Die StuFo-Expo gibt mir die Möglichkeit meine Forschung im Rahmen meines Promotionsprojektes zugänglich für eine breite, fachübergreifende Öffentlichkeit zu machen. Zudem erhalte ich die Chance, Forschungsthemen, -ergebnisse und -methoden fachübergreifend kennenzulernen. Es ist ein einzigartiges Projekt, welches Studierende miteinander vernetzt und wichtige Fähigkeiten der Studierenden fördert. Das Thema meiner Forschung ist die Wertrelevanz latenter Steuern. Ich untersuche die Fragestellung ob latente Steuern bei der Vorhersage der zukünftigen Unternehmensentwicklung zusätzliche Informationen für verschiedene Stakeholder liefern. Dafür analysiere ich die knapp 1.800 verfügbaren Jahresabschlüsse aller im DAX Prime Standard gelisteten Firmen zwischen 2007 und 2018. Das von mir eingereichte Poster zeigt, dass latente Steuern dabei helfen, die Entwicklung des Marktwertes des Eigenkapitals bis zu zwei Jahren im Voraus zu prognostizieren. Dabei tragen aktive latente Steuern als wahrscheinliche zukünftige Steuerrückzahlungen positiv zum Unternehmenswert und deshalb zum Marktwert bei und passive latente Steuern als wahrscheinliche zukünftige Steuerzahlungen negativ zum Unternehmenswert und deshalb zum Marktwert bei. Ferner kann ich nachweisen, dass die ergänzende Berichterstattung über latente Steuern eher negativ von Marktteilnehmern bewertet wird. Mögliche Gründe hierfür sind die hohe Komplexität der Informationen und die fehlende Überleitbarkeit dieser Informationen auf Bilanz- und Gewinn- und Verlustrechnungszahlen. Auch zeigen Interviewstudien, dass das Vertrauen in latente Steuern und die dazugehörige Berichterstattung gering ist, da Stakeholder vermuten, dass latente Steuern zumindest teilweise für Bilanzpolitik genutzt werden. / The StuFo-Expo gives me the opportunity to make my research accessible to a broad, interdisciplinary public as part of my doctoral project. I also get the chance to get to know research topics, results and methods across disciplines. It is a unique project that connects students with one another and promotes important student skills. The topic of my research is the value relevance of deferred taxes. I am investigating the question of whether deferred taxes provide additional information for various stakeholders when predicting future corporate development. To do this, I analyze the almost 1,800 available annual financial statements of all companies listed in the DAX Prime Standard between 2007 and 2018. The poster I submitted shows that deferred taxes help forecast the development of the market value of equity up to two years in advance. Deferred tax assets as probable future tax repayments contribute positively to the company value and therefore to the market value, and deferred tax liabilities as probable future tax payments contribute negatively to the company value and therefore to the market value. I can also prove that the supplementary reporting on deferred taxes is rated negatively by market participants. Possible reasons for this are the high complexity of the information and the lack of transferability of this information to balance sheet and income statement figures. Interview studies also show that trust in deferred taxes and the associated reporting is low, as stakeholders suspect that deferred taxes are at least partially used for accounting policy.

Since 2005, publicly traded European companies are required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This is the result of the so-called “IAS-Regulation” of the European Parliament and of the European Council (Regulation (EC) No. 1606/2002) which formulates two objectives directly related to financial reporting: (higher) comparability and transparency of financial statements. With regard to transparency, researchers often rely on proxies to measure the quality of financial statements. In this dissertation, I follow this approach and examine the quality of IFRS financial statements relying on different proxies, such as value relevance, the degree of earnings management, and disclosure quality. The four papers in this dissertation cover research questions related to the determinants and consequences of managerial discretion in the three most important components of financial statements: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the notes. In summary, this dissertation answers important questions concerning the quality of accounting under IFRS which have remained unanswered – and in some cases even unasked – until now. Therefore, this dissertation has a material impact on the understanding of accounting quality under IFRS.

Since 2005, publicly traded European companies are required to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This is the result of the so-called “IAS-Regulation” of the European Parliament and of the European Council (Regulation (EC) No. 1606/2002) which formulates two objectives directly related to financial reporting: (higher) comparability and transparency of financial statements. With regard to transparency, researchers often rely on proxies to measure the quality of financial statements. In this dissertation, I follow this approach and examine the quality of IFRS financial statements relying on different proxies, such as value relevance, the degree of earnings management, and disclosure quality. The four papers in this dissertation cover research questions related to the determinants and consequences of managerial discretion in the three most important components of financial statements: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the notes. In summary, this dissertation answers important questions concerning the quality of accounting under IFRS which have remained unanswered – and in some cases even unasked – until now. Therefore, this dissertation has a material impact on the understanding of accounting quality under IFRS.:1 Accounting Quality under IFRS – Essays on Value Relevance, Earnings Management and Disclosure Quality: An Overview … 1 1.1 Introduction … 2 1.2 Overview of the Manuscripts … 4 1.3 Principal Research Contributions … 13 References … 16 2 Discretion in the Accounting for Defined Benefit Obligations - An Empirical Analysis of German IFRS Statements … 19 2.1 Introduction … 21 2.2 Literature Review … 25 2.3 Research Approach … 29 2.4 Results … 38 2.5 Conclusion … 45 References … 54 3 The Association between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Earnings Quality - Evidence from European Blue Chips … 59 3.1 Introduction … 61 3.2 Literature Review and Hypothesis Development … 63 3.3 Research Design … 70 3.4 Results … 79 3.5 Conclusion … 88 References … 101 4 Reexamining OCI Pricing - Empirical Analysis of Reporting Location Changes due to IAS 1 (rev. 2007) … 105 4.1 Introduction and Background … 107 4.2 Literature Review … 111 4.3 Research Approach and Hypotheses Development ...114 4.4 Results … 121 4.5 Conclusion … 130 References … 150 5 Short-term and Long-term Effects of IFRS Adoption on Disclosure Quality and Earnings Management … 155 5.1 Introduction … 157 5.2 Institutional Background: The Development of the German Accounting Environment … 161 5.3 Related Literature and Hypotheses Development … 164 5.4 Research Design … 175 5.5 Results … 186 5.6 Conclusion … 195 References … 209