An Empirical Investigation of the True and Fair Override in the United Kingdom
分析英国上市公司使用真实与公允优先原则的情况，发现高成本优先与业绩疲弱、信息含量低及盈余质量差相关，低成本优先则无此现象，对原则导向与规则导向会计之争有参考价值。
Abstract: The True and Fair View concept requires companies to depart from GAAP or the law if necessary to present a true and fair view of the corporation's financial affairs. We analyze UK public companies invoking a true and fair override to assess whether overrides are associated with weakened performance, earnings quality and informativeness. We find quantified overrides increase income and equity significantly, and firms that invoke more costly overrides report weaker performance. We also find that firms invoking the most costly overrides have less informative financial statements than control firms, and lower earnings quality. In contrast, firms invoking less costly overrides do not exhibit weaker performance, less informative financial statements or weaker earnings quality. These findings are relevant for the debate on principle‐ vs. rules‐based accounting.