Bibliographie sélective OHADA

Dans le cadre général des regroupements d'entreprises et des groupes de sociétés, cette thèse porte sur des questions d'intérêt à la croisée de la comptabilité, du droit (notamment les dispositions légales et la réglementation comptable) et de la finance d'entreprise. En ce qui concerne la théorie comptable, le chapitre 2 étudie comment les chercheurs en économie d'entreprise ont compris les groupes d'entreprises, les comptes de groupe et le processus de leur préparation, en particulier par rapport aux juristes italiens. Ensuite, le chapitre 3 reconstruit le processus politique et législatif qui a engendré la naissance du concept de groupe de sociétés dans le corpus juridique italien.Concernant le droit et la politique comptable, une analyse comparative est effectuée au chapitre 4qui montre clairement l'évolution de la notion de contrôle et de son utilisation dans les comptes consolidés (comptes de groupe) et les regroupements d'entreprises (I) en droit européen, (II) selon les normes comptables internationales publiées par l'IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) et (III) par rapport aux principes comptables généralement admis aux États-Unis («USGAAP»). De plus, les chapitres 5 et 6 étudient les effets du lobbying sur les normes comptables concernant les états financiers consolidés et les regroupements d'entreprises publiés par l'IASB. Fait intéressant, les résultats concordent avec une forme de capture du normalisateur comptable international par une catégorie d'institutions financières. En effet, confrontées à un modèle de consolidation prétendument basé sur le contrôle, ces dernières ont plaidé en faveur d'une exception de consolidation fondée sur un modèle de propriété et documentée comme ayant été proposée par les sociétés d'audit américaines dans ce contexte au moins depuis 1995. Ce modèle s’avère avoir trouvé un terrain fertile au sein de l'IASB. En conséquence, d'autres catégories d'institutions financières,telles que les fonds d'investissement à long terme et ceux gérés par une famille tout en préférant un modèle de consolidation différent, ne sont plus autorisées à présenter des états financiers consolidés. En ce qui concerne la finance d’entreprise, le chapitre 7 analyse les implications de différentes décisions de financement dans un nouveau échantillon de fusions et acquisitions entre institutions financières (banques et assurances) consommées dans le monde entier au cours des deux dernières décennies. En particulier, il étudie (I) la relation entre la méthode de choix de paiement (si le prix est payé en cash, en actions ou une combinaison des deux) et le choix du mode de financement d'un regroupement d'entreprises (y compris les instruments hybrides) et (II) la réaction des investisseurs à l'annonce de la combinaison. En ce qui concerne ce dernier point, l'utilisation de deux tests non paramétriques permet de détecter une relation intéressante entre la réaction du marché à l'annonce et les différents modes attendus de financement de la transaction.

La contrainte économique fait l’objet en Droit d’une forte contradiction. Elle est très présente dans les relations contractuelles et à l’aune des relations contractuelles. Toutefois, la notion de contrainte économique n’a jamais été définie et il n’existe pas de régime propre à cette notion. De même, elle est traitée indirectement par de nombreux régimes mais ces régimes sont en pratique peu sollicités et lorsqu’ils sont appliqués, ils sont très décevants. Aussi, la contrainte économique est une problématique récurrente en Droit mais elle reste encore aujourd’hui une énigme pour la communauté juridique. Malgré l’inflation législative, son traitement reste un échec. La présente étude a pour objectif de comprendre et d’exposer les raisons de cet échec afin d’y apporter les aménagements nécessaires pour un traitement cohérent et efficace des situations de contrainte économique. L’analyse transversale des différents régimes connaissant indirectement de ces situations met en exergue les particularités et les incohérences du traitement et notamment l’impact négatif du particularisme des droits spéciaux sur le traitement de la contrainte économique. Les enseignements tirés de cette analyse dictent la nécessité d'un régime commun à la notion de contrainte économique et imposent de plaider pour une généralisation du traitement de ces situations. Economic duress is subject to strong contradictions in Law. The concept is prevalent in contractual relations and in pre-contractual relations. However, the concept of economic duress has never been defined and there is no specific regime for this term. Similarly, the concept is addressed indirectly by many regimes, but these regimes are in practice rarely used and when applied, they can be quite disappointing. As a result, economic duress is a recurring issue in law and remains to this day, a puzzler for the legal community. Despite the legislative inflation, the methods to address economic duress remains a failure. The aim of this study is to understand and explain the reasons for this failure in order to make the necessary adjustments for a consistent and effective tackling of economic duress cases. The cross-cutting analysis of the various regimes indirectly affected by these cases, highlights the peculiarities and the lack of consistency of the current approach and in particular the negative impact of the distinctive identity of special rights with regards to addressing economic duress.The lessons learned from this analysis indicate a need for a shared framework for economic duress and call for a broadening of the response to these cases.

