Centre for Financial Reporting and Accountability
The Centre for Financial Reporting & Accountability is a research institute for financial reporting information development, interpretation and governance.
Who we are
The Centre for Financial Reporting and Accountability is an international interdisciplinary academic research institute.
The centre is dedicated to research that examines the development, attestation, interpretation, governance, or enforcement of financial reporting information.
Areas of expertise
- Detecting earnings manipulation and earnings quality.
- Executive compensation and corporate governance.
- University governance and university leadership incentive compensation.
- Sovereign credit ratings.
What we do
Our impact
Examples of our research include the effects of changes in financial reporting standards, the effects of government enforcement of financial reporting, financial reporting quality, how stakeholders interpret financial reporting data, firm-specific governance of financial reporting, incentives (including compensation) to misreport financial data, financial reporting around climate change and environmental risk, sustainability reporting, and the efficacy of an audit.
Most existing research in this area looks primarily at for-profit and publicly traded organisations. However this Centre would also support research that examines these issues in other entities, such as universities, non-profits, and governments.
News and insights from Centre for Financial Reporting and Accountability
Read the latest news and features from the Centre for Financial Reporting and Accountability.
The first Cambridge Disinformation Summit ends with call to lobby for access to social and sharing media platform data.
Insight
Good reporting
Annual reports should inform society – not just shareholders – about vital issues such as the financial health and environmental impact of organisations, says Professor Alan Jagolinzer of Cambridge Judge Business School.
Insight
Market integrity
Study on insider trading is relevant to coronavirus bailouts. The last big economic bailout in the United States was the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) enacted during the financial crisis in 2008. That package is now dwarfed by measures adopted by governments around the world to respond to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, including a $2.2 trillion economic recovery package in the US. A new study about TARP and insider trading co-authored by Alan Jagolinzer, Professor of Financial Accounting at Cambridge Judge Business School, has taken on added relevance owing to the COVID-19 bailout plans. The study "Political connections and the informativeness of insider trades" was published 20 March 2020 in the Journal of Finance. Last month, the Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton, said that companies that are in discussions about coronavirus bailout funds should disclose such "sensitive information" to investors. "I encourage companies to disclose where they stand and limit speculation," he said in an interview on CNBC. A few days later, a statement issued by Jay Clayton and William Hinman, Director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, called on companies to "provide as much information as is practicable regarding their current…