本研究的目的在於探討兩個問題：一、上市公司因應財務會計準則公報第三十五號公報的採用而宣告資產減損，市場的反應是正面的(positive)還是負面的(negative)？亦即，資產減損宣告對公司價值的影響為何？二、投資人對於資產減損宣告會過度反應(over-reaction)還是反應不足(under-reaction)？由於財務會計準則公報第三十五號公報的實施截至目前為止尚不足兩年，本研究對於本課題的研究著重在資產減損宣告和股價的關係突顯了這個課題的獨特性和重要性。本研究係採事件研究法以檢驗台灣上市公司採用財務會計準則公報第三十五號公報對於其股價的表現是否會造成影響。除了全數樣本的分析之外，亦將全數樣本依照減損公司的特性和減損資產的特性分成子樣本；或在事件研究法中傳統的市場模型當中加入利率因素或產業因素兩個控制變數並區分成對金融業和非金融業加以分析——目的在於探討這些分類或因素是不是造成資產減損宣告對股價反應的原因。實證結果發現：一、不論是採用哪一種子樣本的分類方式，市場對資產減損宣告的反應都是負向的；二、和利率因素相比，產業因素比較能解釋資產減損宣告前後的股價反應，且對於金融業或非金融業結論皆然；三、30天期的股價反應顯示，投資人對於資產減損宣告有過度反應的現象，因為在產業分類之下股價在12天至18天左右有迴轉(reversal)的現象。 / The purpose of this paper is to answer two questions: 1. Does the market react positively or negatively to asset write-down announcements? Or, what is the impact of asset impairment on the firm value? 2. Do investors over-react or under-react to asset write-down announcements? Given the recent enforcement of SFAS No.35 about asset write-down, this study supplements the importance of that pronouncement by demonstrating the relation between write-downs and security prices. This study employs the event study methodology to examine the impact of SFAS No.35 on the stock performance of those listed firms (i.e., whose stocks are listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange) that apply the regulation. Partitions methods based on write-down asset and write-down firm characteristics are adopted. Moreover, two other control variables—industry factor or interest rate factor—are added to the traditional market model for the financial industry and non-financial industries to see if these factors can also explain the market reaction around write-down announcements. The result shows that the market reacts negatively to asset written-down announcement whatever the partition method is adopted. And the industry return is proved to be the better factor that can explain the market reaction than the interest rate factor. The near-term stock performance in the (-30, 30) period shows that investors tend to over-react to write-down announcements, for the stock price signals a reversal after the announcement date.

我國財務會計準則公報第三十五號「資產減損之會計處理」規定，若有證據顯示相關資產可能發生減損，公司應進行減損測試，並據以認列資產減損損失。若已認列之資產減損已不存在或可能減少時，則可將該損失迴轉，但商譽之減損一經認列，即不得迴轉。本研究之目的在於探討商譽減損會計處理之改變，對於企業併購會計方法之選擇及財務報表會計資訊價值攸關性所造成的影響。 本研究之主要發現如下：（1）第三十五號公報發佈後，被併購公司的潛在商譽愈大，主併公司愈傾向採用權益結合法，以避免認列商譽；（2）企業依照該公報編製財務報表時，資產減損可能淪為其盈餘管理之工具，而導致盈餘對股價之解釋能力降低；以及（3）由於商譽減損損失不能迴轉，投資者認為企業較不會透過該類損失之認列，以進行盈餘管理。 / SFAS No. 35: Accounting for Impairment of Assets, requires that an enterprise should evaluate whether or not there are indications that an asset may be impaired on the balance sheet date. If such an indication exists, an impairment test should be performed to determine and recognize the loss. When there is evidence that an impairment loss recognized in prior years may no longer exist or has been reduced, it may be reversed; however, reversal of impairment loss on goodwill is prohibited. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the change on accounting for goodwill impairment affects the accounting for business consolidations and the value relevance of financial statements. Our major empirical results are as follows. (1) For the business consolidation occurred after the issuance of SFAS No. 35, the larger the potential goodwill of the acquired firm, the more likely the acquiring firm would adopt the Pooling method to avoid recognizing goodwill. (2) With the adoption of SFAS No. 35, since firms may utilize the Statement as an earnings management device, the value relevance of a firm’s earnings is decreased. (3) From the investors’ viewpoint, an impairment loss on goodwill is less likely to have earnings management effect because such a loss cannot be reversed.