This study evaluated the extent to which value relevance of financial information in Nigerian manufacturing firms has improved after the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Specifically, the study intended to: Ascertain the extent the adoption of IFRS has significantly improved the book value per share of manufacturing companies in Nigeria; Determine the extent the adoption of IFRS has significantly improved the Earnings Per Share of manufacturing companies in Nigeria and Examine the extent the adoption of IFRS has significantly improved the cash flow of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. A sample of 54 manufacturing companies was randomly selected from manufacturing companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the periods of 2008-2015. Data for the study were obtained from the annual reports and accounts of the sampled companies. Specifically, a modified price model for detecting value relevance of accounting data for two different periods was employed. Regression Analysis and Chow test statistical tools were used to analyze and validate the data with aid of SPSS version 20.0. The study found that the adoption of IFRS has improved the book value per share, market share price, Earnings Per Share and cash flow of manufacturing companies in Nigeria. The implication of findings is that the value relevance of accounting information of manufacturing companies is more sensitive during Post-IFRS era than the Pre-IFRS era. The findings also imply that the book value per share, market price, earnings and cash flow have become informative to equity investors in determining the value of firms following IFRS adoption. The study recommends among other things that the accounting information for book value per share should be communicated to the investing public; and such information should be of high quality to avoid negative consequences on the part of investors.

La sous-région Afrique centrale, dans la perspective de poursuivre la construction de son espace économique et monétaire commun (CEMAC) conforté, a décidé de mettre en place une bourse des valeurs mobilières de l’Afrique centrale (BVMAC) pour le développement de son système financier commun à compétence sous régionale.Parallèlement, l’un des pays membres de la CEMAC, le Cameroun en l’occurrence dispose d’une bourse des valeurs mobilières, la Douala Stock Exchange (DSX), ayant les mêmes objectifs, mais à compétence nationale. Il se pose dès lors, des problèmes de concurrence, de compétitivité et d’efficacité. Bref un problème de performance des deux places boursières fragilisant ainsi le financement de son économie par le marché financier au détriment des potentiels bénéficiaires majeurs que sont les entreprises.Comment restructurer et réorganiser les marchés financiers de l’Afrique centrale (CEMAC) afin d’améliorer leurs performances dans le financement de son économie? Cette interrogation pose alors la problématique de la reconstruction des marchés financiers de la CEMAC. Pour répondre à cette question principale, il y a lieu de prendre en compte deux déterminants constitutifs de la CEMAC: L’Union Economique de l’Afrique centrale (UEAC)Et L’Union Monétaire de l’Afrique centrale (UMAC).Afin de s’appuyer sur quatre théories à savoir : La théorie de la zone monétaire optimale ; La Théorie de la centralité ; La théorie de la mutualisation ; La théorie du changement structurel (organisationnel).Mais aussi de manière empirique, pour savoir comment s’organise selon les modèles actuels, c’est-à-dire les standards internationaux, les différents marchés financiers à travers le monde.Pour démontrer la contrainte d’une consolidation de ces deux marchés financiers dans un même espace communautaire sur la base du modèle CODERE conforté selon le modèle organisationnel de Kurt Lewin (1940), et analyser leur performance actuelle. Le chemin emprunté de l’intégration financière de ces marchés financiers conduit vers une spécialisation bipolaire ou multipolaire de cet acteur privilégié de développement qu’est le marché financier

