The purpose of this study is to test the relation, if any, between use of fair value measurement and reported performance ratios of the firms and finally its effect on CEO compensation in Sweden. This research aims to contribute knowledge of decision makers about the performance-pay link in Sweden by comparing the changes of CEO compensations across the years, before and after the use of fair value method. In this sense, firms divided in two models of ownership structure: firms with family concentration and firms with dispersed ownership structure. This paper intent to contribute the explanations of existing researches from the USA and China about exponential increase in CEO compensation after the use of fair value method, with the data of Swedish listed companies. The data set of this study was highly dependent of the accessibility of information. In this sense, this research can be contributed with different data set, with more detailed scrutinise of data and in a longer research period. / <p>Acknowledgements</p><p>Having completed this master thesis in Linnaeus University in 2017, I would like to thank several individuals. I would like to start by thanking Andreas Jansson, Associate Professor of Accounting and Logistics at Linnaeus University, who inspired me about the subject and my supervisor Fredrik Karlsson, Senior Lecturer of Accounting and Logistics at Linnaeus University, for his sincere assistance, guidance and immensely valuable criticisms.</p><p>I owe special thanks to Ozan Uyanık for proofreading my paper, for his never-ending support and his whole year patience and endurance at times of stress. Another special thanks to my friends Ayşegül Girgin Ring and Şeniz Yılmaz for their valuable advice in econometrics and statistics.</p>

Accounting choice has prior to this dissertation been studied comprehensively in the private sector, and in a small extent in the public sector. The purpose of this study is to explain what factors influence the accounting choice in municipal corporations. The dependent variable, accounting choice, has been limited to explain if the municipal corporations either use the fair-value method or the cost-depreciation method when considering asset value loss. The independent variables are partly derived from the New Public Management, which is an umbrella term for the decentralisation of public state authority. The findings of the study indicate that the factors municipal corporations’ dual role does not influence the accounting choice. However, a correlation between the turnover and the use of the fair-value method has been found. The study also shows that there is a correlation between the regulations of the Municipal Act and the use of fair-value method. Furthermore, only one of the hypotheses was found significant. This stated that there is a positive correlation between the financing from the private sector and the use of cost-depreciation method to value tangible assets. The findings indicate that one cannot study municipal corporations as a single phenomenon (i.e. no municipal corporations is another alike). This is because they incorporate charachteristics from both the public and the private sector, and thus, have different levels of publicness. The limitation of this study is that the dependent variable accounting choice is only considering the asset value loss (i.e. fair-value and cost-depreciation method), and thus, does not give a holistic picture of the research field.

Background and aim: All of the publicly listed companies in the EU have since January 2005 been required to implement the new international accounting standard IAS/IFRS in their financial statements. One of the new regulations that were included in the standard was the IAS 40 – Investment Property, which regulates the valuation and reporting of a company’s investment properties. IAS 40 introduced two different approaches to valuate investment properties; the cost method and the fair value method. The latter one created debate and controversy because of concerns regarding its applicability on assets not traded on an efficient market. The foundation of the fair value method is to value an asset to its fair value, which is the amount that can be expected to be received if the asset would have been sold the time of the valuation. If an asset is regularly traded on an efficient market the information of the value can be retrieved directly from recent market transactions. However, if the asset is not traded on an efficient market the management needs to make own assumptions when assessing the value, which is thus subject to bias. This creates opportunities for the management to manipulate the earnings. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Swedish real estate companies use the fair value method as a tool to manipulate earnings by implementing earnings management techniques. Methodology: Two hypotheses were developed to answer the research question. They were tested by conducting a statistical analysis. Hypothesis 1 was tested by performing a linear regression analysis and the second hypothesis was tested by a chi-square-test. Result and conclusion: The results from statistical analysis were ambiguous. Although a specific earnings management technique could not be proven to be used it was not possible to eliminate the possibility of real estate companies performing some kind of earnings management technique to manipulate the earnings. / Bakgrund och syfte: I januari 2005 introducerades en internationell redovisningsstandard, IAS/IFRS, som alla börsnoterade företag i EU var tvungna att implementera. Ett av de många nya regelverk som infördes var IAS 40 – Förvaltningsfastigheter som reglerade värderingen och redovisningen av ett företags förvaltningsfastigheter. IAS 40 introducerade två nya metoder för att hantera redovisningen av förvaltningsfastigheter; cost-metoden och fair value-metoden. Den sistnämnda blev debatterad och ansågs kontroversiell då det funderingar skapades över dess tillämpning på tillgångar som inte handlades på en effektiv marknad. Fair value-metoden syftar till att värdera en tillgång till dess verkliga värde, vilket är det belopp som kan förväntas fås vid en eventuell avyttring vid värderingstillfället. Om en tillgång regelbundet handlas på en effektiv marknad kan information inhämtas direkt ifrån nyligen genomförda marknadstransaktioner. Om en tillgång emellertid inte handlas på en negativ marknad måste företagsledningen formulera egna antaganden när värdet beräknas vilket skapar utrymme för subjektivitet och som då kan utnyttjas av företagsledningen för att manipulera resultatet. Studiens syfte är att fastställa huruvida svenska fastighetsföretag använder fair value-metoden som ett verktyg för att manipulera ressultatet genom att implementera earnings management-tekniker. Metod: Två hypoteser formulerades i studien för att besvara frågeställningen. De prövades genom att utföra en statistisk analys. Hypotes 1 prövades genom en linjär regressionsanalys och hypotes 2 prövades genom att utföra ett chi-två-test. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet från den statistiska analysen var tvetydig. Då även om användadet av en specifik earnings management-teknik inte kunde statistiskt visas var det inte möjligt att eliminera det faktum att earnings management i någon form kan förekomma för att manipulera resultaten.

