Aims
Corporate financial statements can represent genuine managerial performance or they can represent an illusion of performance. companies have choice in how they report their financial condition and results of operations. Despite progress in eliminating undesirable reporting practices, areas remain in which alternative practices are equally acceptable for reporting essentially identical business transactions. This module aims to equip students with the knowledge and skill to analyse the use of publicly available financial information to assess the financial performance and future prospects of a firm.

Learning outcomes
After completing this module students should be able to:

• discuss the implications of corporate governance developments for financial reporting and corporate performance
• examine the use of financial information data for evaluating corporate performance,
• understand the factors that help to explain a firm's choice of accounting policies and discuss their implications for earnings management,
• evaluate the techniques and limitations of cross-sectional and time series analysis and discuss their application for evaluating corporate performance including the prediction of corporate failure,
• understand the relationship between accounting information and share prices.

Module outline
The current year's module outline can be found via The School's website