L’objectif de cette étude est de déterminer les caractéristiques de la cohérence africaine dans l’environnement des affaires (OHADA ) appliquées aux 17 pays de l’Afrique noire francophone qui vise l’unification des efforts et de visions permettant l’amélioration de transparence ( transparence des affaires, transparence financière, transparence du marché,…) notamment la production d’une information de haute qualité à travers d'un référentiel comptable unique (inspiré fortement du plan comptable général Français) et d’apprécier si ce système est inspiré des normes comptables internationales IAS/IFRS. Après l’achèvement de cette recherche, nous avons atteint un ensemble de résultats. Parmi ces résultats, le système OHADA est un cadre philosophico-légal et institutionnel qui encourage les pays membres à une convergence et une harmonisation comptable. Toutes les circonstances sont prêtes et incitent les pays membres d’aller ou d’adopter l’intégration économique dans l’espace Africain dont l’intégration comptable fait partie. Aucun pays de l’espace OHADA ne peut bénéficier des avantages que donne le système comptable de cet espace sans qu’il y ait une volonté politique pouvant assurer de l’intégration pour confronter les mutations et les défis mondiaux.

Résumé Cet article examine l’influence du profil du dirigeant de PME sur l’utilisation de l’information comptable dans le contexte Sénégalais. Les résultats obtenus à partir d’une enquête sur 59 PME mettent en évidence les types d’informations comptables exploitées par cette catégorie d’entreprise. Il s’agit, entre autres, de l’information sur les coûts, les comptes annuels et le budget. Les données empiriques exploitées confirment que le degré d’utilisation de certaines informations comptables est influencé par le profil du dirigeant de PME.

The OHADA accounting framework is not immune from the choice of accounting policies for intangible assets. The need to make an accounting choice for intangible assets depends on a number of factors. This article aims to identify the motivations of managers in the choice of accounting for intangible assets. In a second step, we described the methodological approach of our work. Thus, we proceeded to the empirical study which is both qualitative and quantitative. The collected data was then analyzed. From the companies' case, it was found that the tax reasons, the accounting principles, the logic of obtaining the loans, the follow-up of the practice of the competitors, the implementation of the recommendations of audit, the sense of limiting the wage demands are pushing executives to make accounting choices for intangible assets.

