Lobbyng na regulação contábil internacional: uma análise do processo de elaboração da norma sobre reconhecimento de receitas

Abstract

CARMO, Carlos Henrique Silva do (2014). Lobbying in the international accounting regulation: an analysis of the process of development of a standard on revenue recognition. Tese de Doutorado, Faculdade de Economia, Administracao e Ciencias Contabeis, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo. The rise of an international and private body like the IASB and the massive convergence of many countries to its standards, have brought changes in the dynamics of the financial reporting regulation in different countries that, just like Brazil, historically had their accounting standard set by national laws under the responsibility of governmental entities. This new dynamic raises concerns for businesses, national standard-setters, governments, investors, academics and others interested in accounting standards. This research aimed to assess the association of specific characteristics of the participants of the international accounting regulation process promoted by the IASB and their influence in the definition of IFRS, investigating the alignment between the decisions of the Board and the opinions expressed by specific stakeholders during the period that draft standards were publicly exposed. For this, the comment letters sent to the IASB during the process of drafting the new standard on revenue recognition, Revenue from contracts with Customers were read and a content analysis was performed of 1,177 letters relating to both the public consultation to the Discussion Paper (December 2008) and the subsequent Exposure Draft (June 2010). Initial results showed that the IASB has met the preferences of most participants. However, some features of the lobbyists proved more associated with the regulatory decisions than others. The results of the logistic regression model revealed that the comments made by preparers of financial statements have a greater association with the decisions of the IASB, than the comments of national regulators, professionals in general, academics or users. This association is even greater when diverging views are raised in relation with the previous preferences of the regulator and their view is ultimately changed. If the company was American and showed disagreement with the proposed procedure, the chances of having its comment accepted were greater than if the suggestion came from a preparer from another country. Another finding was the existence of a strong association between the comments of the large multinational audit firms and the decisions of the IASB. A comment from one of the Big Four showed up to 5 times more probability to be accepted by the regulator than a comment made by any other stakeholder. These aspects confirm the researches that report that the greater homogeneity of interest between preparers act as incentives for the exercise of lobbying and pressure that is associated with the decisions taken by the regulator. Additionally, analysis of the history and structure of the IASB, as well as a group of empirical studies are rich in reporting evidence that confirms the results in the association relationship between the decisions of the regulator and the preferences of the large audit firms. The ideological complicity among the Big Four and IASB, documented in researches, facilitates the association between the ideas of these organizations and imply in the possibility of influence of these firms on IASB s decisions. Thus, the use of the theory of interest groups (Becker, 1983) together with the results presented in this research, explain the lack of a legal mandate to enforce its rules and the need to build legitimacy makes the IASB to act as a mediator interests. In this scenario, the choice of a particular accounting treatment reflects a decision in that regulators seek to manage conflicts, but eventually meet more closely the preferences of those who are most effective in convincing him.