosure decisions made strategically? The case of SAB 74 estimates preceding adoption of FIN 48," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 160-166.
    16. Juha Mäki & Antonio Somoza-Lopez & Stefan Sundgren, 2016. "Ownership Structure and Accounting Method Choice: A Study of European Real Estate Companies," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, April.
    17. Bischof, Jannis & Brüggemann, Ulf & Daske, Holger, 2012. "Fair value reclassifications of financial assets during the financial crisis," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2012-010, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:21:y:2004:i:2:p:399-429. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3846 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.