O conceito jurídico de renda para fins de tributação suscita debates no Brasil há décadas, o que se pode verificar por meio dos diversos trabalhos doutrinários exclusivamente dedicados ao assunto, bem como por vários acórdãos proferidos pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF). Essa constatação parece afastar qualquer possibilidade de que essa temática seja abordada de forma inédita, com a capacidade de contribuir originalmente à ciência do direito. No entanto, o atual momento reclama uma nova análise acerca da definição de renda tributável. Em primeiro lugar, porque a edição da Lei n° 11.638/07 determinou que a contabilidade brasileira se alinhe ao padrão contábil aceito internacionalmente, representando pelas International Financial Reporting Standards - IFRS. Sendo assim, se o resultado contábil representa o ponto de partida para a apuração do lucro tributável das pessoas jurídicas, qualquer alteração sobre o lucro líquido tem o potencial de causar efeitos tributários, a menos que o legislador se encarregue de neutralizá-los ou discipliná-los. A singeleza dessa constatação esconde o fato de que as recentes (e contínuas) alterações contábeis não representam apenas uma mudança de entendimento acerca do registro de determinadas operações, mas verdadeira alteração no paradigma adotado pelas regras contábeis. O padrão IFRS trabalha essencialmente com expectativas, por meio de uma intensa relação entre eventos passados e o valor presente dos prováveis efeitos futuros. Para tanto, há uma forte preocupação com a substância econômica, que deve prevalecer sobre a forma jurídica sempre que se verificar a presença de um conflito. De acordo com o padrão contábil internacional, accounting follows economics, o que significa dizer que o registro contábil passa a ter como referência a visão da contabilidade sobre a realidade econômica. Como consequência, a contabilidade passa a se distanciar do direito, seja porque os negócios jurídicos já ocorridos serão escriturados de acordo com premissas essencialmente contábeis, seja porque não mais se reporta a situação patrimonial relativa a um momento pretérito, mas à melhor estimativa atual sobre o que se espera que irá ocorrer no futuro. Veja-se que enquanto o imposto de renda tem como fato gerador uma renda adquirida no passado, a contabilidade passa a considerar os efeitos de uma capacidade de auferir renda no futuro, ainda que ela não tenha se realizado, sendo suficiente a expectativa de que isso venha a acontecer. Esse pressuposto conflita diretamente com a realização, que passa a não mais ser necessária para o reconhecimento de mutações patrimoniais contábeis, situação idêntica a que acontece com a economia. Por essa razão, é necessário que a histórica relação entre o resultado contábil e a base de cálculo do imposto de renda seja (re)avaliada, de modo a se estabelecer um critério seguro a respeito da possibilidade (e de quais seriam os limites) de as novas regras contábeis afetarem a base de cálculo do imposto de renda das pessoas jurídicas. Esse propósito somente pode ser atingido se todos os atributos do conceito jurídico de renda tiverem sido previamente definidos, única forma de analisar, com rigor científico, se determinadas características da tributação da renda, tradicionalmente presentes na legislação tributária, podem ser relativizadas. Em outras palavras, é necessário que se identifique quais são os atributos indissociavelmente ligados ao conceito jurídico de renda. O momento não poderia ser considerado mais oportuno, pois a existência de um processo internacional de convergência ao padrão contábil internacional faz com que a doutrina estrangeira também discuta esse assunto, o que pode enriquecer o debate nacional. The legal definition of income taken into account for tax purposes has been a very controversial matter in Brazil for over decades. The innumerous works exclusively dedicated to the subject produced by tax scholars, as well as the several decisions handed down by the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) endorse the debate regarding the legal concept of taxable income. This fact could seem to rule out any possibility of addressing the subject in an unprecedented way, that is, with the ability of being an original contribution to the science of law. However, the current moment calls for a new analysis over the definition of taxable income. Initially because the enactment of the Brazilian Law n. 11.638/11 determined that Brazilian accounting should be in line with the internationally accepted accounting standards, stated by the International Financial Reporting Standards - IRFS. Therefore, if the accounting result is the starting point for obtaining the taxable income of legal entities, any accounting changes over the net income has the potential of causing tax effects, unless the legislator frames norms to neutralize these effects. It is important to mention that the simplicity of this remark hides the fact that the recent (and continuous) accounting changes represents not only a modification of the understanding regarding the accounting records of certain transactions, but a true change of the paradigm adopted by the accounting rules. In essence, the IFRS has an 'expectation approach' in the setting of standards, through an analysis of the relationship between past events and the present value of probable future events. As a result, the IFRS has a solid concern with the economic substance, which, under the framework, shall prevail over the legal form whenever there is a conflict between them. According to the international accounting standards, accounting follows economics, that is, the accounting record should reflect the economic reality. As a consequence, the accounting results will differ from the tax law concepts, either because legal transactions that have already occurred in the past will be recorded in accordance with essentially accounting premises, or because the accounting results will no longer report wealth with reference to a moment in the past, yet with reference to the current best estimate of what it is expected to occur in the future. It is worth highlighting that the taxable event for income tax purposes is the income earned in the past, while the accounting result takes into account the effects of a future income-earning capacity, even though the income has not yet been realized. Therefore, for the accounting assessment it is sufficient that the mere expectation of earning the income will occur. This last assumption conflicts directly with the realization principle, due to the fact that under accounting premises, realization is no longer necessary for the recognition of changes in wealth, likewise the measurement is made in the field of economics. For this reason, it is necessary to (re)evaluate the historical relationship between the accounting result and the taxable base of the income tax, as to establish a reliable criteria regarding the possibility (and the eventual limits) of having the new accounting rules as a basis for the assessment of the taxable income base of corporations. This purpose can only be achieved if the law has previously defined all the attributes of the legal concept of income, the only way to analyze, with scientific rigor, if certain characteristics of income taxation, traditionally present in the tax legislation, can be relativized. In other words, it is necessary to identify the attributes inextricably linked to the legal concept of income. The moment could not be considered more convenient, considering that the existence of a global process of convergence to the international accounting standards raises debates about the subject in the foreign academic literature, which can enhance the national debate as well.

