Eli Amir is a Professor of Accounting at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management and a visiting faculty at London Business School. From May 2000 to April 2003, Amir was the Chairman of the Israel Accounting Standards Board. Amir received his B.A. degree in Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University (1986) and his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley (1991). He is a Certified Public Accountant in Israel since 1987. Amir teaches courses in financial accounting, corporate financial reporting, financial statement analysis, financial analysis of mergers and acquisitions and empirical research in accounting. Amir’s research concentrates on financial analysis, equity valuation, pension asset allocation, auditing and the association between personal attributes and corporate decisions. He has published articles in leading academic journals such as the Review of Accounting Studies, The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Journal of Accounting Research.
Session 7.12 - IndependenceWe examine the association between accounting conservatism and externa... more Session 7.12 - IndependenceWe examine the association between accounting conservatism and external auditor independence using measures of conditional, unconditional and overall conservatism. We find positive relations between auditor independence and all types of accounting conservatism. These findings suggest that greater auditor independence bolsters both long-term unconditional conservative accounting policies and conditional conservatism. Contextual analysis shows that the independence-conservatism association is stronger in Big-4 audit firms whose income from non-audit services is unexpectedly low, in clients involving high litigation risk, as well as in clients raising cash from external sources; this relation is weaker in R&D and advertising intensive firms where GAAP-induced conservatism likely reduces incentives for independent auditors to require conservative accounting treatments.The 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association (AAA), New York, N.Y., 1-5 August 2009
We investigate whether new pension disclosures and subsequent full pension recognition under FRS ... more We investigate whether new pension disclosures and subsequent full pension recognition under FRS 17 and IAS 19 had any impact on pension asset allocation of UK companies. We also compare pension asset allocation of UK companies to that of US companies prior to and during the adoption of SFAS 158. Both FRS 17 and IAS 19 require pension assets and liabilities to be valued by reference to market conditions and the total surplus/deficit in the pension scheme to be recognized on the balance sheet. Additionally, periodical actuarial gains/losses are required to be recognized immediately in comprehensive income. Therefore, these standards introduce a large element of volatility into company balance sheets and comprehensive income. The requirements in FRS 17 and IAS 19 are similar to those of SFAS 158, which replaced SFAS 87 in December 2006. We identify a Disclosure period as the period in which UK companies had to disclose all the required data under FRS 17 in the notes to the financial s...
Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, 1999
We identify and test motives for corporate pension asset allocations using a proprietary asset al... more We identify and test motives for corporate pension asset allocations using a proprietary asset allocation database covering the 1988–1994 period. We focus on the question of whether the recognition of additional minimum pension liability in accordance with SFAS No. 87 affects asset allocation. Our results are consistent with the claim that companies allocate their pension assets to avoid the recognition of an additional minimum liability. In particular, companies that are close to the recognition threshold prefer fixed-income investments rather than equity investments. By investing in fixed-income securities, firms increase the correlation between pension assets and liabilities, reducing the likelihood of a pension deficit. Our results also suggest that firms allocate their pension assets between equities and fixed-income investments to reduce the volatility of pension contributions. Finally, we find that larger firms and firms with a young workforce invest more in equity securities...
SYNOPSIS AND INTRODUCTION: The majority of empirical regulatory accounting studies on financial r... more SYNOPSIS AND INTRODUCTION: The majority of empirical regulatory accounting studies on financial reporting have focused on the ex post eval-uation of accounting choices (see Lev [1979] and Barth [1991] among others) after an accounting method is adopted. There has ...
Session 7.12 - IndependenceWe examine the association between accounting conservatism and externa... more Session 7.12 - IndependenceWe examine the association between accounting conservatism and external auditor independence using measures of conditional, unconditional and overall conservatism. We find positive relations between auditor independence and all types of accounting conservatism. These findings suggest that greater auditor independence bolsters both long-term unconditional conservative accounting policies and conditional conservatism. Contextual analysis shows that the independence-conservatism association is stronger in Big-4 audit firms whose income from non-audit services is unexpectedly low, in clients involving high litigation risk, as well as in clients raising cash from external sources; this relation is weaker in R&D and advertising intensive firms where GAAP-induced conservatism likely reduces incentives for independent auditors to require conservative accounting treatments.The 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association (AAA), New York, N.Y., 1-5 August 2009
We investigate whether new pension disclosures and subsequent full pension recognition under FRS ... more We investigate whether new pension disclosures and subsequent full pension recognition under FRS 17 and IAS 19 had any impact on pension asset allocation of UK companies. We also compare pension asset allocation of UK companies to that of US companies prior to and during the adoption of SFAS 158. Both FRS 17 and IAS 19 require pension assets and liabilities to be valued by reference to market conditions and the total surplus/deficit in the pension scheme to be recognized on the balance sheet. Additionally, periodical actuarial gains/losses are required to be recognized immediately in comprehensive income. Therefore, these standards introduce a large element of volatility into company balance sheets and comprehensive income. The requirements in FRS 17 and IAS 19 are similar to those of SFAS 158, which replaced SFAS 87 in December 2006. We identify a Disclosure period as the period in which UK companies had to disclose all the required data under FRS 17 in the notes to the financial s...
Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, 1999
We identify and test motives for corporate pension asset allocations using a proprietary asset al... more We identify and test motives for corporate pension asset allocations using a proprietary asset allocation database covering the 1988–1994 period. We focus on the question of whether the recognition of additional minimum pension liability in accordance with SFAS No. 87 affects asset allocation. Our results are consistent with the claim that companies allocate their pension assets to avoid the recognition of an additional minimum liability. In particular, companies that are close to the recognition threshold prefer fixed-income investments rather than equity investments. By investing in fixed-income securities, firms increase the correlation between pension assets and liabilities, reducing the likelihood of a pension deficit. Our results also suggest that firms allocate their pension assets between equities and fixed-income investments to reduce the volatility of pension contributions. Finally, we find that larger firms and firms with a young workforce invest more in equity securities...
SYNOPSIS AND INTRODUCTION: The majority of empirical regulatory accounting studies on financial r... more SYNOPSIS AND INTRODUCTION: The majority of empirical regulatory accounting studies on financial reporting have focused on the ex post eval-uation of accounting choices (see Lev [1979] and Barth [1991] among others) after an accounting method is adopted. There has ...
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