Dr Vasiliki Athanasakou OLD 2.20 and Dr Pascal Frantz OLD 3.07

This course is available on the MSc in Accounting and Finance, MSc in Accounting, Organisations and Institutions and MSc in Law and Accounting. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Other students may be admitted if they have knowledge of financial accounting and finance acquired at undergraduate level, and only with the agreement, in writing, of the MSc (Accounting and Finance) Course Tutor.

The course is capped to four sections of around 50 students; ie, 150 total. Students on the waiting list will be admitted on a first-come first-served basis, although MSc students on the Accounting programmes will be given priority.

Students must have completed Topics in Financial Reporting (AC416).

Investors view firms through the lens of financial accounting and reporting. This course aims to examine this lens by covering topics on the interaction of financial accounting and reporting with capital markets with a focus on corporate disclosure and communication strategies. The course views corporate financial reporting as an information system and reviews the theories and empirical regularities on the demand for and supply of accounting information in capital markets while also assessing the stock market impact of communication strategies.

Some of the topics covered in the course include: Determinants of accounting choices; Capital markets and the earnings game; Voluntary disclosure theory and practices; The signalling role of accounting information; Capital market consequences of accounting and disclosure choices; Financial reporting and corporate governance;  The course is based on a number of theories, empirical applications, and case studies, so that students gain an understanding firm’s corporate information environment and communication strategies.

Detailed choice of subjects will be determined by those lecturing on the course and many vary to some extent from year to year. Knowledge of basic accounting and finance is assumed.

30 hours of seminars in the LT.

Teaching is delivered in three hour sessions each week. Each session is conducted in groups of about 55 students, often involving case study analyses and group presentations and discussions. This mode of teaching requires good advance preparation by the students; hence, every student should be ready to contribute to the discussion when called upon. Active participation is expected and encouraged.

Students will be expected to produce 2 case studies in the LT.

Formative assessment will be in the form of groupwork (presentations and/or executive summary) on topics covered during the course. Two pieces to be collected. 

The course relies mostly on journal articles and chapters from relevant books supplied in study packs.  Relevant books covering specific parts of the course include Gibbons, R (1992) ‘A Primer in Game Theory’, Scott, W (2011) Financial Accounting Theory (Prentice Hall) and Lev, B (2012), ‘Winning Investors Over’, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.  Study packs will include detailed reading lists and lecture notes.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 10 minutes) in the main exam period.