Quase 10 anos após a eclosão da Crise de 2008, seguimos insistindo em velhas soluções para problemas econômicos recorrentes, e os remédios regulatórios que têm emergido em resposta à crise continuam fundamentalmente baseados no tradicional paradigma econômico neoclássico que pressupõe que o ser humano é um agente econômico infalivelmente racional, conforme o modelo do Homo economicus, desconsiderando-se as evidências empíricas em sentido contrário que nos trazem as ciências cognitivas em geral, e a economia comportamental em particular. Pois, lançando mão dessas descobertas, nossa tese é a de que a análise econômico-comportamental do direito deve ser usada como instrumento para prescrever políticas públicas capazes de aprimorar a regulamentação do mercado financeiro. Para tanto, dividimos nosso trabalho em três grandes capítulos. No primeiro capítulo, tecemos uma narrativa da Crise de 2008, com ênfase nas circunstâncias em que foi engendrada, e discorremos sobre como a economia neoclássica explica suas causas. No segundo capítulo, explicamos a economia comportamental e a análise econômico-comportamental do direito, contrapondo-as à economia neoclássica e à análise econômica do direito. No terceiro capítulo, defendemos que a explicação neoclássica da crise é incorreta, e tecemos uma narrativa alternativa da Crise de 2008 com base na economia comportamental. Finalmente, criticamos as principais respostas regulatórias que têm sido dadas à Crise de 2008, demonstrando que continuam se baseando quase que exclusivamente na economia neoclássica, e fazemos propostas alternativas de regulamentação inspiradas na análise econômico-comportamental do direito, a fim de provar nossa tese de que esta disciplina realmente deve ser usada para prescrever políticas públicas a fim de aprimorar a regulamentação do mercado financeiro.

The objective of this research was to determine the current status of the application of the OHADA accounting system in DRC, five years after its adoption. A survey was conducted on thirty small and medium-sized enterprises in Bukavu to determine the level of compliance with the SYSCOHADA principles, the degree of harmonization of accounting practices and the difficulties related to the application of this system. The results shown consistently that compliance with Syscohada principles is not absolute, the level of Harmonization is still low and finally companies in DRC still need time to fit into the OHADA accounting system.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the economic and financial substance of certain contractual requirements imposed by Islamic commercial law as well as some of their implications. More attention is given to requirements that have financial implications and are related to those discussed in the contract theory literature. We divide our investigation into four parts. The first part is an examination of the fundamental transactional requirements in Islamic commercial law, focusing on those related to four primary Islamic Financial Securities (IFSs). In the second part, we use our findings to construct an alternative asset pricing methodology. We also explore our findings in the third and fourth parts using the principal-agent model of Holmström and Milgrom (1991). More specifically, we use it to respectively model the relationship between underwriters and Islamic commercial law regulators as well as consider the case of ambiguous incentive contracts. Each part of our investigation has yielded substantial contributions to the literature as follows. Firstly, our examination of Islamic commercial law principles and contracts reveals that there are indeed legal requirements which have direct implications for financial models, such as the need for a liquidity discount in receivables-based ṣukūk as they are – in principle – non-tradeable. Secondly, the asset-pricing model we have constructed allows us to examine the equilibrium return and investment levels of IFSs. This allows us to derive conditions at which one security yields higher returns than another. Thirdly, our cooperation model suggests that cooperation between underwriters and Islamic commercial law regulators is only beneficial for an issuer of a structured Islamic financial product if their synergy benefits are over a certain level. Lastly, our investigation into ambiguous incentive contracts demonstrates that it is never beneficial for principals to offer such contracts to ambiguity averse individuals as it unambiguously reduces the principal’s profit.

