CHAPTER 1

INTODUCTION

Ini buku mencoba menggiring mahasiswa untuk mengerti semua sisi andang tentang
akuntansi, tidak hanya sekedar hitung menghitung. Buku ini membahas metodologi dan praktik
yang terkandung dalam dunia akuntansi serta mencoba memberi pemahaman kepada pembaca
untuk mengerti akuntansi keuangan dan lingkungan pelaporan.
Di zaman modern ini penuh dengan masalah yang kompleks dan penuh tantangan karena
akuntansi di zaman sekarang dituntut untuk memberikan informasi yang bisa dipahami oleh
semua pihak yang membutuhkan informasi akuntansi. Semisalnya contoh; sekarang penuh
dengan investor yang memiliki berbagai kepentingan dan kondisi pasar yang tidak menentu
karena dipengaruhi oleh banyak faktor.
Ini menjadi tantangan bagi akuntan keuangan untuk tetap bertahan memberikan informasi
terbaik yang dibutuhkan para pemakai meskipun lingkungan yang tidak menentu dan menekan.
THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
Ini buku membahas teori, otomatis berhbungan dengan banyak jurnal penelitian, laporan
keuangan,dan laporan dari penelitian akademik. Sehingga buku ini bisa menjadi kerangka
konseptual dalam mengembangkan teori dan praktik akuntansi keuangan.
INFORMATION ASYMETRY
Ada dua bagian utama dari information asymmetry and moral hazard. Information
asymmetry merupakan masalah informasi yang dibutuhkan oleh pemakai satu berbeda dengan
informasi yang dibutuhkan oleh pemakai yang lain. Seorang investor mungkin membutuhkan
informasi pengusaha yang terjun dalam pasar saham, seorang dewan komisaris mungkin
membutuhkan kualitas manajer, seorang manajer mungkin membutuhkan kualitas karyawan,
konsumen mungkin membutuhkan kualitas sebuah produk.
Moral hazard merupakan kecurangan yang dilakukan pihak demi keuntungan pribadi
atau pihak tertentu tetapi merugikan pihak lain, baik Negara ataupun masyarakat secara umum.

Pertama untuk memahami teori akuntansi keuangan bisa dimulai dengan mempelajari
model present value. Model present value diartikan sebagai informasi yang berhubungan,
informasi tentang prospek ekonomi di masa depan, seperti dividen, arus kas, dan profitabilitas.
Pokok utama yang akan dibahas adalah bagaimana laporan keuangan yang relevan untuk
ditampilkan, serta informasi bebas dari ambigu.
Model present value digunakan untuk kondisi korporasi yang tidak menentu yang
menggunakan konsep states of nature. Defnisi dari kondisi yang ideal harus mencakup
kelengkapan dan state of nature

To prepare a complete set of financial statements on a present value basis, recall that it is
necessary to value all of the firms assets and liabilities this way, with net income being the
change in the firms present value during the period (adjusted for capital transactions such as
dividends). Yet, we saw with RRA that severe problems arise when we try to apply the present
value approach to even a single type of asset. These problems would compound if the approach
was extended to all other assets and liabilities.
This leads to an important and interesting conclusion, namely, that under the real-world
conditions in which accounting operates, income does not exist as a well-defined economic
construct.
Furthermore, an indirect approach of basing the income calculation on changes in market values
rather than present values runs into the problem that market values need not exist for all firm
assets and liabilities, a condition known incomplete markets. For example, while there may be a
market price for a barrel of crude oil, what is the market value of Exxons reserves?