強制報導資產減損的目的為希冀企業能夠真實反映出資產的公平價值，使會計資訊能夠有更完整的報導。 本研究探討的主題一為上市公司選擇適用三十五號財務會計準則公報之時點是否會受到管理階層之盈餘管理動機與公司特性所影響。實證結果顯示，當上市公司有未預期的負營運績效時，管理階層會自願提前認列資產減損來達到洗大澡的目的，而一旦提前適用三十五號財務會計準則公報時，管理階層也會同時選擇認列鉅額的資產減損比例來達成盈餘管理的目的，與釋放潛在獲利改善的訊息給投資大眾。 本研究探討的主題二為上市公司認列資產減損金額比率是否會受到管理階層之盈餘管理動機與公司特性之影響。實證結果顯示，上市公司認列減損金額時，除受到管理階層洗大澡動機的影響外，也會將公司本身之固定資產比率、負債比率與公司規模等公司特性列入考量，而非只是單純的應公報要求認列資產減損而認列損失。 與三十五號財務會計準則公報的本意相反，實證結果顯示資產減損的報導在強制認列之後，似乎未使財務報表的品質提升，反映出企業的真實價值，而是給予經理人更多空間與誘因操縱盈餘。 / Accounting Research and Development Foundation in Taiwan (the Accounting Standards Setting Body in Taiwan) issued Statement Financial Accounting Standards No.35, “Accounting for the Impairment of Assets”on July 2004. Prior to SFAS No.35, accounting for assets impairment often remains room for substantial judgments and estimates without any specific regulation. The new statement was issued primarily to establish guidelines to recognize impairment of assets that reflects more true value of the enterprises. The statement was effective for fiscal year 2005. The board encouraged early application of the standard. The purposes of this research are to find out (i) if companies manage earnings by adopting SFAS No.35 earlier and what characteristics of firms will tend to adopt it earlier, and (ii) when a company recognizes impairment of assets, does the amount of the impairment affected by the motivation for earnings management of other characteristics of the company. The empirical analysis reveals “taking a big bath” of earnings management behavior and the growth of fix assets are the factors influencing the decision of early adoption of the accounting standard. Another empirical result suggests that when companies have higher unexpected losses, they tend to recognize large amount of impairment loss to improve the quality of the earnings in the future. Companies that chose to adopt SFAS No.35 earlier appeal to have a great amount of impairment loss too. Finally, the characteristics of companies such as high fixed assets ratio, high debt ratio, and small size are also the factors leading to the recognition of a larger amount of impairment loss.

為了使公司帳面價值符合穩健原則，我國財務會計準則委員會於民國九十三年七月一日公布財務會計準則公報第三十五號 -- 「資產減損之會計處理」。此公報規定當資產之帳面價值高於可回收金額，對於超過的部分即須認列減損損失。本文之目的即在於藉由探討資產減損認列之決定因素，係經濟因素或報導誘因，以瞭解第三十五號公報之實施是否真能達到當初制定之目的，而使公司財報更為透明，更能反映公司的經營績效與價值，而非淪為管理階層盈餘管理之工具。此外，本文亦探討公司資產減損之認列與其股價之關係，以瞭解投資人對資產減損資訊之反應，以及第三十五號公報對市場之影響。 本研究之主要發現如下：（1）國內上市公司認列資產減損之決定因素主要係經濟因素，但亦有藉以平穩其盈餘之現象；以及（2）整體而言，資產減損對股價不具有顯著之影響力，顯示市場對於資產減損並無顯著之反應。但市場對於未提前適用之公司所認列之資產減損，則有顯著之負向反應。 / In July 2004, Financial Accounting Standards Board in Taiwan issued SFAS No. 35: Accounting for Impairment of Assets, to enhance the conservatism in corporate financial statements. SFAS No. 35 requires that when an asset’s book value is lower than its recoverable amount, a company should recognize the difference as an impairment loss. The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants (economic factors and reporting incentives) of reported impairment losses to evaluate whether SFAS No. 35 achieves its purpose. In addition, this study examines the relationship between reported impairment losses and stock prices to determine the impact of SFAS No. 35 on the capital market investors. Our empirical results show that economic factors are the main determinants of reported impairment losses of the listed firms in Taiwan. There is also a high association between reported impairment losses and corporate “income smoothing” behavior. Overall, reported impairment losses do not have significant impact on stock prices. However, after excluding the early adopting firms, the capital market reacts negatively to reported impairment losses.