Les pays de l’UEMOA, longtemps hostiles aux investissements directs étrangers, sous l’effet conjugué de la globalisation de l’économie et de la pression des institutions de Brettons Woods, ont d’une part, favorisé un accès intérieur aux flux financiers internationaux et d’autre part, offert des incitants fiscaux aux multinationales. Grâce à la libéralisation financière et l’idéologie économique dominante, les multinationales, par différents subterfuges et profitant aussi des handicaps institutionnels et organisationnels des administrations fiscales respectives des pays membres de l’espace UEMOA, échappent à leurs responsabilités fiscales envers ces États. Pour résorber les effets néfastes de l’évasion fiscale des multinationales, les pays de l’espace communautaire UEMOA, doivent mettre un accent particulier sur la modernisation de leurs administrations fiscales d’une part, et d’autre part, insérer dans toutes leurs conventions fiscales, des clauses anti-abus. Enfin, ces États doivent renforcer la lutte contre l’évasion fiscale par une action concertée basée sur une coopération fiscale dans le cadre d’une assistance administrative. The WAEMU countries, long hostile to foreign direct investment, under the combined effect of the globalization of the economy and the pressure of the institutions of Brettons Woods, have in the one hand, favored an internal access to International financial flows and on the other hand, offered tax incentives to multinationals. Thanks to financial liberalization and the prevailing economic ideology, the multinationals, by various subterfuges and taking advantage also of the institutional and organizational handicaps of the respective tax administrations of the member countries of the UEMOA space, escape their fiscal responsibilities towards these states. In order to reduce the harmful effects of tax evasion by multinationals, WAEMU countries must place particular emphasis on the modernization of their tax administrations on the one hand, and on the other hand, to include in all their agreements tax rules, anti-abuse clauses. Finally, these states must strengthen the fight against tax evasion by concerted action based on tax cooperation in the context of administrative assistance

Alors qu'il ressort de la volonté de contrôler les agences de notation financière des initiatives nationales et régionales concrètes, elles ne restent toutefois pas harmonisées. Cette situation n'est cependant pas rédhibitoire. A titre d'exemple, alors que l'UE et les États-Unis disposent tous deux d'un système d'enregistrement distinct des agences afin qu'elles puissent exercer sur leur territoire, il apparaît logique de penser, et donc à terme d'envisager, qu'un enregistrement ou une agrégation universelle constituerait un premier pas fort vers l'harmonisation des réglementations. Il est dans ce cadre possible d'affirmer que l'harmonisation des réglementations américaine et européenne pourrait constituer un premier pas vers un cadre supra-étatique de réglementation des agences de notation financière. Il resterait dès lors à définir si ce sont les standards européens qui s'appliqueraient, ou ceux de la réglementation américaine potentiellement moins ambitieuse. Et encore, cette piste de réflexion serait parfaitement juste si il ne fallait pas également prendre en compte la montée des économies des pays émergents qui souhaitent changer la donne. Il serait donc nécessaire de s'accorder avant tout sur un système convenant à tout un chacun, hypothèse fort difficile mais qui mérite des questionnements. En outre, pour contrôler les agences de notation financière de manière efficace et contraignante (ce que n'est malheureusement pas le Code de bonne conduite de l'OICV), il ne faut pas non plus négliger la possibilité de voir émerger un droit international économique issu de standards financiers. Ce processus ne serait ainsi pas seulement bénéfique dans le cadre de la création d'un contrôle international des agences de notation, il le serait également dans le développement d'un droit international financier contraignant. Dans le cadre des agences de notation, le développement des standards financiers s'est fait en réponse aux besoins des autorités de régulation nationales à la recherche d'un équilibre entre le maintien de la compétitivité de leur place financière et la nécessité d'une stabilité du système financier. Ces standards permettent aux institutions de coopération de se positionner comme des autorités internationales de standardisation pour les secteurs concernés. Ils constituent indubitablement la piste de réflexion la plus sérieuse pour un contrôle international efficace des agences de notation financière.

