Financial Reporting Quality Measurement -Approaches, Issues and Future Trends

Different high-profile corporate scandals worldwide but also in Croatia have highlighted the crucial importance of credible, high-quality financial reporting system. The issue of financial reporting quality (FRQ) is an important part of the regulatory and supervisory infrastructure, as well as an activity of great public interest, so it arises a question of its adequate and reliable measurement. Higher quality of financial reporting brings the more significant benefits to investors and other financial statement users. As earnings are widely believed to be the single most important information item provided in financial statements, therefore FRQ is commonly approximated by earnings quality. Researchers developed a huge range of earnings quality metrics, such as accruals quality, persistence, volatility, conservatism, etc. but various releases and restatements from external resources are also used. The aim of this paper and its’ scientific contribution is two-folded: first, to present an extensive review of the most relevant FRQ measures, including their variations ; and second, to provide a list of their advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, the suitability of their application in Croatia as a case of a bank-oriented economy with an accounting macro-oriented system will be discussed