國內35號會計準則公報的實施是會計從歷史成本原則走向公平價值之重要里程碑，在新公報提高財務報表攸關性之同時，卻可能因放棄可靠性而增大企業報導盈餘的空間。是以實施35號公報對企業財務與營運面資訊揭露上之影響，除資產減損認列項目的正確性，認列金額的適足性，相關揭露報導的適當性外，影響資產減損的因素，以及是否具有公司或產業差異性等，均為值得深入探討的議題。 本論文以2004年報及2005年半年報為研究期間，針對資產減損之認列內容是否符合35號公報之規範內容，本研究發現國內上市櫃公司，將原來規範在1號或5號公報、後來納入35號公報受評之資產，在研究期間內認列並報導的資產減損損失合計約為新台幣203億元，分析結果隱喻國內上市櫃公司在適用35號公報時，確有存在不當認列之可能。本研究同時發現在財務報告資訊品質方面存在財務報告附註揭露「會計變動理由及其影響數」以及會計師查核意見書未對適用35號公報予以適當揭露者計有163家；以及母子公司適用35號公報之時點不同者。 至於認列資產減損金額之決定因素，本研究之實證結果發現，企業認列資產減損之大小受獲利能力、經營績效以及資產使用效能等企業營運因素之影響。在企業特性方面，本研究發現負債比例愈高及企業信用風險愈差之企業，其資產減損金額愈大。規模愈大之公司，認列之資產減損愈小；以及資訊電子業者認列顯著較高之資產減損金額。由於企業在適用35號公報上保有彈性判斷之空間，因此本研究發現企業認列資產減損之大小受到企業本身承受能力及洗大澡動機之影響，隱喻35號公報可能是管理當局可以操弄盈餘之工具之ㄧ。 / The implementation of new accounting standard (SFAS No.35) on assets impaired is a milestone of moving from historical cost principle towards fair value principle. As SFAS No. 35 may enhance the relevance of financial information at the cost of reliability, there exists the flexibility of reported earnings through the new communiqué. Based on the importance of the SFAS No.35 on a company’s financial and operational reporting, this thesis investigate the accuracy and adequateness of asset impairment, the appropriateness of reporting and disclosures of asset impairment, the determinants of asset impairment and the characteristics across industry are worth studying into thoroughly. With the topic of the contents of asset impairment in compliance with SFAS No.35, this study finds that the listed companies in Taiwan recognized and reported as asset impairment in the amount of NT $88,094 million for the study period from December, 2004 to June, 2005, of which approximately amounted to NT $20,300 million should be periodically evaluated in accordance with SFAS No.1 or SFAS No.5 before adoption of SFAS No.35. As a result, it metaphors listed company in Taiwan to use SFAS No.35 as an excuse for written off asset value. We explored the accuracy of asset impairment loss and the appropriateness of reporting for asset impairment for listed companies in Taiwan. When analyzing the reporting quality, we found that there were 163 financial reports of listed companies in Taiwan without footnote of “Accounting change and its effect” or explanationary paragraph for accounting change in auditors’ opinion for the study period from December, 2004 to June, 2005. In addition, we also found that four companies within two consolidated group started to adopt SFAS No.35 at the different timing against the rule of consistency on the adoption of accounting principle among consolidated entities. We explored the determinants of asset impairment for the listed companies in Taiwan for the period from December, 2004 to June, 2005. Our empirical results show the following: (1) The size of asset impairment is associated with operational factors such as profitability, operational performance and effectiveness of asset utilization;(2) In the perspective of company characteristic, the size of asset impairment is associated with the debt ratio and worse credit risk ;(3) The bigger company recognized the smaller impairment loss . Compared to other industries ( excluded financial institutions and securities),the huge impairment had been recognized in electronic industry .Since the evaluation of asset value involved a lot of professional judgments , we found that the size of impairment loss was associated with the management reporting motivation and capability to afford such losses . It metaphors that the SFAS No. is one of the vehicle of earning smoothing to be used.