This study investigates the impact of conduct which goes on to give rise to a securities lawsuit, and the filing of a securities lawsuit, on the level of accounting conservatism in financial reporting. This study also investigates the moderating influence of corporate governance on the level of accounting conservatism following conduct which goes on to give rise to a securities lawsuit, and the filing of a securities lawsuit. The study uses a sample of 617 privately enforced disclosure-related securities lawsuits against listed US firms, taken under SEC rule 10b-5 of the 1934 Securities Exchange Act, over the period 2002 to 2010. The results of the study indicate that following both the conduct that gives rise to a securities lawsuit, and the filing of a securities lawsuit, firms adopt higher levels of accounting conservatism. However, the study finds no evidence that corporate governance moderates the impact of securities lawsuits on the level of accounting conservatism.

Corporate disclosure has attracted the attention of researchers from the accounting and capital markets. Researchers have been trying to better understand how capital markets respond to corporate disclosures. This study explores the short- and the long- term market effects of corporate disclosures in a continuous disclosure environment. This study aims to find the answers to the following research questions. (1) How market (price/volume) sensitive is the information contained in each disclosure category in a continuous disclosure environment? (2) How quickly is the value-relevant information incorporated into share prices before the annual earnings announcement is released, and how can company announcements promote this timeliness of price discovery? Specifically, this study examines the extent to which the Australian share market reacts to new public information immediately after the information is released, and the impacts of announcement frequency as to different continuous disclosure categories on the timeliness of price discovery (also known as the speed of price discovery). Prior research has mostly concentrated on a single type of information event to examine the information’s market consequences by monthly, weekly or daily data. Instead, by covering all public announcements and using tick (transaction) data to calculate intraday abnormal returns and abnormal trading volumes, this study examines which type of announcement has the largest immediate market responses, and compares the magnitude (with positive/negative signs) of market reactions to different announcement categories on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). This study is more attractive under the Australian Continuous Disclosure Regime (CDR) because of the classification system regarding the market-sensitive announcements. Whether or not an announcement is market-sensitive is predetermined by ASX ‘specialist staff’ before the announcement is released on the market. This study investigates how the market interprets the announcement, examining market sensitivity from both the share price and trading volume movements after the announcement is available to the market. In other words, to some extent, the ‘market sensitivity tag’ shows the announcement that the market should react to, and this study reveals the announcement that the market does react to. Focusing on market-sensitive announcements, except for the ASX Query, the significant results show a positive association between announcement categories and intraday Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs). Share prices react the most to Progress Reports and to Asset Acquisition & Disposal, and the least to Periodic Reports and Issued Capital. Share price reactions to Distribution Announcements and Other are in the middle. There are at least two possible reasons for the different market reaction magnitudes. One is the information materiality nature: if one type of information is more important to investors than other information, this may cause higher abnormal returns on the market. The other is the information predictability: if there has been a lot of relevant information available in previous days or months, share prices could adjust to the information more smoothly. In terms of the trading volume reactions, intraday Abnormal Trading Volumes (ATVs) are observed after the release of Progress Reports, Asset Acquisition & Disposal, Issued Capital and Periodic Reports. After separating good and bad news subsamples, the results show that Progress Reports and Asset Acquisition & Disposal tend to indicate good signs to the market and cause larger trading volumes. Periodic Reports and Issued Capital could contain either good or bad news, but the trading volumes are driven by bad news. The results also reveal that company size is an important factor. Large companies tend to have relatively small market responses after information is released, which confirms that the larger companies are more stable. This study also evaluates long-term market effects of corporate disclosures by examining the timeliness of price discovery (also known as the speed of price discovery). It is the timeliness with which the full value relevant information is priced over a year before the annual earnings announcement is released. Previous literature has revealed that earnings announcements convey information, because significant stock returns or increased trading volumes are observed around the time that earnings announcements are released. However, it has also been suggested that there are other more timely information sources available that contain essentially similar or even the same value-relevant information. By the time preliminary final reports become available to the market, any potential value-relevant information has been included in the share price. The CDR again provides an attractive environment to examine the impact of corporate disclosures on the timeliness of price discovery, because listed companies have to disclose to the market before any other media sources. This enables an exploration of the relationship between the timeliness and the frequency of continuous disclosures. If the CDR is efficient in keeping investors fully informed, there should be no stock price surprise after the earnings announcement is released. Given the importance of the Preliminary Final Reports to the timeliness metric and the fact that the immediate market reaction tests only cover announcements released during trading hours, this study investigates in depth the Preliminary Final Reports and finds some evidence that companies tend to release bad news after the market closes and/or on Fridays. In terms of the impacts of announcement frequency on the timeliness of price discovery, following the step ‘All announcements – Periodic/Non-periodic announcements – Detailed categories of Non-periodic announcements’, the findings reveal that only earnings-related and cash flow announcements (Periodic Reports, Distribution Announcements and Quarterly Cash Flow Reports) can accelerate the timeliness of price discovery. Unfortunately, the results do not confirm that more announcements on the market could promote the timeliness with which the value-relevant (i.e. earning/income) information is incorporated into share prices. In addition to announcement frequency influences, the price discovery process is faster for companies with better share performance, are larger or have greater profitability. Financial companies have a timelier price discovery process than other companies; the price discovery process of financial companies was affected more by the 2008 – 2010 Global Financial Crisis than that of other companies. This study contributes to the market reaction literature by covering all categories of company announcements and comparing immediate market consequences for each type of announcement, and builds upon the timeliness of the price discovery literature by linking the announcement frequency of each continuous disclosure category to the timeliness with which annual earnings information is incorporated into share prices.