我國在金融監督管理委員會2009年5月14日宣告全面採用國際會計準則後，所有公開發行公司即受到全面性的衝擊;而在眾多的IFRS中，IAS 40投資性不動產會計準則，是目前國內會計準則所沒有的規定，且此號公報最特別的規定，是允許投資性不動產的續後評價，企業可以擁有選用公允價值法與歷史成本法的彈性，這樣的特殊規定觸發筆者想瞭解，企業未來適用此號公報，其續後評價方法之選擇及影響選擇原因的動機。 相對於歐美，由於我國缺乏具有長期收益性與安全性的資金投資管道，造成我國保險業長期偏好將可運用資金投資於實體不動產，故IAS 40對我國保險業影響重大，因此筆者以我國保險業為研究對象，以問卷、個案分析及訪談來探討保險業者對未來適用IAS 40之看法與期待。 經過研究分析，本研究發現60.61%的保險業在未來實施IAS 40後會繼續延用歷史成本模式，對影響選擇的因素方面，受訪者認為「對盈餘數字高低的影響」、「所得稅金額大小的考慮」、「對不同年度的損益造成波動的關係」等三項因素最為重要，另外，受訪者最認同新會計準則方法規定允許公司選用歷史成本法或公允價值法「會增加公司間財務資訊比較的複雜性」，且60.6%受訪公司傾向不同意提前適用此號公報。 / After the Financial Supervisory Commission Executive Yuan, R .O.C. declaring on May 14, 2009 that adopt International Accounting Standard in an all-round way in our country, all the public company were totally impacted promptly; Among the IFRSs, IAS 40 investment property is not exist at our present domestic accounting regulations and the most special of this regulation is allowing the enterprises can have elasticity of selecting the cost method or fair value method for measurement after recognition. The special treatments induce me to understand the drivers of the reason in its choice. As to America and Europe, because our country lacks have long-term rentability and security fund investment channel, cause the insurance of our country prefer to invest in real estate for a long time, so the implemental of IAS 40 will influence our insurance industry very much, so the study use questionnaires, case analysis and interview to researching the determinants of insurance industry choice to use the cost or fair value model to account for their real estate. Researched and analyzed, originally discover that 60.61% of the insurances will continue to use the cost method after implementing IAS 40 in the future, to influencing the factor chosen, interviewees think ”the amount of earnings”, “the tax amount” and “the volatility of income in different years” three factors are most important. In addition, interviewees admit that IAS 40 permits enterprises to choose cost method or fair value method will increase the complexity of comparisons among the companies’ report, and 60.6% interviewed disagree earlier application with this criterion.