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This study investigates the macroeconomic consequences of firm-level accounting conservatism. Consistent with conditional conservatism extending to the aggregate level, I demonstrate that annual estimates of aggregate corporate profits and gross domestic product from 1929 to 2007 compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis are more sensitive to negative aggregate cash flow news than to positive aggregate cash flow news. Next, I estimate the dollar value impact of firm-level accounting conservatism on measurements of macroeconomic fundamentals. Finally, I show that the federal funds rate set by the U.S. Federal Reserve tends to be lower when the dollar value impact of firm-level accounting conservatism on gross domestic product measurements is larger. These results suggest that accounting can impact social welfare by altering the measurement attributes of key macroeconomic indicators and shaping monetary policy decisions which regulate the money supply and alter macroeconomic growth. / text

In this paper the relation between managerial ownership and conservatism is examined. Managerial ownership decreases agency problems caused by the separation of ownership and control. Managerial ownership increases the time horizon of managers and decreases expropriating behaviour. Conservatism is hypothesized to have the same effect on managers due to the asymmetric timeliness of earnings. This suggest that in firms with lower managerial ownership a demand for conservatism arises to substitute for the alignment function of managerial ownership. This paper test this with two approaches. The first replicates the methodology of previous literature. The findings provide no evidence for substitution between managerial ownership and conservatism. Because the estimators of the first methodology are biased a second method is used applying fixed effects. Consistent with the first approach no supporting evidence is found. However, it finds that firms in the sample have conservative accounting. The main implication of this paper is that rewarding managers with shares is not decreasing their conservative behaviour.

As a technique to ensure absence of undesired interference in transactional computations, Concurrency Control (CC) guarantees logical data consistency via providing transaction isolation, thus contributing to their dependability. However, single-version CC, which requires that a transaction system always works on the current version of a data item, may introduce unpredictable delays for real-time transactions because of unbounded blocking time which may cause deadline misses. Compared to single-version CC (current value of a data item is available but the historical values are overwritten and not accessible) mechanism, multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC, historical values of a data item are maintained in a version list and accessible) mechanisms have several advantages. The benefit of multiple versions for concurrency control is helping the scheduler avoid rejecting operations, which could improve the concurrency for real-time transaction systems. Because transactions are less likely to be blocked using MVCC, timeliness could be improved. Transaction isolation levels, out of which the serializable one is the highest, control the degree of interference-freedom of concurrent transactions. Instead of serializable isolation, some MVCC mechanisms are known to achieve a relaxed level of isolation. In order to select an appropriate MVCC mechanism that guarantees both timeliness and an acceptable level of isolation for a given transaction set, trade-off analysis between isolation and timeliness is necessary. However, even though approaches have been proposed to analyze timeliness and isolation together, they only focus on lock-based single-version concurrency control algorithms, not on MVCC. In this thesis, we focus on modeling multi-version based real-time transaction system as a network of timed automata, and verify the consistency of the tradeoff transaction timeliness and isolation in UPPAAL. We propose a modular modeling approach to model real-time multi-version transaction systems by reusing and extending set of basic blocks. The proposed approach not only reduces the modeling efforts, but also enables easy adjustment for adapting current MVCC mechanism to another. Assuming a given transaction set, we model three MVCC algorithms including multi-version Timestamp Ordering, a variant of multi-version Two-Phase locking and a Two-Version Priority Ceiling Protocol, and verify both timeliness and isolation level. The verification results show that Two-Version Priority Ceiling Protocol outperforms the other two MVCC algorithms with the given transaction set.

There is a need to learn more about how managers use accounting information. This thesis investigates how managers make use of business reports; as they are one of the ways managers receive information. Previous research was found to broadly correspond to four important aspects affecting how managers make use of business reports; aggregation, timeliness, flexibility and dimensions. A case study was conducted at NCC Construction. The main findings from this study are that managers have the possibility to view information in the reports at their desired level of specificity and they are not concerned about the issue of timeliness. Furthermore they are satisfied with flexibility in reports, but wish for more capabilities and do not desire non-financial information in reports. Therefore the four aspects are found to no longer be a hindrance to managers in their use of business reports as much as could be expected from previous studies. Technological developments and business practices are found to have changed managerial work. Reporting has become faster and is more accurately reflecting the real world operations, making business reports more useful to managers.

