Synopsis

Using a unique setting in which the standard setter (the Governmental Accounting Standards Board) provides guidance on the content of Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) disclosures, we investigate the determinants of content changes in municipal government MD&A. We do so in terms of economic changes, turnover, and regulatory characteristics. We use a sample of 1142 municipal MD&A disclosures from fiscal year 2011 to 2015 to calculate a difference score based on the degree to which municipal MD&As change from the previous year. Our empirical analysis highlights that MD&A content changes vary directly with changes in the unemployment rate, fund balance from governmental funds, and auditor turnover. Furthermore, we find evidence that MD&A content changes might be more likely in states without formal GAAP mandates, possibly implying that municipal managers increase transparency by complementing reported financial information with additional qualitative commentary in narrative disclosures when states do not centralize fiscal control over municipalities. Overall, our analysis provides insight on the use of qualitative disclosure by municipal managers, and highlights a need for enhanced commentary on certain items (such as debt and capital expenditures) in order to create greater credibility with and accountability to citizens and other financial statement users. This research is especially timely as GASB re-examines the disclosure mandates of GASB 34.

中文翻译：

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了解市政管理讨论和分析披露的同比变化

概要

使用标准制定者（政府会计准则委员会）就管理层讨论和分析 (MD&A) 披露的内容提供指导的独特环境，我们调查了市政府 MD&A 内容变化的决定因素。我们在经济变化、营业额和监管特征方面这样做。我们使用 2011 至 2015 财年的 1142 份市政 MD&A 披露样本，根据市政 MD&A 与上一年相比的变化程度计算差异分数。我们的实证分析强调，MD&A 内容的变化与失业率、政府基金的资金余额和审计师更替率的变化直接相关。此外，我们发现证据表明，在没有正式 GAAP 要求的州，MD&A 内容更改的可能性更大，这可能意味着，当国家不对市政当局进行集中财政控制时，市政管理人员通过在叙述性披露中添加额外的定性评论来补充报告的财务信息来提高透明度。总体而言，我们的分析提供了关于市政管理人员使用定性披露的见解，并强调需要加强对某些项目（例如债务和资本支出）的评论，以提高公民和其他财务报表使用者的可信度和责任感. 这项研究特别及时，因为 GASB 重新审查了 GASB 34 的披露要求。