Συντηρητικότητα στη λογιστική απεικόνιση και εταιρική διακυβέρνηση

Abstract

This study is added to the existing literature by examining the relationship between accounting conservatism and corporate governance and also how the quality of corporate governance affects the existence of conservatism in the accounting reports of a company. According to the literature, companies with strong corporate governance show a higher degree of accounting conservatism (Garcia Lara et al., 2009a). Conservatism is expressed as the asymmetric recognition of profits against losses and as corporate governance all the mechanisms aimed at ensuring the return on investment of capital providers. A sample of 678 Eurozone companies was used for the analysis for the years 2005 to 2019. Conservatism’s calculation is based on two alternative measures concerning the net income curvature and non-operating accrued income and is based on the research of Givoly and Hayn, (2000). To measure the quality of corporate governance, first an analytical indicator was used, provided by the ASSET4 database, and then individual indicators that the literature has shown to affect the effectiveness of corporate governance. Initially the relationship for the whole sample was estimated, the results of the research predict the tendency that the increase in the quality of corporate governance leads to the existence of conservatism in accounting. Separation was also made based on the GDP growth rate of the sample countries, with the majority of findings showing that there is a positive relationship between quality corporate governance and conservatism for both macroeconomically strong and less powerful countries. Finally, another sample was separated to check the effectiveness of each country's institutions, where the results of the regressions show that in countries with less effective institutions, the positive effect of corporate governance on the existence of conservatism is greater than in the original sample.