Demetris Christodoulou and Michael Bradbury have just received funding from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) for working on a joint research project.
The funding of $3,750 is to cover the expenses surrounding the initial stages of collaboration with Michael Bradbury from Massey University.
The funded project examines the differences in accounting year ends and the resulting implications when datasets of firms (or firm-years) chosen on the basis of common year ends are employed in large scale empirical research. Also, as accounting year end dates may vary amongst countries and between businesses it is of great interest to identify the specific drivers of this type of accounting choice. The project has an international focus covering an extended time period (1980-2005) and a number of jurisdictions including Australia, New Zealand, the US and the EU. With the help of modern panel data methods of analysis, we seek to identify the frequencies of year end changes and their classification within industries and markets by modelling industry-specific, firm-specific and year-end-specific observed and unobserved factors.