재무보고를 위한 개념체계 및 회계환경의 변화와 회계보수주의 : 지난 20년간의 추세 분석

Since 2000, four revisions have been made for the conceptual framework for financial reporting. A major one which might affect the conservative accounting practice was amended in July 2011. The important feature of this amendment is the complete removal of reliability from the conceptual framework. The derecognition of reliability as one of the useful qualitative characteristics of financial reporting raised concern that it will lead to overlooking the importance of accounting conservatism in practice. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the level of accounting conservatism of listed companies around the change in conceptual framework. Contrary to ex-ante expectation, the results show that conservative accounting tended to increase over time. The results are not altered in the use of various proxies of accounting conservatism. Furthermore, the subsample tests show that the increase in the level of conservative accounting is likely due to the introduction of K-IFRS and the strengthened accounting regulation such as the application of new international audit standards, amendments to the new revenue recognition standard, the implementation of periodic auditor designation, and the adoption of standard audit hours. The results are also consistent when samples are divided by cross-sectional firm characteristics that could affect conservative accounting, such as the size of auditors and the level of comparability in financial statements. These findings provide implications for the regulators and practitioners.