Accounting and financial reporting during a pandemic

Peterson Ozili

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In this paper, I discuss how a pandemic affects the nature of financial reporting especially for financial and non-financial institutions that were deeply affected by the 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I show that accounting practices or techniques such as fair value accounting, big bath earnings management, loss avoidance and income smoothing techniques can help to dampen the effect of a pandemic on firm performance. Some implications about the merits and risks of accounting during a pandemic are highlighted and discussed.

Keywords: coronavirus; COVID-19; accounting; earnings management; financial reporting; earnings quality; reported earnings; bailout; accounting techniques; loss avoidance; fair value accounting; stimulus package; big-bath accounting; income smoothing. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M40 M41 M42 M48 M49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:105183

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