3. the decision-usefulness approach to financial reporting implies that accountants need to

understand the decision problems of financial statement users. Single-person decision theory and
its specialization to the portfolio investment decision provides an understanding of the needs of
rational, risk averse investors. This theory tells us that such investors need information to help
them assess securities expected returns and the riskiness of these returns. In the theory

investment, beta is an important risk measure, being the standardized covariance of a securitys
return with the return on the market portfolio. This covariance risk is the main component of the
riskiness of a diversified portfolio, even if the portfolio contains only a relatively few securities.
Historical-cost-based financial statements are an important and cost-effective source of
information for investors, even though they do not report directly on future investment payoffs.
They provide an information system that can help investors to predict future firm profitability,
which in turn predicts future returns. This predictive role is enhanced to the extent that financial
statements are relevant and reliable.
Major accounting standard-setting bodies such as the FASB have adopted the decision-usefulness
approach. This is evidenced by its conceptual framework, which shows a clear recognition of the
role financial reporting in providing relevant and reliable information for investors.
4. efficient securities market theory has major implications for financial accounting. One
of these is that efficiency is defined relative to a stock of publicly known information. Financial
reporting has a role to play in improving the amount, timing, and accuracy of this stock.
Examples of full disclosure standards include MD&A and financial forecasts. Bot of
these standards have the potential to convey information beyond that contained in the
conventional historical-cost-based financial statements. This potential is not only in the
information contained in the disclosure per se. the very act of disclosing or not disclosing a
forecast, or the extent to which the firm goes beyond the general MD&A requirements also tells
the market something about the firm.
Full disclosure has two main benefits, both of which can be attained simultaneously. One
is to enable investors to make better decisions. The other is to improve the ability of securities
markets to direct investment to its most productive uses. The reason why these benefits are
attained simultaneously, of course, is that better information enables more informed buy-and-sell
decisions, and it is demand and supply that determine market price.
5. the empirical literature in financial accounting is vast, and we have looked only at
certain parts of it. Nevertheless, we have seen that, for the most part, the security market
response to reported net income is impressive in terms of its sophistication. Results of empirical
research in this area support the market theory and related decision theories.

In addition to providing information to enable investors to revise expected security

returns, financial accounting information can assist when estimating firm riskiness. This is all the
more surprising because beta, the primary risk measure for a diversified investor, is not directly
related to financial statement variables.
What is puzzling, however, is that the market does not seem to respond nonearning
information as strongly as it does to earnings information. RRA was examined as an example of
nonearning information where, a priori, a strong market response would be expected. The extent
to which the lack of strong market response to nonearning information such as RRA is due to
methodological difficulties, to its low reliability, to availability of alternative information
sources, or to failure of efficient market theory itself is not fully understood at the present time,
although It may be that investors route their reaction to such information through their
perceptions of earnings quality.
6. there are numerous instance of the use of current values in financial reporting, and the
list is growing. Many longstanding uses involve only partial application of a measurement
perspective, as in lower of cost or market, long-term debt, ceiling tests, and push-down
accounting. Thus, under lower of cost or market and ceiling tests, written-down assets are not
written up again if value increases. Also the present value of long-term debt is not adjusted for
changes in interest rates, and, once subsidiary asset values are pushed down. They are not
revalued subsequently. Nevertheless, partial applications of current value have the potential to be
decision useful to the extent they reveal a material change in the firms financial position and
prospects.
However, manages are concerned about accounting policy choice. Indeed, increased
adoption of measurement-oriented accounting standards is increasing their concerns, as we shall
see. This poses another anomaly for efficient securities market theory. Either managers do not
accept the theory or other factors are at work, or both. We now turn to a consideration of other
factors which, as we shall see, can reconcile market efficiency and legitimate manager concern
over accounting policy choice.
7. the notion of economic consequences is that firms accounting policies and changes in
policies matter. Primarily, they matter to management. But, if they matter to management,
accounting policies matter to the investors who own the firms because managers may well

change the actual operation of their firms due to changes in accounting policies. An example
would be changes in accounting policies relating to oil and gas company reserves. Changes in
such accounting policies, according to economic consequences arguments, may alter managers
exploration and development activities, which in turn may affect firm value. Furthermore, if
these changes are negative and if many investors are affected, investors may bring pressure to
bear on their elected representative. Consequently, politicians will also be interested in firms
accounting policies and in the standard-setting bodies that determine them.