Cette tribune repose sur la réalisation d’un recueil des points de vue de professionnels de la comptabilité ainsi que des organes intervenant dans la normalisation comptable Organisation pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires (OHADA) au Sénégal. Les résultats de l’investigation sont confrontés à la réglementation comptable en vigueur, afin de mieux cerner les grands axes de normalisation comptable dans l’espace OHADA. Ce travail est novateur dans le sens où peu de travaux académiques portent sur cette thématique à l’échelle de l’OHADA.

The stated purpose of the IFRS Conceptual Framework is to assist the IASB to develop Standards that are based on consistent concepts, and also to assist preparers to develop consistent accounting policies when Standards either do not apply or allow a choice of accounting policy. Yet, the Framework actually does surprisingly little to help the IASB (or preparers) determine which assets, liabilities, income and expenses should be recognised, and how they should be measured. The Framework’s focus on assets and liabilities implies that the accounting can, and should, be determined from the balance sheet. Yet, many current financial reporting requirements focus initially on the income statement, and so they are not so much derived from the Framework as instead in need of being reconciled back to it. At its heart, the problem here is that, while the Framework states that accrual accounting provides a better basis for assessing past and future performance than cash-based information, it does not explain why. To do so would require a conceptualisation of how entities’ business models are employed to create value, and of the strengths and limitations of accounting data in enhancing investors’ understanding of that value-creation. The lack of explanation of the purpose and informational objectives of accruals, how they relate to business models and how they cause the income statement and the balance sheet to interact are gaps in the Framework. Filling those gaps would provide a more robust, and natural, way for the IASB to develop recognition and measurement requirements in its Standards.