Aims:
This course aims at building the capacity to properly understand and critically evaluate the financial reporting system in order to wisely use the information generated by it for managerial decisions. The history of the development of the system is studied from different perspectives including but not limited to economic, political, linguistic, social and psychological perspectives. Financial reporting is probably the most miss-understood, miss-interpreted and miss-used discipline of the contemporary world. It’s the discipline where practice preceded the theory and conceptual framework.
The development of conceptual framework and key contemporary and historical accounting issues will be examined. The historical development of accounting standards and the role of theory in understanding current accounting standards, accounting practice and the use of accounting information by the stakeholders will be critically evaluated. The role of human mind in processing the information will be discussed to understand the use of financial information for decision making.
At the conclusion of the course students will have read more widely in accounting and will have acquired a deeper and more critical appreciation of what defines contemporary accounting practice, and more importantly, what it is that should define the nature, scope and future of accounting. Students will have achieved a deeper understanding of selected contemporary issues in accounting, and have developed an ability to critically analyse these issues within the theoretical framework developed earlier in the course.
| S.NO | Course Contents |
| 1 | Refresher to Financial Reporting and Analysis: Setting the Stage |
| 2 | Refresher to Financial Reporting and Analysis: Setting the Stage |
| 3 | Historical Developments of Economic Thought and Accounting Theory: Dyadic Relationship |
| 4 | Accounting Theory (Demand and supply), it’s assumptions and self fulfilling prophecies |
| 5 | Economic implications and sensitivity of financial reporting: Efficient Market Hypothesis |
| 6 | Normative Vs. Positive Accounting |
| 7 | Multiple Images of financial reporting and various approaches to the formulation of accounting theory: Finding a relevant approach |
| 8 | Emergence of Conceptual Framework and Development of Accounting Standards |
| 9 | Introduction to Economic Reality of Financial Reporting Vs. Social Constructs |
| 10 | Political Economy of International Accounting Standards |
| 11 | Convergence Project, of IASB and FASB, and Fair Value of Accounting (FVA) |
| 12 | Accounting as text: linguistic developments and issues in accounting |
| 13 | Post-Structuralism and Accounting |
| 14 | Critical review of accounting concepts and its economic consequences |
| 15 | Traditional issues of financial reporting: Stewardship Vs. Decision making, Rule Vs. Principle based, conflictive incentives of different stakeholders |
| 16 | Traditional issues of financial reporting: Designing financial reporting for desired results, Income smoothing, Big Bath and measurement issues |