This study examines the timeliness of write-downs taken by U.S. financial institutions during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The timeliness of write-downs is measured by benchmarking the quarterly accounting write-down schedule with the devaluation schedule implied by credit indices such as the ABX. The results show that accounting write-downs are less timely than the devaluations implied by credit indices. In a cross-sectional analysis of the determinants of the timeliness of write-downs, I document that higher corporate governance quality is positively related to timelier write-downs. Furthermore, I observe that regulatory investigations and litigation pressure are positively related to the timeliness of write-downs, whereas the write-downs by firms with more complex exposures, higher financial leverage, and tighter regulatory constraints are less timely. In addition, I control for numerous exposure-specific characteristics and document that less risky exposures, and exposures that were affected later during the financial crisis, were written down later. Regarding the consequences of timeliness, this study finds that the exposure to risky assets is reflected faster in stock returns for firms with timelier write-downs.

This study examines the timeliness of write-downs taken by U.S. financial institutions during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The timeliness of write-downs is measured by benchmarking the quarterly accounting write-down schedule with the devaluation schedule implied by credit indices such as the ABX. The results show that accounting write-downs are less timely than the devaluations implied by credit indices. In a cross-sectional analysis of the determinants of the timeliness of write-downs, I document that higher corporate governance quality is positively related to timelier write-downs. Furthermore, I observe that regulatory investigations and litigation pressure are positively related to the timeliness of write-downs, whereas the write-downs by firms with more complex exposures, higher financial leverage, and tighter regulatory constraints are less timely. In addition, I control for numerous exposure-specific characteristics and document that less risky exposures, and exposures that were affected later during the financial crisis, were written down later. Regarding the consequences of timeliness, this study finds that the exposure to risky assets is reflected faster in stock returns for firms with timelier write-downs.

Accounting regulators are concerned about the potential threat of long-term auditor-client relationships on auditor independence, leading to lower audit quality. The main objective of this study is to examine the association between auditor tenure and an important feature of accounting, namely conservatism. Following Basu (1997) and Ball, Kothari and Robin (2000), I define conservatism as the quicker recognition in earnings of bad news about expected future cash flows. I investigate whether long-term auditor-client relationships are associated with less timely recognition of earnings to bad news, and a lower rate of reversal of negative earnings changes. The overall results strongly show that conservatism decreases as auditor tenure lengthens. The results are robust across various measures of conservatism and a series of sensitivity tests. However, auditors¡¯ litigation exposure appears to be able to mitigate the adverse impact of auditor tenure. In additional tests, I find that the reduced conservatism is not driven by the larger clients that auditors have incentives to retain. Moreover, I find that even industry specialists could not avoid the negative impact of longer auditor-client relationships on conservatism. The study provides some support to the regulators who are concerned about the potential negative impact of auditor tenure on audit quality and the rule of mandatory audit firm rotation.

The focus of this dissertation is on the exploration of interior environments subjected to constant change. This study will investigate the ability of interior design to relate and respond to internal and external influences in a way which represents the interior environment as one of spatial performance and experience. Responsive interior design is investigated in terms of change over time relative to temporal conditions through the adaptive re-use of the temporary structure Les Grandes Tables de l’île Seguin by 1024 Architecture as a travelling crafts exhibit and design development centre for Design Network Africa, a craft development initiative. The host building Les Grandes Tables de l’île Seguin will be altered from a single use, static interior environment to an active interior which is able to accommodate craft exhibitions, workshops and design studios as functions in sequential phases. The intention is to explore ‘timeliness’ in interior design and establish an enduring identity for the altered host building, which incorporates constantly changing, temporary identities influenced by varied locations, occupants and programmes. The host building, consisting of a structural framework and interior infill, provides the opportunity for exploration of an adaptable interior through conceptualising the environment as one of a permanent, enduring framework and specific, temporary infill. For the purpose of the study the project is investigated in one location, Sunnyside, Pretoria, with two different occupants from the Design Network Africa client body, and multiple phases portraying the different functions. / Dissertation (MInt(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2014. / Architecture / MInt(Prof) / Unrestricted

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