Assessing the Impact of GASB Statement No. 34 Across the Municipal Bond Market
Assessing the Impact of GASB Statement No. 34 Across the Municipal Bond Market

Author: Rebecca Bloch

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13:

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The new disclosure requirements brought about by Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34 have provided new information for users of government financial reports. The first essay of this dissertation reports the results of a survey of users of government financial reporting, specifically members of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, asking whether the new information provided by Statement 34 is valuable in their analyses, whether it has improved financial reporting by governments, and for suggestions for improving the information provided. One of the new components of the Statement 34 reporting model is the requirement that municipalities include an MD & A as required supplementary information in their audited financial statements. In the previous essay of this dissertation, a high-level survey asking municipal bond analysts about how they use the Statement 34 information in their analyses, analysts indicated that they find the MD & A more valuable then any other Statement 34 reporting requirement. The second essay explores the determinants of the cross-sectional variation in MD & A disclosure and reports that the size of the municipality is the most important variable in determining the level of municipal MD & A disclosure. The third essay explores the impact of disclosure on contracting. It first reports on the association of MD & A disclosure with default, finding that disclosure is significantly and inversely associated with credit rating, even when accounting for other financial and socio-economic variables. This provides evidence that Statement 34 disclosure quality is incorporated by ratings analysts into their assessment of credit risk. It then further explores the relationship between this disclosure across another segment of the market by evaluating whether disclosure is associated with true interest costs. Results indicate that disclosure may be valued by smaller municipalities and may have been used by investors in the year when one of the largest bond insurers went bankrupt, signifying the virtual end of the market for municipal bond insurance. However, disclosure does not appear to be utilized by investors across the municipal bond market, as results were not significant when looking at the sample as a whole. The fourth essay discusses overall conclusions and avenues for future research.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act

Author: Paula M. Rascona

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2011-04

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 1437980279

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This report studied the role and importance of the GASB in the municipal securities markets as well as the manner and level at which GASB has been funded. GASB establishes standards of accounting and financial reporting for U.S. state and local governments. Established in 1984 as an operating component of the Financial Accounting Found., GASB is recognized as the body that sets generally accepted accounting principles for state and local governments. This study addresses the following questions: (1) What are key stakeholder views on the role and relevance of GASB in the municipal securities markets? and ( 2) What is the manner and the level at which GASB has been funded? Illustrations. This is a print on demand report.

Government Auditing Standards - 2018 Revision
Government Auditing Standards - 2018 Revision

Author: United States Government Accountability Office

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2019-03-24

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0359536395

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Audits provide essential accountability and transparency over government programs. Given the current challenges facing governments and their programs, the oversight provided through auditing is more critical than ever. Government auditing provides the objective analysis and information needed to make the decisions necessary to help create a better future. The professional standards presented in this 2018 revision of Government Auditing Standards (known as the Yellow Book) provide a framework for performing high-quality audit work with competence, integrity, objectivity, and independence to provide accountability and to help improve government operations and services. These standards, commonly referred to as generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS), provide the foundation for government auditors to lead by example in the areas of independence, transparency, accountability, and quality through the audit process. This revision contains major changes from, and supersedes, the 2011 revision.

Market Segmentation and the Association between Municipal Financial Disclosures and Net Interest Costs
Market Segmentation and the Association between Municipal Financial Disclosures and Net Interest Costs

Author: Ehsan H. Feroz

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 17

ISBN-13:

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We examined the association between financial disclosure and Net Interest Costs (NIC) in terms of finance studies that have suggested that the municipal bond market is segmented. Our results indicate that financial reporting measures are more strongly associated with NIC in the regional primary market (defined by the composition of the underwriting syndicate) than in the national markets.Slightly weaker but generally consistent results were obtained with alternative segmentation proxies-size of the city and size of the issue. One limitation of the study was the necessity to include in our sample hybrid syndicates consisting of both national and regional underwriters because of the small number of underwriting that occur in practice by syndicates comprised solely of national or regional firms.Nevertheless, our results suggest that syndicate leadership (whether managed by a national or regional underwriter) provides an adequate and perhaps conservative proxy for market segmentationlt;brgt;lt;brgt;The results suggests that reporting quality is higher overall for municipalities operating in the national market but, since there are fewer alternative sources of relevant pricing information for bonds issued by smaller issuers, underwriters and investors in regional markets seem to react more strongly to variations in the quantity and quality of financial disclosure in pricing bonds. One implication is that smaller cities might improve marketability of their bonds by improving their financial reporting practices.lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Finally, our findings suggest that researchers need to be sensitive to the institutional structures characterizing the municipal bond market. A logical extension of this study would be to identify other potentially segmented markets, such as the market for initial public offerings of corporate securities, which may also be characterized by informational differences (e.g, Feroz,Johnston, Reck and Wilson 2006). If other segmented markets exist, the usefulness of accounting information may also differ across markets, as appears to be the case for municipal bonds. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; lt;brgt.

Linguistic Tone of Municipal Management Discussion and Analysis Disclosures and Future Internal Control Quality
Linguistic Tone of Municipal Management Discussion and Analysis Disclosures and Future Internal Control Quality

Author: Kevin T. Rich

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 43

ISBN-13:

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We investigate relations between the textual content of municipal disclosures and future internal control quality. Specifically, we examine whether the linguistic tone of municipal management discussion and analysis (MD&A) disclosures is associated with the likelihood of future internal control weaknesses. Using a sample of 362 municipal MD&A disclosures in fiscal year-end 2011, our empirical analysis suggests that positive (negative) tone in municipal MD&A disclosures is associated with fewer (more) subsequent year internal control weaknesses after controlling for other governance, demographic, and performance factors. Overall, our findings suggest that language in municipal MD&A disclosures plays an important role in signaling confidence in financial reporting systems, indicating that MD&A content contains important information in predicting the quality of future municipal financial reporting.

The Moderating Role of Disclosure Quality
The Moderating Role of Disclosure Quality

Author: Christine Cuny

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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We examine whether municipal market participants' sensitivity to changes in local home values varies with the quality of local governments' financial reports. We find the credit ratings and bond yields of governments that are required to comply with GAAP are less sensitive to changes in local home values than similarly-affected governments that are not required to comply with GAAP. These governments do not experience different changes in net revenues ex post. The results are pronounced when the change in home values generates the most uncertainty (i.e., the change is adverse). The results are also stronger after GASB 34 increased the quality of GAAP-compliant issuers' financial reports. We conclude that market participants are less sensitive to signals about the local economy when local governments are required to provide high-quality disclosures.