The primary objective is to address one narrow well-defined topic, related to some element of this course, go well beyond the text, and learn about the actual world in which accounting rules are made.
The following notes are intended to provide guidance regarding the kinds of topics that would be suitable for this term paper.
I) Study the history of a particular rule or FASB (or SEC) standard: This would involve first of all making a narrow choice of a particular rule (e.g. FAS 115, dealing with marketable securities), and then studying its history by addressing at least the following questions:
a) what rule or practice prevailed before the selected rule?
b) what alternative proposals were made as this rule change was being considered?
c) who was lobbying for what? Why?
For items b and c, much useful information will be available from Exposure Drafts issued as part of the standard-setting process when the rule change was being considered, and comment letters received. For these the FASB or SEC sites, among others, can prove useful.
Because there are a large number of standards, there are many potential topics under this category.
II) A second category of paper topics would involve comparisons between US GAAP and IFRS, relating to a given area of accounting (e.g. depreciation). Papers in this category should at a minimum explain what the treatment under US GAAP is, what the treatment under IFRS is, where the key differences lie, provide brief examples that illustrate the differences, and try to make a limited assessment of impact by studying one annual report of one company for this one area of accounting, and explain how numbers in this one instance would be different under US GAAP and IFRS.
A convenient source of information about IFRS would be the IFRS ANNUAL HANDBOOKS that most large accounting firms (e.g. Deloitte, Price Waterhouse) create and make available through their websites. The International Accounting Standards Board also has the original text, and some related documents (including interpretations), of various IFRS standards.
III) A third category of paper would focus more on the behavior of the regulator (e.g. FASB, SEC) in relation to a particular crisis or major project of the regulator. For example in the light of the dotcom crisis around 2000, the SEC introduced various regulatory measures. Later after the financial crissi of 2008 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed which had significant impacts on corporate disclosure. The first step would be to narrow down the focus to something small, then study the history of accounting in that area, before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, what the identified problems were, what the potential remedies were, what remedy is proposed in Sarbanes-Oxley, what its limitations are.
IV) A fourth category of papers would involve working with data and addressing simple statistical hypotheses. Unless you have prior experience working with data, and using statistical tools, this kind of paper is NOT recommended (as it may not be easily doable in 5 weeks if you have to also learn how to manage data and use statistical mathods). E.g. how do stock prices respond to particular accounting disclosures (e.g. earnings, or revenues)? If you do choose to write this type of paper, then the Global Busines Finance institute in VR 2014 may have data that you could use. There are also sources in the library (e.g. Compact Disclosure).
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