Prof Ane Miren Tamayo OLD 5.05 and Dr Maria Manuel Correia OLD 3.12

This course is available on the MSc in Accounting and Finance. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Other students may be admitted if they have knowledge of financial accounting acquired at undergraduate level, and only with the agreement, in writing, of the MSc (Accounting and Finance) Course Tutor.

The course is capped to four sections of around 50 students; ie, 200 total. Students on the waiting list will be admitted on a first-come first-served basis, although MSc students on the Accounting programmes will be given priority.

Students must have completed Quantitative Methods in Accounting and Finance (AC550).

Prior knowledge of financial accounting is assumed.  AC550 is a pre-requisite for students with no/little prior knowledge of financial accounting.

Corporate financial statements are a key source of information about the economic activities of a firm. This course is intended to enhance the student's ability to relate economic events to financial statements and disclosures. It also seeks to aid in developing a coordinated set of concepts and principles to serve as a framework for analysing a wide variety of financial reporting issues. The goal is to enable students to understand the mapping between underlying economic events and the information in financial statements, and how this mapping affects inferences about the economic activities and position of the firm. The course also explores the regulatory environment and political climate, and how these link with the introduction of new standards and their underlying theories. Students are encouraged to relate economic events to diverse practices in financial statements, and to think critically of ongoing controversies and debates.

The emphasis of this course is on understanding and critical thinking, rather than bookkeeping. The course draws heavily on academic literature on the suggested topics.

The course objectives are achieved through teaching a variety of financial reporting issues and topics including the following: standard setting with respect to the conceptual frameworks; accounting for business combinations; accounting for value creation with special emphasis on cash flows statements and revenue recognition; capital markets efficiency; corporate disclosure; and corporate governance. Most topics are covered from an International Financial Reporting Standards and/or United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles perspective. 

Detailed choice of subjects will be determined by those lecturing on the course and many vary to some extent from year to year. Knowledge of basic accounting is assumed.

30 hours of seminars in the MT.

Teaching is delivered in two one and a half hour sessions each week. Each session is conducted in groups of about 55 students, often involving case study analyses and group discussions. This mode of teaching requires good advance preparation by the students; hence, every student should be ready to contribute to the discussion when called upon. Active participation is expected and encouraged.

Students will be expected to produce 2 problem sets in the MT.

Detailed reading lists are handed out at the start of the course, and will be largely based on papers in academic journals. Relevant books covering specific parts of the course are: Beaver WH, Financial Reporting: An Accounting Revolution, 3rd edn, Prentice-Hall, 1998; Scott W, Financial Accounting Theory, Prentice Hall, 1997; Watts RL & Zimmerman JL, Positive Accounting Theory, Prentice-Hall, 1986; Financial Reporting and Analysis, by Revsine, Collins, Johnson and Mittelstaedt (McGraw Hill, 5th ed.).

Exam (100%, duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes, reading time: 10 minutes) in the LT week 0.